Katie Moussouris hacked Clubhouse. Her emails went unanswered for weeks: Lock and Code S02E15

Nearly one year after the exclusive app Clubhouse launched on the iOS store, its popularity skyrocketed. The app, which is now out of beta, lets users drop into spontaneous audio conversations that, once they are over, are over. With COVID lockdown procedures separating many people around the wor...

A week in security (June 7 – June 13)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Amazon SIdewalk starts sharing your WiFi data tomorrow, thanks White hat, black hat, grey hat hackers: what’s the difference? Can two VPN “wrongs” make a right? Lock and Code S02E10 DOJ recovers pipeline ransom, signals more aggressive approach to cybercrime 800...

White hat, black hat, grey hat hackers: What’s the difference?

When you think of the world of ethical hackers white hat, malicious hackers black hat, and hackers that flirt with both sides grey hat, you may envision people in shiny trench coats and dark glasses, whose computer skills are only matched by their prowess in martial arts. The truth is that hacker...

Apple confirms Macs get malware

Anyone following the court case between Epic and Apple is undoubtedly already aware of the "bombshell" dropped by Apples Craig Federighi yesterday. For those not in the know, Federighi, as part of his testimony relating to the security of Apples mobile device operating system, iOS, stated that "w...

Password manager hijacked to deliver malware in supply chain attack

In the latest example of a supply chain attack, cybercriminals delivered malware to customers of the business password manager Passwordstate by breaching its developer’s networks and then deploying a fraudulent update last week, said Passwordstate’s maker, Click Studios. Though the number of...

How ransomware gangs are connected, sharing resources and tactics

Many of us who read the news daily encounter a regular drum beat of ransomware stories that are both worrying and heartbreaking. And what many of us don’t realize is that they are often interconnected. Some of the gangs behind the ransomware campaigns that we read about have established a...

Cybercriminals want your cloud services accounts, CISA warns

On January 13 the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA issued a warning about several recent successful cyberattacks on various organizations’ cloud services. What methods did the attackers use? In the initial phase, the victims were targeted by phishing emails trying to capture...

The most enticing cyberattacks of 2020

This is part one of a two-part series. To read about the strangest cybersecurity events of 2020, read our second story here. In 2020, we experienced a major shift. Much of the world pitched in to limit the spread of the coronavirus, with people changing their daily routines to include a mixture o...

Missing person scams: what to watch out for

Social media has a long history of people asking for help or giving advice to other users. One common feature is the ubiquitous “missing person” post. You’ve almost certainly seen one, and may well have amplified such a Facebook post, or Tweet, or even blog. The sheer reach and virality of social...

New Mac variant of Lazarus Dacls RAT distributed via Trojanized 2FA app

This blog post was authored by Hossein Jazi, Thomas Reed and Jérôme Segura. We recently identified what we believe is a new variant of the Dacls Remote Access Trojan RAT associated with North Korea's Lazarus group, designed specifically for the Mac operating system. Dacls is a RAT that was...

Are our police forces equipped to deal with modern cybercrimes?

“You should have asked for the presence of a digital detective,” Karen said when I told her what happened at the police station. I had accompanied a neighbor, who is a small business owner, that had been hit with ransomware and wanted to file a report. After listening to his story, the police...

Mac adware is more sophisticated and dangerous than traditional Mac malware

As the data revealed in our State of Malware report showed, Mac threats are on the rise, but they are not the same type of threats experienced by Windows users. Most notably, more traditional forms of malware, such as ransomware, spyware, and backdoors account for over 27 percent of all Windows...

Explained: What is containerization?

Containerization. Another one of those tech buzzwords folks love to say but often have no idea what it means. A better way to organize children's toys? The act of bringing tupperware out to dinner to safely transport home leftovers? Another name for Russian dolls? Containerization is, of course,...

Vital infrastructure: emergency services

Organizations in the emergency services sector are there for the public to provide help when situations get out of hand or are too much to handle. This can be because the problem requires special tools and skills to use them, and the organizations are set up to provide assistance at short notice...

300 shades of gray: a look into free mobile VPN apps

The times, they are a changin'. When users once felt free to browse the Internet anonymously, post about their innermost lives on social media, and download apps with frivolity, folks are playing things a little closer to the vest these days. Nowadays, users are paying more attention to privacy a...

How brain-machine interface (BMI) technology could create an Internet of Thoughts

She plugged the extension for car transportation in the brain-machine interface connectors at the right side of her head, and off she went. The traffic was relatively slow, so there was no need to stop working. She answered a few more emails, then unplugged her work extension. Weekend mode could...

Making the case: How to get the board to invest in government cybersecurity

Security leaders are no longer simply expected to design and implement a security strategy for their organization. As a key member of the business—and one that often sits in the C-suite—CISOs and security managers must demonstrate business acumen. In fact, Gartner estimates by 2020, 100 percent o...

