A week in security (February 3 – 9)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we looked at Washington state’s latest efforts in providing better data privacy rights for their residents, and we dove into some of the many questions regarding fintech: What is it? How secure is it? And what are some of the problems in the space? We also detailed...

Adposhel adware takes over browser push notifications administration

Since late last year, our researchers have been monitoring new methods being deployed by cybercriminals to potentially abuse browser push notifications. Now, an adware family detected by Malwarebytes as Adware.Adposhel is doing just that, taking control of push notifications in Chrome at the...

Shlayer, No. 1 Threat for Mac, Targets YouTube, Wikipedia

The malvertising-focused trojan known as Shlayer has burbled to the top of the malware heap when it comes to targeting Mac users. It made up 29 percent of all attacks on macOS devices in Kaspersky’s telemetry for 2019, making it the No. 1 Mac malware threat for the year. To spread, it has been...

Defend Yourself Now and in the Future Against Mobile Malware

The world has gone mobile and the US is leading the way. It’s estimated that that the number of smartphone users alone topped 257 million in the States in 2018. That means three-quarters 74% of households now boast at least one mobile device. And in this new digital world, it’s mobile application...

Mac threat detections on the rise in 2019

Conventional wisdom has been that, although not invulnerable to cyberthreats as some old Apple ads would have you believe, Macs are afflicted with considerably fewer infections than Windows PCs. However, when reviewing our 2019 Mac detection telemetry, we noticed a startling upward trend. Indeed,...

Google Enlists Help to Fight Bad Android Apps

After years of unsuccessfully battling malware and bad apps in the Google Play store and on more than 2.5 billion Android devices, Google is finally doing something about it. The tech giant this week unveiled an alliance with three companies with specific expertise in endpoint security to help...

42 Adware Apps with 8 Million Downloads Traced Back to Vietnamese Student

First of all, if you have any of the below-listed apps installed on your Android device, you are advised to uninstall it immediately. Cybersecurity researchers have identified 42 apps on the Google Play Store with a total of more than 8 million downloads, which were initially distributed as...

42 Adware Apps with 8 Million Downloads Traced Back to Vietnamese Student

First of all, if you have any of the below-listed apps installed on your Android device, you are advised to uninstall it immediately. Cybersecurity researchers have identified 42 apps on the Google Play Store with a total of more than 8 million downloads, which were initially distributed as...

New Threat Actor Fraudulently Buys Digital Certificates to Spread Malware

Researchers have identified a new threat actor that is using impersonation fraud to purchase digital certificates that are then used for the spread of malware. Security firm ReversingLabs identified a bad actor that deceives certificate authorities into selling them legitimate digital certificate...

ThreatList: Apple Adware, Phishing, APT Attacks Threaten macOS Users

While macOS is often touted as “safer” on the cybersecurity front compared to Windows-based systems, cybercriminals are in fact increasingly targeting Apple’s ecosystem. The number of attacks on macOS users through malicious and potentially unwanted programs has been increasing annually since 201...

The 10 Most Common Attacks

This post is an excerpt from The Ultimate Cybersecurity Guide for the IT Professional. Common Attacks Today’s organizations face four main categories of adversaries. In order to fully defend against these four types, you must also understand what motivates them. This context will best position yo...

IT threat evolution Q2 2019. Statistics

These statistics are based on detection verdicts of Kaspersky products received from users who consented to provide statistical data. Quarterly figures According to Kaspersky Security Network, Kaspersky solutions blocked 717,057,912 attacks launched from online resources in 203 countries across t...

Threat Source newsletter (Aug. 1, 2019)

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s Threat Source newsletter — the perfect place to get caught up on all things Talos from the past week. Are you heading to Vegas next week for Hacker Summer Camp? Talos will. We’ll be at Black Hat and DEFCON holding a series of talks, takin...

Adware Is the Malware You Should Actually Be Worried About

For all the attention on sophisticated nation-state attacks, the malware that’s most likely to hit your phone is much more mundane...

This Week in Security News: Spam Campaigns and Mobile Malware

Welcome to our weekly roundup, where we share what you need to know about the cybersecurity news and events that happened over the past few days. This week, learn about a mobile malware that infects Android devices by exploiting the vulnerabilities found within the operating system. Also, read...

Meet Extenbro, a new DNS-changer Trojan protecting adware

Recently, we uncovered a new DNS-changer called Extenbro that comes with an adware bundler. These DNS-changers block access to security-related sites, so the adware victims can’t download and install security software to get rid of the pests. From our viewpoint, this might be like sending in an...

New Mac Malware Exploits GateKeeper Bypass Bug that Apple Left Unpatched

Cybersecurity researchers from Intego are warning about possible active exploitation of an unpatched security vulnerability in Apple's macOS Gatekeeper security feature details and PoC for which were publicly disclosed late last month. Intego team last week discovered four samples of new macOS...

A week in security (June 10 – 16)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we revealed to readers the mindset of security pros as to why they lack confidence in their ability to prevent their organizations getting breached. We also reported on Maine Governor Janet Mills implementing the state’s own privacy protections, how Apple can bette...

Threat Roundup for June 7 to June 14

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between June 07 and June 14. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral characteristics...

Adware and PUPs families add push notifications as an attack vector

Some existing families of potentially unwanted programs and adware have added browser push notifications to their weapons arsenal. Offering themselves up as browser extensions on Chrome and Firefox, these threats pose as useful plugins then haggle users with notifications. A family of search...