Google Maps: online interventions with offline ramifications

The places where online life directly intersection with that lived offline will be forever fascinating, illustrated perfectly through a recent performance piece involving Google Maps, a cart, and an awful lot of mobile phones. Simon Weckert, an artist based in Berlin, Germany, showed how a little...

Facebook scams: Bad ads, bogus grants, and fake tickets lurk on social media giant

We recently highlighted new steps Instagram is taking to try and clamp down on scammers sending fake messages on their platform. It turns out, other social media giants are walking a similar path for a variety of bogus ads and other attacks. Facebook scams in particular have taken off, despite th...

Browser Guard combats privacy abuse, tracking, clickbait, and scammers

In July 2018, we introduced the Malwarebytes Browser Extension, a beta plugin for Firefox and Chrome aimed at delivering a safer, faster, and more private browsing experience. Our extension blocked tech support scams, hijackers, pop-up ads, trackers, and more to keep users secure and free from...

Cooperating apps and automatic permissions are setting you up for failure

“Hey you. Someone from HR has invited you to a meeting on Thursday. Would you like me to add the appointment to the calendar?” Receiving an email notification when someone has invited you to a meeting is a feature that many professionals would not like to miss. Being able to log in at certain sit...

A week in security (February 4 – 8)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we took a closer look at the technical and reputational challenges for Facebook as it tries to integrate secure messaging across Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram. We explored Google’s latest attempts to change how the public sees—literally—web browser URLs, gave...

Huge breach affects 9 million Cathay Pacific customers

Airlines aren’t having a good time of things at the moment. Even if you managed to dodge the recent British Airways fallout, you may well be caught up in the latest breach affecting no fewer than 9 million customers of Cathay Pacific. So what was taken? The impact this time around isn’t so much...

How to build your own motion-activated security camera

Attention makers! Are you looking for a challenging project that not only gets your gears grinding but helps to keep you secure while traveling? Welcome to the build-your-own security camera tutorial. The impetus for this project originated from events that took place at Defcon 26, where hotel...

Fortnite gamers targeted by data theft malware

The new season of the incredibly popular video game Fortnite is upon us, and so too are the scams. It’s no surprise that con artists would jump on this bandwagon, eager to peddle their fakeouts. Only this time, scammers had something a little more dangerous in mind than your typical low-level...

Mobile Menace Monday: Fake WhatsApp can steal info from your phone

Last month, a blogger at My Online Security reported receiving a spam comment containing WhatsApp Plus. Going through the process, they downloaded an APK of this so-called WhatsApp Plus. Where they ended was as stated, I am not certain exactly what this does, but from the sandbox reports it looks...

GrayKey iPhone unlocker poses serious security concerns

Ever since the case of the San Bernadino shooter pitted Apple against the FBI over the unlocking of an iPhone, opinions have been split on providing backdoor access to the iPhone for law enforcement. Some felt that Apple was aiding and abetting a felony by refusing to create a special version of...

Update now! Microsoft fixes two zero-days on February Patch Tuesday

Microsoft has issued patches for 73 security vulnerabilities in its February 2024 Patch Tuesday. Among these vulnerabilities are two zero-days that are reportedly being used in the wild. The two zero-day vulnerabilities have already been added to the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency...

Ransomware in December 2022

Malwarebytes Threat Intelligence builds a monthly picture of ransomware activity by monitoring the information published by ransomware gangs on their dark web leak sites. This information represents victims who were successfully attacked but opted not to pay a ransom. Lockbit has rebounded from i...

F5 BIG-IP vulnerability is now being used to disable servers

As we reported a few days ago, a F5 BIG-IP vulnerability listed as CVE-2022-1388 is actively being exploited. But now researchers have noticed that attackers arent just taking control of the vulnerable servers but also making them unusable by destroying the device’s file system. F5 BIG-IP The...

A week in security (Nov 8 – Nov 14)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs Multiple video games break after domain name snafu How to remove adware on an Android phone Smart TV adverts put a wrinkle in your programming Are cybercriminals turning away from the US and targeting Europe instead? Patch now! Microsoft plugs actively exploited...

Apple’s search for child abuse imagery raises serious privacy questions

The Internet has been on fire since the August 4 discovery disclosed publicly by Mathew Green that Apple will be monitoring photos uploaded to iCloud for child sexual abuse material CSAM. Some see this as a great move by Apple that will protect children. Others view this as a potentially dangerou...

Task Force delivers strategic plan to address global ransomware problem

The Ransomware Task Force RTF, a think tank composed of more than 60 volunteer experts who represent organizations encompassing industries and governments, has recently pushed out a comprehensive and strategic plan for tackling the increasing threat and evolution of ransomware. The report, entitl...

