Some cheap smart glasses are a security disaster

Apart from the privacy concerns around smart glasses, researchers have found that some cheap brands come with barely any security at all. ABC Australia reports that researchers from NSB Cyber and Abstract Shield tested two inexpensive pairs, costing A$60 and A$110 around US$42 and US$78, and foun...

Meta’s Muse AI assistant has a zero-day that can turn it into a Mac backdoor

Mac security researcher Patrick Wardle says it’s trivial to turn Muse into “the ultimate backdoor.” Increasingly, AI assistants are changing from tools that simply answer questions into agents that can plan tasks, use connected services, and take actions for us. These actions might include bookin...

Researchers used Claude to hack OpenAI

We've heard of OpenAI's AI agents running amok and hacking other companies. Now, a cybersecurity company has turned the tables on the ChatGPT operator by using AI to help hack OpenAI itself. The hack, which also exposed a bug affecting dozens of other major online services, was conducted as...

The AI plot to scan and destroy books (Lock and Code S07E19)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast… If you want AI to tell you a story, it will. If you want that story to sound like one of your favorite authors, it can. And if you're one of the authors that AI can imitate, you might be a little upset at what feels like theft. In 2024, the authors Andrea...

The fake sites using a cheap toolkit to sell $2,000 AI subscriptions

We found more than 100 subscription websites linked through the same toolkit and closely related developer details. Some impersonate existing products, including GPT-6 Astra, DaVinci Resolve, PixAI, and OpenCut. Another uses the name of Omegle, the chat service that shut down in 2023. Others...

Gemini’s breach of real companies exposes an AI guardrail problem

Google says one of its Gemini models accessed systems belonging to three real companies during a cybersecurity evaluation in May. The model reportedly guessed credentials in one case, while finding exposed credentials in public repositories in two others. Google says Gemini stopped once it...

ShinyHunters hacks rival extortion gang and takes over its dark web site

Reportedly, the ShinyHunters extortion group breached the leak site of one of its competitors, the Clop ransomware gang. ShinyHunters is a financially motivated cybercrime and extortion group active since 2019. It is known for stealing large volumes of data and pressuring victims to pay, rather...

A week in security (September 14 – September 20)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: New Android malware uses AI to steal bank logins and PINs Did an AI really try to break free from human control? Fake parcel delivery messages steal your card and bank details Flock cameras are tracking people as well as cars Revolut phishing texts appear days afte...

New Android malware uses AI to steal bank logins and PINs

Researchers at Zimperium's zLabs have analyzed an Android Trojan that uses an automated, multi-stage infection process. What’s new is that RatHat gives a live AI assistant the keys to the accessibility tree of the infected device and uses it to determine where to tap or scroll, rather than...

Did an AI really try to break free from human control?

Amid discussions about slowing down AI development, the Telegraph ran the headline: “OpenAI sounds alarm after bot tries to break free from human control.” That headline is slightly misleading, in my opinion. The Telegraph headline overstates what happened, although the underlying behavior is sti...

Fake parcel delivery messages steal your card and bank details

Parcel delivery phishing campaigns appear around the world under different courier names. In the United States, the messages commonly impersonate USPS and claim that a package has an invalid address or could not be delivered. Similar messages impersonate Colissimo and Chronopost in France, Correo...

Flock cameras are tracking people as well as cars

Flock Safety’s cameras are automated license plate readers ALPRs designed to help police find stolen cars or wanted suspects. A joint investigation by 404 Media and WIRED, based on data recovered from a physically removed Flock camera, found that its on-device software explicitly detects people a...

Revolut phishing texts appear days after data breach

Only days after Revolut acknowledged that it disclosed sensitive customer records to an unauthorized party, affected customers are receiving phishing texts. However, we don't know yet if the phishing texts are linked to the breach. The company had accepted fraudulent information requests sent fro...

12 celebrity deepfake websites seized by Manhattan DA

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has seized the domains of 12 deepfake websites in what it called the largest known seizure of celebrity deepfake sites in history. The sites, which marketed themselves as deepfake pornography platforms, hosted AI-generated videos of over 1,200 people,...

T-Mobile rewards points expiry texts are a phishing scam

Since early May 2026, we’ve been monitoring a large phishing campaign based on T-Mobile rewards points. The messages falsely warn that a customer’s rewards points are about to expire. They aren't legitimate account notices: They use urgency, invented point balances, and phishing links to push...

Google Pixel owners urged to patch actively exploited modem flaw

Google has released its September 2026 Pixel Update Bulletin, fixing 110 vulnerabilities, including one that it says "may be under limited, targeted exploitation.” The bug is not described as a simple remote takeover, but as a vulnerability that could give an attacker who already has a foothold o...

AI helps scammers build convincing antivirus renewal pages

Antivirus renewal scams often begin with a message claiming that your subscription has automatically renewed. When you follow the instructions to cancel it, you are taken to a fake page designed to collect your contact details. The renewal charge never existed. Receiving a message that names the...