Who is managing the security of medical management apps?

One truth that is consistent across every sector—be it technology or education—is that software is vulnerable, which means that any device running software applications is also at risk. While virtually any application-running device could be compromised by an attacker, vulnerabilities in medical...

When Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) is not enough

As cybercriminals continue to validate the reality that no prevention-based security control is going to stop every threat every time, companies are expanding beyond prevention-only approaches and closing the gap with endpoint detection and response solutions. But as we consider this strategy, on...

Mobile Menace Monday: SMS phishing attacks target the job market

Recently, a co-worker received an enticing SMS message from ASPXPPZUPS Human Resources. It read: Tired of your old job? Join our team today, work from home and earn $6,200 per month: hire-me-zvcbrvpffy.hidden.com. Could it be that our dream job awaits via random text message? On the contrary, thi...

What’s the real value—and danger—of smart assistants?

You've heard them called virtual assistants, digital personal assistants, voice assistants, or smart assistants. Operated by artificial intelligence, technologies such as Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, and Cortana have become ubiquitous in our culture. But what exactly do they do? And how serious...

Panerabread.com breach could have impacted millions

Customers who signed up for a Panerabread.com account in order to order fast-casual baked goods may want to guard their dough. Security researcher Brian Krebs reported yesterday that the website for the bakery chain leaked millions of customer records, including names, emails, physical addresses,...

What Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica problem means for your data

As you may already know, there's been a security meltdown at Facebook, thanks to a company called Cambridge Analytica and Donald Trump. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg insists it wasn't a breach, which is technically true. But that doesn't change the fact that the data of 50 million users was obtain...

DDoS attacks are growing: What can businesses do?

Depending on the type and size of your organization, a DDoS Distributed Denial of Service attack can be anything from a small nuisance to something that can break your revenue stream and damage it permanently. A DDoS attack can cripple some online businesses for a period of time long enough to se...

Update your iPhone, Mac, Watch: Apple issues patches for several vulnerabilities

Apple has released security patches for most of its operating systems, including iOS, Mac, iPadOS and watchOS. Especially important are the updates for iOS and iPadOS which tackle vulnerabilities which could potentially leak sensitive user information. You should make sure you update as soon as y...

CISA: Disconnect vulnerable Ivanti products TODAY

In an emergency directive, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA has ordered all federal agencies to disconnect all instances of Ivanti Connect Secure and Policy Secure solution products from agency networks no later than 11:59PM on Friday February 2, 2024. Besides the Ivanti...

Update Chrome now! Google patches critical vulnerability being exploited in the wild

Google has released an update for Chrome Desktop which includes one critical security fix. There is an active exploit for the patched vulnerability, according to Google, which means cybercriminals are aware of the vulnerability and are using it. If youre a Chrome user on Windows, Mac, or Linux, y...

[updated] Barracuda Networks patches zero-day vulnerability in Email Security Gateway

On May 20, Barracuda Networks issued a patch for a zero day vulnerability in its Email Security Gateway ESG appliance. The vulnerability existed in a module which initially screens the attachments of incoming emails, and was discovered on May 19. Barracuda's investigation showed that the...

Smart home assistants at risk from "NUIT" ultrasound attack

A new form of attack named "Near Ultrasound Inaudible Trojan" NUIT has been unveiled by researchers from the University of Texas. NUIT is designed to attack voice assistants with malicious commands remotely via the internet. Impacted assistants include Siri, Alexa, Cortana, and Google Assistant...

Malwarebytes earns AV-TEST Top Product awards for fifth consecutive quarter

AV-TEST, a leading independent tester of cybersecurity solutions, has just ranked Malwarebytes as a Top Product for consumers and businesses for the fifth quarter in a row. Every two months, experts at AV-Test evaluate Windows antivirus software across three categories: Protection against malware...

CircleCI: Malware stole GitHub OAuth keys, bypassing 2FA

Software development service company CircleCI has published its incident report on a breach that happened in December. CircleCI revealed an engineer's laptop was successfully infected with a yet-to-be-named information-stealing Trojan, which was used to steal an engineer's session cookie. The...

Evasive Shikitega Linux malware drops Monero cryptominer

Researchers from the AT&T Alien Labs Resarch have discovered a new and stealthy Linux malware it's dubbed Shikitega. Once it's on a machine or device, Shitega executes a "multistage infection chain" involving small files, a couple of vulnerabilities, and the use of Mettle, a portable Metasploit...

Judge drops hammer, dishes 7 years slammer for BEC and romance scammer

A Texas resident has finally paid the price for a heady mix of malicious mail antics. A combination of business email compromise BEC scams and romance fakeouts bagged them $2.2 million across roughly 6 years. This is quite a divergent portfolio of scamming activity. You may typically assume BEC...

Complicated Active Directory setups are undermining security

Security researchers and technical architects from SpecterOps have found that almost every Active Directory installation they have looked at over the last decade has had some kind of misconfiguration issue. And misconfigurations can lead to security issues, such as privilege escalation methods. T...

