The Threat That Never Went Away Is Back (with a Vengeance)

What is your recollection of May 2017? Emmanuel Macron won the French election. The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus gave its final performance after a 146-year run. The U.S. FCC voted to overturn net neutrality rules. And the National Health Service in the United Kingdom was crippled by...

AIs and Fake Comments

This month, the New York state attorney general issued a report on a scheme by "U.S. Companies and Partisans to Hack Democracy." This wasn’t another attempt by Republicans to make it harder for Black people and urban residents to vote. It was a concerted attack on another core element of US...

ISPs Funded 8.5 Million Fake Comments Opposing Net Neutrality

The secret campaign, backed by major broadband companies, used real people’s names without their consent...

80% of Net Neutrality Comments to FCC Were Fudged

Broadband providers and a 19-year-old college student were among those who successfully hijacked public comments during a crucial decision-making process in 2017 to overturn net neutrality by flooding the Federal Communications Commission FCC with fraudulent comments indicating their position on...

New Hacking-for-Hire Company in India

Citizen Lab has a new report on Dark Basin, a large hacking-for-hire company in India. Key Findings: Dark Basin is a hack-for-hire group that has targeted thousands of individuals and hundreds of institutions on six continents. Targets include advocacy groups and journalists, elected and senior...

Facebook Launches 'Discover,' A Secure Proxy to Browse the Internet for Free

More than six years after Facebook launched its ambitious Free Basics program to bring the Internet to the masses, the social network is back at it again with a new zero-rating initiative called Discover. The service, available as a mobile web and Android app, allows users to browse the Internet...

Artificial Personas and Public Discourse

Presidential campaign season is officially, officially, upon us now, which means it's time to confront the weird and insidious ways in which technology is warping politics. One of the biggest threats on the horizon: artificial personas are coming, and they're poised to take over political debate...

Five Thoughts on the Internet Freedom League

In the September/October issue of Foreign Affairs magazine, Richard Clarke and Rob Knake published an article titled "The Internet Freedom League: How to Push Back Against the Authoritarian Assault on the Web," based on their recent book The Fifth Domain. The article proposes the following: The...

A week in security (April 1 – 7)

Last week, Malwarebytes Labs took readers on a brief tour of some of the world's most notable data privacy laws, explored how gamers can protect themselves against cyberthreats, and offered thoughts about the reports that a 23-year-old Chinese woman gained access to President Donald Trump’s...

Facebook’s history betrays its privacy pivot

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg proposed a radical pivot for his company this month: it would start caring—really—about privacy, building out a new version of the platform that turns Facebook less into a public, open “town square” and more into a private, intimate “living room.” Zuckerberg promised...

Cybersecurity for the Public Interest

The Crypto Wars have been waging off-and-on for a quarter-century. On one side is law enforcement, which wants to be able to break encryption, to access devices and communications of terrorists and criminals. On the other are almost every cryptographer and computer security expert, repeatedly...

California, U.S. Government Battle Over Net Neutrality State Law

The U.S. government and the state of California are butting heads over a newly-passed state law that enforces net neutrality regulations on internet service providers ISPs. And experts say that the outcome of the feud between federal and state law has long-standing implications for the future of...

A week in security (June 11 – June 17)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we discussed how to protect the online privacy of children, we gave you a spring 2018 overview of exploit kits, rounded up the ongoing discussions about the VPNFilter malware, and discussed the struggles of UK law enforcement with modern-day cybercrime. Other news...

Why Is Your Location Data No Longer Private?

The past month has seen one blockbuster revelation after another about how our mobile phone and broadband providers have been leaking highly sensitive customer information, including real-time location data and customer account details. In the wake of these consumer privacy debacles, many are lef...

Hurdles Remain After Senate Votes To Restore Net Neutrality

The U.S. Senate this week gave the nod to restoring net neutrality regulations that would prevent ISPs from controlling access to certain websites. But roadblocks remain, even as the legislation is pushed on the fast track to a House vote: Bigwig ISPs, independent ISPs, small businesses, Democrat...

Supporters of Net Neutrality Vow to Fight Rule Changes

The repeal of network neutrality rules inched closer to reality on Thursday when the Federal Communications Commission submitted into the Federal Registry its controversial replacement called the Restoring Internet Freedom order. Opponents say the new order will create powerful internet gatekeepe...

Mozilla Joins U.S. Attorneys General In Bid to Restore Net Neutrality

Mozilla has joined a coalition of U.S. state attorneys general in battling the Federal Communications Commission’s controversial recent ruling that overturned net neutrality laws. “The internet is a global, public resource,” Mozilla wrote in a blog post. “It relies on the core principle of net...

Kansas Man Killed In ‘SWATting’ Attack

A 28-year-old Kansas man was shot and killed by police officers on the evening of Dec. 28 after someone fraudulently reported a hostage situation ongoing at his home. The false report was the latest in a dangerous hoax known as "swatting," wherein the perpetrator falsely reports a dangerous...

A week in security (December 11 – December 17)

Last week we explained what fast flux is and how it's being abused, we showed you all kinds of Bitcoin-related scams, presented a video recording of a tech support scammer trying to sell free software, and pointed out some free software to keep an eye on your Internet traffic. We also informed yo...

December 15, 2017 – Morning Cyber Coffee Headlines – “Chanukah” Edition

Good morning! Sit with Carbon Black this morning over a cup of coffee or tea and browse a few industry headlines to get the day started. We’ve got just enough information below to get you through that first cup…enjoy! December 15, 2017 - Headlines Carbon Black in the News: VMware, Carbon Black...