How to opt out of AI chatbot training

The tech journalists at 404 Media learned that OpenAI is hiring hundreds of contractors to read and review a massive stream of real users’ ChatGPT prompts and responses. “Project Lily” is reportedly a program that asks contractors to score or critique ChatGPT's answers to improve the chatbot's...

HBO Max’s verified Reddit account hijacked to spread malware

Researchers at Hudson Rock found that cybercriminals hijacked HBO Max’s verified Reddit account and used it to run 108 malicious ads over roughly 48 hours. The ads used HBO Max's trusted corporate account to promote fake AI tools, developer software, and macOS utilities, lowering potential victim...

Meta AI builds detailed profiles of children from years of family posts

If you're still OK with posting pictures of your kids on social media, take a minute to hear from mother of two Kalie Robins. At the start of September, she did something that hundreds of thousands of parents do every day. She posted a video of her young daughter on Facebook. Under the video of...

Search results are sending people to fake Bitrefill checkouts

Bitrefill is a legitimate company that sells gift cards for popular stores like Amazon, Deliveroo, Apple, Nintendo, and thousands of others. They also sell eSIMs, and mobile top-ups. You can pay on their website for all of these with cryptocurrency. The scam is designed to catch people searching...

Google’s new search redirects make links harder to check before you click

Google is changing how some links in its search results work. Instead of linking directly to the destination, Google has started routing some search result links through opaque google.com/goto?url=... redirects. The url parameter does not show a readable version of the destination but uses a...

Revolut gave customer IDs and financial data to a government impostor

Revolut has acknowledged that it disclosed sensitive customer records to an unauthorized party. The company had accepted fraudulent information requests sent from an email address on a legitimate government agency domain, according to TechCrunch. Revolut is a London-based banking and financial...

A week in security (September 7 – September 13)

Here's what we've covered in the last seven days on Malwarebytes Labs: Crypto customers targeted by scammers after email marketing provider breach Android malware creates a hidden copy of your banking app BlueMoon exploit kit turns Chrome and Windows flaws into attacks Will AI kill us all within...

Crypto customers targeted by scammers after email marketing provider breach

An attacker breached an email marketing platform and launched targeted attacks against the newsletter subscribers of some of its customers, especially those working in cryptocurrency and adjacent fields. The incident was a supply-chain phishing campaign carried out through Brevo, an email marketi...

Android malware creates a hidden copy of your banking app

Researchers at Group-IB found that the Android banking Trojan Gigabud can create a separate work profile on an infected phone and run a cloned banking app inside it. The attacker can then carry out fraudulent transactions in the new profile, potentially separating them from signs of malware...

BlueMoon exploit kit turns Chrome and Windows flaws into attacks

BlueMoon, a shared Chrome and Windows exploit kit, shows why “patch later” is becoming a dangerous gamble. Security updates are easy to put off. The browser still opens, Windows still works, and choosing to relaunch your browser or restart your computer later can feel harmless. But a newly...

Will AI kill us all within the next decade?

The Wall Street Journal reports that concerns are rising inside AI labs that competition is pushing tech companies to race toward self-improving models that could spiral out of human control. Jacob Coxon, an AI researcher who has worked at Anthropic and OpenAI, said: “The people building AI...

Update Chrome now to protect against an actively exploited vulnerability

Chrome is rolling out an update for its desktop browser. The update includes 230 security fixes, one of which is known to be actively exploited. The stable channel has been updated to 153.0.8010.36/.37 for Windows and Mac, and 153.0.8010.36 for Linux. How to update Chrome If you don’t want to wai...

Copyright scammers get Instagram accounts suspended and demand payment

Scammers are abusing Meta's copyright-reporting system to suspend people's Instagram accounts and then hold them for ransom, according to the BBC. Criminals file fake copyright complaints with Instagram, claiming that an account is using material it doesn't own. Repeated complaints can trigger a...

More than 100,000 fake stores are out to steal your card details

Researchers at German cybersecurity company Nebty have identified “DoppelCart,” a cluster of almost 119,000 domains linked to copied online stores. The researchers describe it as the largest publicly documented fake-shop network by associated domain count. They found 118,787 .shop domains in the...

Microsoft fixes record 964 flaws, including 2 exploited zero-days

Microsoft’s September 2026 Patch Tuesday addresses 964 CVEs, including 104 rated Critical and 860 rated Important, making it the company’s largest Patch Tuesday release on record. Microsoft lists 974 CVEs in its full September security release. However, 10 of those affect cloud services or involv...

The push to stop algorithms controlling social media feeds has begun

Remember when social media was filled only with posts from your friends, rather than what an algorithm decided you wanted to see? So does the Australian government, and it wants that internet back. Yesterday, the government released draft legislation outlining a Digital Duty of Care. The proposal...