Explosive technology and 3D printers: a history of deadly devices

Hackers: They’ll turn your computer into a BOMB! "Hackers turning computers into bombs" is a now legendary headline, taken from the Weekly World News. It has rather set the bar for "people will murder you with computers" anxiety. Even those familiar with the headline may not have dug into the sto...

The passwordless present: Will biometrics replace passwords forever?

When it comes to securing your sensitive, personally identifiable information against criminals who can engineer countless ways to snatch it from under your nose, experts have long recommended the use of strong, complex passwords. Using long passphrases with combinations of numbers, letters, and...

Stealthy new Android malware poses as ad blocker, serves up ads instead

Since its discovery less than a month ago, a new Trojan malware for Android we detect as Android/Trojan.FakeAdsBlock has already been seen on over 500 devices, and it’s on the rise. This nasty piece of mobile malware cleverly hides itself on Android devices while serving up a host of...

Vital infrastructure: securing our food and agriculture

I don’t expect to hear any arguments on whether the production of our food is important or not. So why do we hardly ever hear anything about the cybersecurity in the food and agriculture sector? Depending on the country, agriculture makes up about 5 percent of the gross domestic product. That...

A week in security (November 4 – November 10)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we announced the launch of Malwarebytes 4.0, tackled data privacy legislation, and explored some of the ways robocalls come gunning for your data and your money. We also laid out the steps involved in popular vendor email compromise attacks. Other cybersecurity new...

Explained: war shipping

Yesterday, Mike from the mailroom came up and asked whether I knew anyone called “Simon Smith.” He received an envelope addressed to our company and to the attention of Mr. Smith, but there was no one by that name on his list of employees. It wasn’t on mine either and HR was unaware of a person b...

NIST’s privacy framework lets privacy tell its own story

Online privacy remains unsolved. Congress prods at it, some companies fumble with it while a small handful excel, and the public demands it. But one government agency is trying to bring everyone together to fix it. As the Senate sits on no fewer than four data privacy bills that their own members...

Employee education strategies that work to change behavior

When people make the decision to get in shape, they have to commit the time and energy to do so. Going to the gym once isn’t going to cut it. The same is true when it comes to changing the culture of an organization. In order to be effective in changing employee behavior, training needs to be...

A week in security (December 3 – 9)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we gave readers an FYI on multiple breaches that affected Humble Bundle, Quora, and Dunkin' Donuts, to name a few. This follows the announcement from Marriott about a four-year-long breach that impacted half a billion of its patrons. We also pushed out the report,...

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,...

Avoid these Doctor Who Series 11 scams

The new season of Doctor Who has finally landed on television screens around the world, and we’ve started to see the first few signs of spam and other assorted nonsense lumbering online. A rash of YouTube accounts claiming to offer up the new series are making the rounds, all of which generally...

Microsoft Exchange vulnerability actively exploited

As it turns out, there was another actively exploited vulnerability included in Microsoft’s patch Tuesday updates for February. When Microsoft said in its update guide for CVE-2024-21410 that the vulnerability was likely to be exploited by attackers, they weren’t kidding. Soon after they changed...

Update now! Apple releases patch for zero-day vulnerability

Apple has released new security updates for several products, including a patch for a zero-day vulnerability that could impact iPhones, iPad, Macs, and Apple TVs. Apple says it’s aware of a report that the bug may have been exploited already. Further details about the nature of the vulnerability...

KeePass vulnerability allows attackers to access the master password

KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords and stores them in encrypted form. In fact, KeePass encrypts the whole database, i.e. not only your passwords, but also your user names, URLs, notes, etc. That encrypted database can only be opened with the...

Update now! Ruckus vulnerability added to CISA’s list of actively exploited bugs

Along with six older vulnerabilities, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency CISA has added a vulnerability in multiple Ruckus wireless products to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog. This means that Federal Civilian Executive Branch FCEB agencies need to remediate these...

InfraGard infiltrated by cybercriminal

InfraGard, a partnership between the FBI and members of the private sector that was established to protect critical infrastructure in the US, has been infiltrated by a cybercriminal. As a result, its database of contact information is now for sale on an English-language cybercrime forum. InfraGar...

General Motors suffers credential stuffing attack

American car manufacturer General Motors GM says it experienced a credential stuffing attack last month. During the attack customer information and reward points were stolen. The subject of the attack was an online platform, run by GM, to help owners of Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac vehicle...

Wanted! US offers $10m bounty for ransomware kingpins

The US State Department is offering a massive $10 million reward if you can help bring DarkSide to justice. The U.S. Department of State announces a reward offer of up to $10,000,000 for information leading to the identification or location of any individuals who holds a key leadership position i...

HP OMEN users, update your driver now!

