A week in security (November 12 – 18)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we found out that TrickBot became a top business threat, so we took a deeper look at what's new with it. With Christmas just around the corner, the Secret Sister scam returned. We also touched on the security and privacy or lack thereof in smart jewelry, air traffi...

Is Facebook’s Anti-Abuse System Broken?

Facebook has built some of the most advanced algorithms for tracking users, but when it comes to acting on user abuse reports about Facebook groups and content that clearly violate the company's "community standards," the social media giant's technology appears to be woefully inadequate. Last wee...

Deleted Facebook Cybercrime Groups Had 300,000 Members

Hours after being alerted by KrebsOnSecurity, Facebook last week deleted almost 120 private discussion groups totaling more than 300,000 members who flagrantly promoted a host of illicit activities on the social media network's platform. The scam groups facilitated a broad spectrum of shady...

Facebook Transparency Report: Government Requests Down

Facebook today reported a slight drop in government requests for user data, bucking a trend that peaked during the first half of 2014 with the highest numbers the company had seen. Its latest transparency report covers the second half of last year, and shows slight dips in requests for user data,...

Google VPs Discuss Google+ "Real Name" Rapture Fiasco

Call it the Real Name Rapture: the mass disappearance of untold numbers of Google+ users over the weekend for what many outlets reported were violations of Google’s community standards policy. Rather than getting taken up, however, it appears that Google was cracking down – on funky names,...

Calling Mark Twain: Pseudonyms on G+

If you want to hide behind a fake name, don’t count on Google+ to be your “phony me” social network. As Threatpost has reported, the new social network doesn’t truck with fake identities – a position that’s quite similar to the one taken by Facebook. The company has also taken a hard stand on...