Grindr settles HIV status data-sharing lawsuit for $35 million

Grindr has reportedly agreed to pay £26 million around $35 million to settle a UK privacy lawsuit alleging that it shared sensitive user data, including some users' HIV status, with advertisers. The claim was brought by London law firm Austen Hays on behalf of roughly 12,000 UK Grindr users. It...

MikroTik router flaws allow takeover without a password

CERT Polska warns that attackers are actively exploiting a chain of critical MikroTik RouterOS flaws to seize control of routers exposed to the internet. Although the warning comes from Poland’s national cybersecurity response team, MikroTik routers are sold worldwide, including in the US. The...

Loyalty points fraud is funding hacker holidays (Lock and Code S07E18)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast… Crooks are taking a holiday. They’re counting on you to fund it. For decades, cybercriminals have stolen roughly the same types of data. Biographical and personal details—like Social Security numbers, birthdates, addresses, and phone numbers—can be stolen t...

LG TV flaws could let attackers listen in, even in standby mode

Smart TVs are internet-connected computers with microphones, app stores, advertising systems, and access to the same home networks used by your family's phones, laptops, printers, and smart-home devices. A major manufacturer in Smart TVs, LG, has come under the spotlight this week after an...

Flirty OnlyFans promoters on X may be using AI to appear human

In a recent post, we looked at reports of League of Legends players receiving suspicious friend requests shortly after matches. The accounts quickly steered the conversation toward Discord, where they promoted paid adult-content pages. At the time, one unanswered question was how much of those...

A week in security (August 31 – September 6)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: The hidden work of modernizing Malwarebytes X Money rollout linked to password-reset attacks Free streaming boxes may be routing criminal traffic through your home StreamRat Android malware spreads through Meta and TikTok ads Your phone or computer may soon ask how...

The hidden work of modernizing Malwarebytes

Most of the work that keeps a security product trustworthy is invisible. Users see a scan complete, a threat blocked, an update applied overnight. They don’t see the platform underneath. Runtimes, managed libraries, native drivers, and Windows requirements must all stay current and work together...

X Money rollout linked to password-reset attacks

X says attackers may be targeting accounts because its X Money payments service is now more widely available. The company is investigating a wave of unsolicited password-reset emails sent to users. While their arrival alongside the wider X Money rollout has fueled account-takeover concerns, X say...

Free streaming boxes may be routing criminal traffic through your home

“Free” movies and TV could cost you your privacy, bandwidth, and control of your home network. We've warned about illegal streaming and modded Amazon Fire TV Sticks in the past. Now, researchers have found that certain SuperBox devices and apps could quietly enroll a household connection into a...

StreamRat Android malware spreads through Meta and TikTok ads

A malicious advertising campaign promoting a fake free TV-streaming service reached roughly 570,000 Meta users. The researchers who discovered the campaign found that its streaming-themed ads were aimed at Spanish-speaking users, with most observed victims located in Spain. One Meta campaign ran...

Your phone or computer may soon ask how old you are

First, the good news: If you use a Linux-based operating system, you may not be asked your age in a few months. The bad news is that Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android users in California will be. California has passed a law that requires a range of operating systems to start collecting your age wh...

Tech support scams look different now. Here’s what to watch for

In a tech support scam, criminals pretend to work for a trusted technology or security company. They claim there is a problem with your device, software, subscription, or account, then try to persuade you to pay them, share personal information, or give them remote access to your computer. These...

Scammers are getting smarter about where they target you

Scammers are becoming more strategic about where they target people. Nine in ten toll scams—the fake unpaid-toll messages that threaten fines or license suspension—arrive by email or text, while roughly six in ten romance scams show up first on social media. That’s no coincidence. Rather than...

Two critical Chrome flaws put users at risk on malicious websites

Update September 4, 2026 Shortly after this article was published, Google released another Chrome update that patches an actively exploited flaw in the V8 JavaScript engine, tracked as CVE-2026-85046. Google rates the vulnerability as high severity and says an exploit already exists in the wild. ...

153M+ driver’s licenses for sale on new dark web platform

A new dark web platform called Nexus claimed to be selling 153 million driver’s license scans and millions of other identity and medical cards. The collection included more than 153 million driver’s licenses, 10 million ID cards, 3 million travel documents, and 579,000 medical cards, including...

Your AI chats could be used in court

You might tell an AI chatbot secrets that you wouldn't divulge to your closest friends. If you do, though, beware: They could end up as evidence in court. An article in the Washington Post this week highlighted several cases in which people had discussed sensitive information with AI systems like...

Fake GTA 6 leaked copy drains your crypto wallet

We've seen scam sites built around Grand Theft Auto VI GTA 6 targeting visitors in three different ways this year. In June, we looked at sites selling GTA 6 “early access” for hundreds of dollars in cryptocurrency. You paid, got nothing, and could not reverse the payment. In August, we found fake...