A week in security (June 28 – July 4)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Is it Game Over for VR Advergaming? Lil’ skimmer, the Magecart impersonator What is the WireGuard VPN protocol? Binance receives the ban hammer from UK’s FCA Fired by algorithm: The future’s here and it’s a robot wearing a white collar Second colossal Linkedin...

A week in security (April 19 – 25)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we interviewed Youssef Sammouda, a 21-year-old bug bounty hunter who is focused on finding vulnerabilities on Facebook. We looked into the CodeCov supply-chain attack, the vulnerabilities in Pulse Secure VPN that are being actively exploited by attackers, and the...

How to choose the best VPN for you

If you’ve been shopping for a VPN service in 2021, you’ve probably noticed how many providers are available. Using a personal VPN has grown in popularity in recent years, and for good reason. You may no longer be asking, “Should I use one,” but rather, “Which one should I choose?” The answer migh...

3 tips to top up your privacy

Its Data Privacy Day—the perennial event that many internet users may have never heard of, but have strong feelings and opinions about the very things that birthed it in the first place. Originally created to help businesses learn about why online privacy matters, its reach has since extended to...

10 best practices for MSPs to secure their clients and themselves from ransomware

Lock-downs and social distancing may be on, but when it comes to addressing the need for IT support—whether by current of potential clients—it’s business as usual for MSPs. And, boy, is it a struggle. On the one hand, they keep an eye on their remote workers to ensure they’re still doing their jo...

Switching from a “Just in Time” delivery system should include planning ahead

As it becomes clear that some things will never again be the same after the global coronavirus pandemic, it is time to prepare for the future. The cybersecurity implications of upcoming changes will be most noticeable in organizations that rely on security models like the software defined...

Lock and Code S1Ep2: On the challenges of managed service providers

This week on Lock and Code, we discuss the top security headlines generated right here on Labs and around the Internet. In addition, we talk to two representatives from an Atlanta-based managed service provider—a manager of engineering services and a data center architect—about the daily challeng...

WOOF locker: Unmasking the browser locker behind a stealthy tech support scam operation

Update 01-27-2020: Shortly after this blog was published we noticed that a large part of the infrastructure behind this browlock was taken down. The malicious server responsible for redirections is no longer responding and we have not observed any new live browlock from this 2 year old campaign. ...

GitHub hosted Magecart skimmer used against hundreds of e-commerce sites

Every day, new e-commerce websites fall into the hands of one of the many Magecart skimmers. Unbeknownst to shoppers, criminals are harvesting their personal information, including payment details in the online equivalent of ATM card skimming. Most often the skimming code—written in JavaScript an...

Apple’s FaceTime privacy bug allowed possible spying

Social media caught fire yesterday as the news of a new Apple bug spread. It seemed that there was a flaw in FaceTime that allowed you to place a call to someone, but listen in on their microphone if they didn't pick up. Worse, as the news spread, it turned out that there was also a way to captur...

A month of giveaway spam on Twitter

We've observed a low level spam campaign working its way through Twitter, with just under 2,000 posts visible on public search since September 1. Click to enlarge The posts promote what appears to be CBD oil. For those who don't know And I was one of them—still not sure if this oil is supposed to...

A week in security (September 10 – 16)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we assessed the security of a portable router, identified ways to waste a scammer's time, named the many faces of omnichannel fraud, questioned the security of 2FAs, profiled a massive tech support scam operation, and exposed a new HMRC phishing campaign. Other...

A week in security (June 4 – June 10)

Last week on Labs, we took a look at hidden mobile ads, the perils of social media spam, and how to shore up your landline defenses. We also took a deep dive into Emotet malware analysis, and gave you some summertime safety tips. Other news Update your Adobe Flash player if you haven't already...

New Mac cryptominer uses XMRig

A new Mac cryptominer was discovered this week, after affected users saw their fans whirring out of control and a process named "mshelper" gobbling up CPU time like Cookie Monster. Fortunately, this malware is not very sophisticated and is easy to remove. The malware became public knowledge in a...

A week in security (April 02 – April 08)

Last week, we took a look at fake Whatsapp antics, dubious gaming extensions, and a huge Panera bread breach. There was also LockCrypt ransomware to contend with, we had a poke around Linkedin, and we published another Physician, protect thyself blog. Other news Compromised cash register systems...

Blast from the past: stowaway Virut delivered with Chinese DDoS bot

Recently, we described an unusual Chinese drive-by attack that was delivering a variant of the Avzhan DDoS bot. The attack also contained multiple components that were not-so-new. Among the exploits, the newest was from 2016. Avzhan is also not a recent malware—the compilation timestamp of the...