Russia accused of hacking Dutch police during MH17 investigation

Journalists at the Dutch newspaper "De Volkskrant" have reported that the countrys intelligence service, AIVD, discovered in 2017 that Russian hackers had broken into Dutch police systems. The De Volkskrant report is based on knowledge from anonymous sources. The reason behind this act of espiona...

Can two VPN “wrongs” make a right? Lock and Code S02E10

This week on Lock and Code, were presenting you something a little different. Were telling you a story—with no guest interview included—that involves the use of VPNs. In 2016, a mid-20s man began an intense, prolonged harassment campaign against his new roommate. He emailed her from spoofed email...

FIN7 sysadmin behind “billions in damage” gets 10 years

In 2018 three high-ranking members of a sophisticated international cybercrime group operating out of Eastern Europe were arrested and taken into custody by US authorities. Ukrainian nationals Dmytro Fedorov, Fedir Hladyr, and Andrii Kolpakov, were members of a prolific hacking group widely known...

Fake Trezor app steals more than $1 million worth of crypto coins

Several users of Trezor, a small hardware device that acts as a cryptocurrency wallet, have been duped by a fake app with the same name. The app was available on Google Play and Apple’s App Store and also claimed to be from SatoshiLabs, the creators of Trezor. According to the Washington Post, th...

Don’t post it! Six social media safety sins to say goodbye to

If you or anyone you know is committing the below social media sins, it’s time to change that habit of an online lifetime. Even the most innocuous of things can cause trouble down the line, because everyone’s threat model is different. Unfortunately, people tend to realise what their threat model...

Report reveals the staggering scale of Business Email Compromise losses

Internet crime is ever present, and with the ongoing pandemic, levels of scams and fraud were exceptionally high in 2020. Opportunistic fraudsters didnt give a second thought to riding the COVID-19 wave and preying upon those who are truly in need of help, or those who truly want to help. The...

China’s RedEcho accused of targeting India’s power grids

RedEcho, an advanced persistent threat APT group from China, has attempted to infiltrate the systems behind Indias power grids, according to a threat analysis report from Recorded Future PDF. It appears that what triggered this attempt to gain a foothold in Indias critical power generation and...

Are TikTok’s new settings enough to keep kids safe?

TikTok, the now widely popular social media platform that allows users to create, share, and discover, amateur short clips—usually something akin to music videos—has been enjoying explosive growth since it appeared in 2017. Since then, it hasn’t stopped growing—more so during the current pandemic...

What’s up with WhatsApp’s privacy policy?

WhatsApp has been in the news recently after changes to its privacy policy caused a surge of interest in rival messaging app Signal. Initial reports may have worried a lot of folks, leading to inevitable clarifications and corrections. But what, you may ask, actually happened? Is there a problem?...

Fake COVID-19 survey hides ransomware in Canadian university attack

This post was authored by Jérôme Segura with contributions from Hossein Jazi, Hasherezade and Marcelo Rivero. In recent weeks, weve observed a number of phishing attacks against universities worldwide which we attributed to the Silent Librarian APT group. On October 19, we identified a new phishi...

Lock and Code S1Ep18: Finding consumer value in Cybersecurity Awareness Month with Jamie Court

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 Jamie Court, president of the non-profit advocacy group Consumer Watchdog, about the consumer value in Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Launched initially ...

Silent Librarian APT right on schedule for 20/21 academic year

A threat actor known as Silent Librarian/TA407/COBALT DICKENS has been actively targeting universities via spear phishing campaigns since schools and universities went back. In mid-September, we were tipped off by one of our customers about a new active campaign from this APT group. Based off a...

A week in security (June 22 – 28)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we provided a zero-day guide for 2020 featuring recent attacks and advanced preventive techniques, and we learned how to cough in the face of scammers, offering security tips for the 2020 tax season. We also looked at a web skimmer hiding within EXIF metadata that...

Data privacy law updates eyed by Singapore

In early 2019, Singapore’s data privacy regulators proposed that the country’s data privacy law could use two new updates—a data breach notification requirement and a right of data portability for the country’s residents. The proposed additions are commonplace in several data privacy laws around...

Stalkerware and online stalking are accepted by Americans. Why?

Despite warnings from domestic abuse networks, privacy rights advocates, and a committed faction of cybersecurity vendors, Americans may be accepting and minimizing online stalking behaviors, including the use of invasive apps that can pry into a user’s text messages, emails, photos, videos, and...

New Consumer Online Privacy Rights Act (COPRA) would empower American users

Despite the already dizzying number of comprehensive data privacy proposals before the US Senate—nearly 10 have been introduced since mid-2018—yet another bill has entered the conversation: the Consumer Online Privacy Rights Act. This time, the bill, called COPRA for short, is sponsored by a...