App Security and PCI; Are you ready for the audit?

As most people know, merchants, financial institutions and anybody else who is involved in processing credit cards are subject to the PCI DSS compliance to reduce fraud and cybersecurity risks. This affects both brick-n-mortar stores and banks as well as card-not-present CNP transactions that...

Save the Children Federation Duped in $1M Scam

Hackers scammed the Save the Children Federation out of almost $1 million in a business email compromise BEC scam. Save the Children is a well-known U.S.-based non-profit group that offers charity services like fundraising and sponsorships. According to the company’s 2017 income tax returns,...

ThreatList: Gift Card-Themed BEC Holiday Scams Spike

With cyber threats rampant between Black Friday and Christmas, security experts are warning of a wave of business-style email scams hitting inboxes designed to appeal to holiday shoppers. Attacks involve scam messages purporting to be gift card deals or links to corporate donations. According to...

Foreign Trolls Are Targeting Veterans on Facebook

Opinion: The VA needs to take preventative measures to protect vets—and more broadly, our democracy—from digital manipulation and fraud...

U.S. Military Members Catfished and Hooked for Thousands of Dollars

A sextortion ring that aimed “catfish” efforts at U.S. military service members has been uncovered. The scam bilked 442 service members from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps out of more than $560,000. An 11-month investigation, dubbed “Operation Surprise Party” and carried out by the...

A week in security (November 26 – December 2)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we took a look at our cybersecurity predictions for 2019, we explained why Malwarebytes participated in AV testing and how we took part in an joint take down of massive ad fraud botnets, warned that ESTA registration websites still lurk in paid ads on Google,...

This Week in Security News: Ethics and Law in the Dark Web

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 how Trend Micro software can aid in safely securing containers on the AWS Cloud. Also, how the dark web has become a new advertising...

FBI Takes Down a Massive Advertising Fraud Ring

The FBI announced that it dismantled a large Internet advertising fraud network, and arrested eight people: A 13-count indictment was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn charging Aleksandr Zhukov, Boris Timokhin, Mikhail Andreev, Denis Avdeev, Dmitry Novikov, Sergey Ovsyannikov, Aleksandr...

FBI Sinkholes $38M Global Ad Fraud Operation

The FBI has taken control of 31 web domains in a widespread takedown of a multi-year, global ad fraud campaign, believed to have stolen at least $38 million, partly via a botnet strategy. In addition, eight defendants face a 13-count indictment from a federal court in Brooklyn in the case. The...

FBI & Google shut down largest-ever Ad fraud scheme ‘3VE’

By Waqas 8 suspects behind 3VE have also been identified. Last year in August, the Federal Bureau of Investigation organized a secret meet-up between cybersecurity and digital advertising experts in its Manhattan federal building. This included Google and nearly 20 tech firms while there were...

Malwarebytes helps take down massive ad fraud botnets

On November 27, the US Department of Justice announced the indictment of eight individuals involved in a major ad fraud case that cost digital advertisers millions of dollars. The operation, dubbed 3ve, was the combination of the Boaxxe and Kovter botnets, which the FBI—in collaboration with...

FBI Shuts Down Multimillion Dollar – 3ve – Ad Fraud Operation

Google, the FBI, ad-fraud fighting company WhiteOps and a collection of cyber security companies worked together to shut down one of the largest and most sophisticated digital ad-fraud schemes that infected over 1.7 million computers to generate fake clicks used to defraud online advertisers for...

FBI Shuts Down Multimillion Dollar – 3ve – Ad Fraud Operation

Google, the FBI, ad-fraud fighting company WhiteOps and a collection of cyber security companies worked together to shut down one of the largest and most sophisticated digital ad-fraud schemes that infected over 1.7 million computers to generate fake clicks used to defraud online advertisers for...

Cheetah Mobile Blames SDKs for Rampant Ad Fraud in Its Android Apps

Cheetah Mobile is finding itself in a swirl of media attention after being accused of developing mobile apps that contain deliberate ad fraud features. But the mobile giant says it didn’t do it. The Chinese developer, which is listed as a top provider in Google Play’s tool app category, offers...

Widespread Malvertising Campaign Hijacks 300 Million Sessions

A massive malvertising campaign targeting iOS devices hijacked a whopping 300 million browser sessions in just 48 hours. Researchers at Confiant recorded the campaign Nov. 12, and said that the threat actor behind the campaign is still active to this day. A malicious landing page According to...

Popular Android apps on Play Store caught defrauding users

By Waqas A well-known Chinese app developer Cheetah Mobile and one of its subsidiaries Kika Tech might have claimed credit for millions of dollars from advertisers through an Android fraud scheme, reveals app analytics firm Kochava. It is a common practice for mobile app developers to generate...

8 Popular Android Apps Caught Up In Million-Dollar Ad Fraud Scheme

Cheetah Mobile —a prominent Chinese app company, known for its popular utility apps like Clean Master and Battery Doctor—and one of its subsidiary Kika Tech have allegedly been caught up in an Android ad fraud scheme that stole millions of dollars from advertisers. According to app analytics firm...

8 Popular Android Apps Caught Up In Million-Dollar Ad Fraud Scheme

Cheetah Mobile—a prominent Chinese app company, known for its popular utility apps like Clean Master and Battery Doctor—and one of its subsidiary Kika Tech have allegedly been caught up in an Android ad fraud scheme that stole millions of dollars from advertisers. According to app analytics firm...

3ve – Fraudulent Online Advertising

The Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have released a joint Technical Alert TA on a major online ad fraud operation—referred to by the U.S. Government as "3ve." NCCIC encourages users and administrators to review Alert TA18-331A: 3ve – Major Online Ad Fraud...

A week in security (November 19 – 25)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we took a look at a devastating business email compromise attack, web skimming antics, and the fresh perils of Deepfakes. We also checked out some Chrome bug issues, and took the deepest of deep dives into DNA testing. Other cybersecurity news Adobe Flash bug—get...