New Android Trojan malware discovered in Google Play

A new piece of mobile malware has been discovered in Google Play masquerading as multiple apps: an alarm clock app, a QR scanner app, a compass app, a photo editor app, an Internet speed test app, and a file explorer app. According to Google Play data, all were last updated between October and...

More trouble in Google Play land

This is not a good week for Google, it seems. After our mobile security experts repeatedly discovered adware on several apps on the Google Play store, our friends at Symantec have unearthed at least eight malicious apps that are found capable of adding affected mobile devices to a botnet. Accordi...

Release the KRACKen: flaw in Wi-Fi security leaves users vulnerable

A serious flaw in the wireless protocol that secures all modern protected Wi-Fi networks has been discovered. How serious? If your device supports Wi-Fi, it is most likely affected. This feasible attack, dubbed KRACK, could abuse design or implementation flaws in the Wi-Fi standard, not some...

Roundup: your malware infection stories

You hear the cautionary tales all the time. So-and-so didn’t have an antivirus in place and was infected with malware. Such-and-such business had limited cybersecurity infrastructure and was hit with a ransomware attack. You think: Sure, but it probably won’t happen to me. I’m a safe surfer. I’ve...

4 sneaky scams from 2023

In 2023, the public primarily confronted two varieties of online scams: the technical and the topical. Technical scams abuse legitimate aspects of modern internet infrastructure to lead users to illegitimate or compromised sites. A team of hackers can, say, boost their own info-stealing websites...

Discord.io confirms theft of 760,000 members' data

Discord.io was/is a third party service that enables owners of Discord servers to create customized, personal Discord invites. After a preview of Discord.io's users database was posted on BreachForums, the owners have decided to shut down all Discord.io services "for the foreseeable future."...

Ivanti patches second zero-day vulnerability being used in attacks

Ivanti has issued a patch to address a second critical zero-day vulnerability that is under active attack. The vulnerability is said to be used in combination with the first vulnerability we discussed some days ago. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA has added the new...

Google fixes "Bad.Build" Cloud Build flaw, researchers say it's not enough

Researchers at Orca Security have found a design flaw in the Google Cloud Build service. Attackers would have been able to gain Privilege Escalation resulting in unauthorized access to code repositories in Googles Artifact Registry. The researchers dubbed the vulnerability Bad.Build and say it...

WhatsApp hijackers take over your account while you sleep

Late last week, Twitter user Zuk @ihackbanme tweeted an issue about WhatsApp that has the potential to turn heads. The recent WhatsApp accounts takeover is simple and genius. This is how it works: You're sleeping. A "hacker" tries to login to your account via WhatsApp. You get a text message with...

Update now! Two zero-days fixed in 2022's last patch Tuesday

In numbers, the patch Tuesday of December 2022 is a relatively light one for Windows users. Microsoft patched 48 vulnerabilities with only six considered critical. But numbers are only half the story. Two of the updates are zero-days with one of them known to be actively exploited. Windows...

DNS-over-HTTPS takes another small step towards global domination

Firefox recently announced that it will be rolling out DNS-over-HTTPS or DoH soon to one percent of its Canadian users as part of its partnership with CIRA the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, the Ontario-based organization responsible for managing the .ca top-level domain for Canada and...

A week in security (June 21 – June 27)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Want to stop ransomware attacks? Send the cybercriminals to jail, says Brian Honan: Lock and Code S02E11 Atomic research institute breached via VPN vulnerability Hotel staff bust Hermes SMS scammer with suspiciously large number of cables City of Liège hit by...

HelloKitty: When Cyberpunk met cy-purr-crime

On February 9, after discovering a compromise, CD Projekt Red CDPR announced to its 1+ million followers on Twitter that it was the victim of a ransomware attack against its systems and made it clear they would not yield to the demands of the threat actors, nor negotiate. Cyberpunk 2077, the late...

150,000 Verkada security cameras hacked—to make a point

Hackers were able to gain access to camera feeds from Verkada, a tech company that specializes in video security and physical access control, to demonstrate how prevalent surveillance is, reports say. Unfortunately, it also exposed the inner workings of hospitals, clinics, and mental health...

United States government-funded phones come pre-installed with unremovable malware

UPDATE: January 10, 2020 At time of original publication, we were not yet able to replicate the malware Android./Trojan.HiddenAds being dropped on our test device, though multiple users had reported that a variant of HiddenAds suddenly installed on their UMX mobile phone. As of today, we are now...

Wall Street Market reported to have exit scammed

Around April 20, many users reported that Wall Street Market, a broadly known dark net market, had executed an exit scam, and that any pending orders were unlikely to be completed. Scamming with enterprises involving Bitcoin is not unheard of, and dark net markets with centralized escrow are...

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...

A week in security (December 10 – 16)

Last week on Labs, we took a look at some new Mac malware, a collection of various scraped data dumps, the protection of power grids, and how bad actors are using SMB vulnerabilities. Other cybersecurity news Millions affected by Facebook photo API bug: An issue granted third-party apps more acce...

