Share:
If you receive this link, DON’T open it: Scary “text bomb” will cause your device to crash
We’re always warning you about the latest activity from cybercriminals. That’s because it’s important to know what new attacks look like and how to defend against them.
One of the best defenses against viral scams is being able to recognize them in advance. You don’t want your gadget to get infected with malware, ransomware, or a bug that causes all kinds of technical issues.
Sometimes, bugs like those don’t even come from cybercriminals, they can come from pranksters or friends. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what’s happening right now.
iMessage overload
A new bug was recently discovered by Twitter user Abraham Masri. It’s being dubbed chaiOS.
Warning! If you receive a message that contains the link in the image above, do NOT click on it.
What’s happening is, Apple users are receiving text messages that contain the malicious link. Of course, if the message comes from a friend, why would you think it’s malicious?
If you click on the link it can cause your Messages app to crash, force your gadget to return to the lockscreen or even restart your gadget on a loop. This impacts iOS and macOS devices alike.
Here is what’s causing the problem. Once the victim clicks on the malicious link, the app gets bombarded by an overload of coding, causing it to crash indefinitely.
How to eliminate the bug
I’ve never really understood why people would send malicious links like this. I guess they think it’s a funny prank, but there’s nothing funny about it. In fact, it’s pretty annoying.
The good news is, getting rid of the bug is actually pretty simple. All you need to do is delete the Message thread that contains the link. That should stop the bombardment of code causing the problems.
If your Messages app is frozen you might not be able to delete the thread. If so, force close the Messages app and then re-open it to delete the thread.
Do you know how to force close Apple apps? You may do this so often that you don’t even think about it.
On most iPhones, you start by double-clicking the Home button. That will show you the apps you most recently used.
Then you find the app you want to close by swiping right or left. Swipe up on an app to force it closed.
Have a question about the chaiOS bug or other tech issues? Kim has your answer! Click here to send Kim a question, she may use it and answer it on her radio show.
The Kim Komando Show is broadcast on over 450 stations. Click here to find the show time in your area.
Another annoying phone issue is a dead battery, here’s everything draining it and how to stop it
We know, it doesn’t matter how fancy or current your smartphone is, it is quite useless if its battery runs out of juice. With all the things we can do with smartphones, making it last one full day is always a challenge. If your smartphone’s battery keeps getting red-lined before the day is even over, there are a few tweaks you can do to help it along.
Click here for ways to prevent your battery from dying too fast.
Tags: Apple, apps, battery, cybercriminals, malware, X (Twitter)
Share: