Stupid question about browser redirect, but for peace of mind..

Question

Level 1

0 points

Stupid question about browser redirect, but for peace of mind..

First, I know that these will seem like very naive questions, but I worry about this sort of thing, and am not particularly savvy.

Background: I recently had a browser redirect while using Safari on my iPhone. I won't give the full URLs here for obvious safety reasons, but I was redirected to "bidr DOT trillion DOT com" (which appears to be a "legitimate" company that directs web traffic to other sites for commercial purposes). From there to "wttracking DOT com," by which point I had managed to close things. I saw something about ads on "wttracking," before I shut it down.

I did some digging, which perhaps I shouldn't have done, because accidentally I managed to open "wttracking" again, which redirected to a secure site "wt2secure DOT com" (which is a login page). It says "WorldTrack" in whatever you call the additional information that comes after the URL in Google. I also at one point opened "worldtrack DOT com" by accident, which redirects to "wt1secure DOT com" All this was on my phone.

I suspect that all this is affiliated with the Worldtrack DOT co malware. "Wttracking" is registered by proxy (via Domains by Proxy), and I was unable to discover any legitimate company associated with all of this. As far as I can tell, nothing that I opened is detected as a threat by Virus Total (I don't believe that I ever opened Worldtrack DOT co itself.)

Naive question number 1: My understanding is that there are no known drive-by downloads that can affect Safari (or anything else) on an iPhone, as long as it's not jailbroken. So I shouldn't worry? This is basically for my peace of mind.

Naive question number 2: Would it be worth my while to reset my iPhone to its factory settings and restore it from a back-up on my computer?

Naive question (and this is the most naive one) number 3: If I did restore my iPhone from my computer, should I - for safety's sake - wipe it first before exposing my computer to it, or can I do the whole wipe and restore from within iTunes on the computer?

Also, if anyone has more information about "WorldTrack," I'd be interested to know if I'm right in my suspicions.

Posted on Jun 20, 2014 8:41 AM

Reply

Answer 1

gavin296 Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 20, 2014 8:43 AM in response to gavin296

One correction - I just noticed that my spellchecker corrected "trellian" in "bidr DOT trellian DOT com" to "trellian." Apologies, and thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

Reply

Answer 2

modular747

Level 6

19,674 points

Jun 20, 2014 8:59 AM in response to gavin296

1. Yes

2. Define "worth my while." What are you trying to accomplish?

3. Since there is no reason to restore your phone in the first place, the question is meaningless, "Expose my computer to it" - Define "it."

Reply

Answer 3

thomas_r.

Level 7

32,031 points

Jun 20, 2014 9:04 AM in response to gavin296

There is no known malware of any kind capable of infecting an iPad that hasn't been jailbroken. So, since you haven't jailbroken it, you need not be concerned in any way, and erasing the device is completely unnecessary. You can visit dodgy sites all you want on your iPad without fear of infection.

Reply

Answer 4

gavin296 Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 20, 2014 9:12 AM in response to thomas_r.

On the whole, I think I'll still try to avoid dodgy sites for other reasons, but thank you!

Reply

Answer 5

thomas_r.

Level 7

32,031 points

Jun 20, 2014 9:19 AM in response to gavin296

Very wise! 🙂

I do tend to go to a lot of dodgy sites, on both my iPad and my Mac, in the course of investigating malware and adware. That's not something I recommend other people do, but it's still pretty safe if you know what you're doing and don't have browser plug-ins like Flash or Java installed.

Reply