HP has released a patch to fix a flaw in the HP OMEN driver. As far as we know the flaw isnt being actively exploited, but its worth applying the patch as soon as you can. The flaw, the fix The driver vulnerability, which is tracked as CVE-2021-3437, was found by Kasif Dekel, a senior security...

A week in security (August 16 – August 22)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Podcast: Katie Moussouris hacked Clubhouse. Her emails went unanswered for weeks. How to troubleshoot hardware problems that look like malware problems. Analysts “strongly believe” the Russian state colludes with ransomware gangs. macOS 11’s hidden security...

Polazert Trojan using poisoned Google Search results to spread

Trojan.Polazert aka SolarMarker has gone back and fine-tuned an old tactic known as SEO-poisoning to plant their Remote Access Trojan RAT on as many systems as possible. This RAT runs in memory and is used by attackers to install additional malware on affected systems. Trojan.Polazert...

Breaking free from the VirusTotal silo: Lock and Code S02E07

This week on Lock and Code, we speak to Malwarebytes Chief Information Security Officer John Donovan about the flaws in using VirusTotal as the one source of truth when evaluating whether or not a cybersecurity tool actually works. Its a practice that is surprisingly common. Weeks ago, Malwarebyt...

A week in security (August 26 – September 1)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we analysed the Android xHelper trojan, we wondered why the Nextdoor app would send out letters on behalf of their customers, reported about a study that explores the clickjacking problem across top Alexa-ranked websites, wondered how to get the board to invest in...

Mobile Menace Monday: Dark Android Q rises

Android Q, the upcoming 10th major release of the Android mobile operating system, was developed by Google with three major themes in mind: innovation, security, and privacy. Today, we are going to focus mostly on security and privacy, although there are still many potential changes and updates o...

Vulnerabilities in financial mobile apps put consumers and businesses at risk

Security hubris. It’s the phrase we use to refer to our feeling of confidence grounded on assumptions we all have but may not be aware of or care to admit about cybersecurity—and, at times, privacy. It rears its ugly head when 1 we share the common notion that programmers know how to code securel...

This online quiz is now confirmed to be a phishing scam

Ah, online quizzes. Many of us know that they can be somewhat dodgy and nonsense, really—but that doesn’t stop us from clicking the “Start quiz” button anyway. Besides, you have time to kill, and there are only three questions to answer, right? The right kind of wrong Phishing attacks don’t alway...

Humble Bundle alerts customers to subscription reveal bug

You’ll want to check your mailbox if you have a Humble Bundle account, as they’re notifying some customers of a bug used to gather subscriber information. Click to enlarge The mail reads as follows: Hello, Last week, we discovered someone using a bug in our code to access limited non-personal...

Why Malwarebytes decided to participate in AV testing

Starting this month, Malwarebytes began participating in the antivirus software for Windows comparison test performed by AV-test.org. This is uncharted territory for us, as we have refrained from participating in these types of tests since our inception. Although recent testing results show...

Spoofed addresses and anonymous sending: new Gmail bugs make for easy pickings

Tim Cotten, a software developer from Washington, DC, was responding to a request for help from a female colleague last week, who believed that her Gmail account has been hacked, when he discovered something phishy. The evidence presented was several emails in her Sent folder, purportedly sent by...

My precious: security, privacy, and smart jewelry

Emery was staring at her computer screen for almost an hour, eyes already lackluster as the full-page ad on Motiv looped once more. She was contemplating whether she'd give in and get her boyfriend Ben a new fitness tracker as a present for his upcoming marathon. The phone app he was currently...

TrickBot takes over as top business threat

Last quarter brought with it a maddening number of political ads, shocking and divisive news stories on climate change and gun laws, and mosquitoes. We hate mosquitoes. In related unpleasant news, it also apparently ushered in an era of banking Trojans that, as of this moment, shows no signs of...

Compromising vital infrastructure: how voting machines and elections are vulnerable

In our first post in a series about vital infrastructure, we aim to explore how secure our voting machines—and our votes in general—are ahead of the upcoming midterm elections. Here, we ask ourselves: How can our infrastructure be compromised? What are the consequences, and how can we prevent...

Fortnite’s Google Play rebuff sparks security concerns for Android users

There's been no small outbreak of chaos in mobile land recently, all because of an astonishingly popular game called Fortnite. Here's the thing: people refer to Android as "open platform," saying that, in theory, you can do what you want with it. In practice, you buy an Android phone and then...

Encryption 101: ShiOne ransomware case study

In part one of this series, Encryption 101: a malware analyst's primer, we introduced some of the basic encryption concepts used in malware. If you haven't read it, we suggest going back for a review, as it's necessary in order to be able to fully follow part two, our case study. In this study, w...