Removing the jam in your printer security

Printers are an important, invisible—albeit sometimes loud—component of the office. But all too often they’re filled with mystery meat icons, peculiar blinking lights, or error messages with no instruction manual to hand. No problem, you can just print at the next station! Wrong. Printers also...

6 sure signs someone is phishing you—besides email

There are several common and, unfortunately, frequently successful avenues of attack that cybercriminals can use to part you from your personal contact and financial information. These phishing attack methods include email, phone calls, corrupted software or apps, social media, advertisements, an...

Official Cardi B website plagued by spammers

We come bearing tidings of proper website maintenance and general housekeeping for singer Cardi B or rather, for her web development team. At first glance, it appeared as though her website had been hacked a few days ago. But a look under the hood told a different story. We were surprised to see...

A week in security (July 16 – July 22)

Last week on Labs, we looked at a Magniber expansion, explored open source vulnerabilities, and checked out the boons and drawbacks of smart assistants. We also continued our ad blocking article extravaganza, gave a whistlestop tour of third-party problems, and published our Q2 Cybercrime tactics...

Social media: A treasure trove of spam and scams

There are two kinds of spam associated with social media. There are spam ads that actually live on social media, and there is spam that comes in your inbox, courtesy of social media. Both thrive by using data from your social media accounts. But how do spammers know how to target you and send you...

International Women’s Day: Women in tech share their stories

From the metoo movement to Oprah's Time's Up speech to the women's marches on cities throughout the world—it's been a banner year for women's rights. And on this International Women's Day, we wanted to do more than pay lip service to the changes in feminist dialogue. After all, tech is an industr...

RIG exploit kit campaign gets deep into crypto craze

There isn't a day that goes by without a headline about yet another massive spike in Bitcoin valuation, or a story about someone mortgaging their house to purchase the hardware required to become a serious cryptocurrency miner. If many folks are thinking about joining the 'crypto craze' movement,...

A week in security (July 17 – July 23)

Over the last week, we have covered Play Protect, android’s new security system and how the Dutch police ran Hansa Market after the take down of Alpha Bay, both major players on the Dark Web. We also provided some tips on how to stay cyber safe this summer. We also saw how the Terror exploit kit...

A week in security (June 26 – July 02)

Last week, we offered our readers tips on how to detect phishing attempts, gave an overview of Google's Be Internet Awesome campaign, supplemented an ongoing series on adware, and introduced the Malwarebytes Endpoint Protection to those who aren't already in the know. We also pushed out a number ...

Tor Browser and Firefox users should update to fix actively exploited vulnerability

Mozilla has announced a security fix for its Firefox browser which also impacts the closely related Tor Browser. The new version fixes one critical security vulnerability which is reportedly under active exploitation. To address the flaw, both Mozilla and Tor recommend that users update their...

A first analysis of the i-Soon data leak

Data from a Chinese cybersecurity vendor that works for the Chinese government has exposed a range of hacking tools and services. Although the source is not entirely clear, it seems that a disgruntled staff member of the group leaked the information on purpose. The vendor, i-Soon aka Anxun is...

Sponsored Twitter post uses fake BBC News site to boost slippery oil trading app

A sponsored post on Twitter promises to offer the benefits of obtaining citizenship, but really just wants to lure you into some form of Forex trading AI scheme. This tangled web also includes faked BBC web pages and suspicious-looking website reviews to round the whole thing off. Shall we take a...

5 facts about Vice Society, the ransomware group wreaking havoc on the education sector

Move over Lockbit, there's a new ransomware-as-a-service RaaS player in town attacking the education sector--and its name is Vice Society. Vice Society is believed to be a Russian-based intrusion, exfiltration, and extortion group. And their ideal prey? You guessed it: universities, colleges, and...

Actively exploited vulnerability in Bitbucket Server and Data Center

On September 29, 2022 the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency CISA added three vulnerabilities to the catalog of known to be exploited vulnerabilities. One of them is a vulnerability in Atlassians Bitbucket Server and Data Center. The other two are the Exchange Server zero-day...

The ransomware landscape changes as fewer victims decide to pay

Fewer victims are choosing to pay their ransomware extorters, especially among large enterprises, according to a recent investigation from Coveware. As a result of this, and other circumstances, we can see some shifts in the way that ransomware groups and their affiliates work. Large organization...

Escobar is the new Android banking Trojan we’ve met before

Aberebot, a known Android banking Trojan, has changed its name and returned loaded with new features. First spotted by @MalwareHunterTeam in early March, this mobile variant was renamed "Escobar"—a homage to the Colombian drug baron—and disguised itself as a McAfee app. It went by the package nam...