A week in security (June 14 – June 20)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: How to delete your Instagram account. Working from home? You’re probably being spied on. Another one bites the dust: Avaddon ransomware group shuts down operation. Patch now! Apple fixes in-the-wild iPhone vulnerabilities. Windows 10 to retire in four years or 52...

Ransomware group threatens to leak information about police informants

UPDATE 12:12 PM Pacific Time, April 28: As of at least 9:40 AM Pacific Time, the Babuk ransomware gang removed any reference to the allegedly stolen DC Police Department data from its data leak website. This does not indicate with any certainty that the DC Police Department paid Babuk, but it is...

Slack hurries to fix direct message flaw that allowed harassment

The enormous work messaging platform Slack quickly reversed course yesterday, promising to revise a brand-new direct message feature that could have been misused for harassment. Added to the company’s “Slack Connect” product—which lets enterprise users share messages with contract workers and...

$12m Grindr fine shows GDPR’s got teeth

As thoughts turn to Data Privacy this week in a big way, GDPR illustrates it isnt an afterthought. Grindr, the popular social network and dating platform, will likely suffer a $12 million USD fine due to privacy related complaints. What happened here, and what are the implications for future case...

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...

VPNs are mainstream, which is good news

Virtual private networks VPNs have been growing in popularity for the last three years, a notable trend revealed in a collaborative report PDF by Top10VPN and GlobalWebIndex. This year is no different. When a majority of the world’s internet users are in isolation due to the COVID-19 global...

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...

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...

Holes found in Mojave’s privacy protection

macOS Mojave was released on Monday, September 24, with much promise of increased privacy protections. In particular, apps are now required to get permission from users before they can access data in certain locations, such as Mail data, contacts, calendar events, Safari user data, and more...

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...

HTTPS: why the green padlock is not enough

When goods get sold in large quantities, the price goes down. This might not be the first law of economics, but it’s applicable. An extrapolation of this is that if there are practically no production costs and no raw materials involved, prices of such goods will drop to zero. Usually, they will ...

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...

A week in security (October 02 – October 08)

Last week, we gave you some tips for National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, walked through an exploration of a small adware file, and explored the complicated world of the Homograph attack. Here's what else happened in security. VB2017 Many of our team members attended VB2017 in Madrid, one of t...

Fake Flash Player installs AtlasRAT

Researchers have described a campaign that delivers a remote access Trojan RAT called AtlasRAT through a fake Flash Player installer. People still go looking for “Flash player” because a surprising amount of content and software was built around Flash and never properly migrated. Users often just...

Fake calendar invites are spreading. Here’s how to remove them and prevent more

We’re seeing a surge in phishing calendar invites that users can’t delete, or that keep coming back because they sync across devices. The good news is you can remove them and block future spam by changing a few settings. Most of these unwanted calendar entries are there for phishing purposes. Mos...

‘Car crash victim’ calls mother for help and $15K bail money. But it’s an AI voice scam

A woman in Florida was tricked into giving thousands of dollars to a scammer after her daughter's voice was AI-cloned and used in a scam. Sharon Brightwell says she received a call from someone who sounded just like her daughter. The woman on the other end was sobbing and crying, telling her mom...

ThemeBleed exploit is another reason to patch Windows quickly

Included in the September 2023 Patch Tuesday updates was a fix for a vulnerability which has been dubbed ThemeBleed. A Proof-of-Concept PoC exploit has been released by Gabe Kirkpatrick, one of the researchers acknowledged for reporting the vulnerability. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures...

Update now! WinRAR files can be abused to run malware

A new version of the file archiving software WinRAR fixes two vulnerabilities that could allow an attacker to execute code on a target system. All the victim has to do is to open a specially crafted archive. After receiving a report about the vulnerability in June, a new version of the software w...

Zoom clarifies user consent requirement when training its AI

Changes in the terms of service TOS of the Zoom video-conferencing software have caused some turmoil. Since the pandemic, Zoom Video Conferencing has become a household name. Zoom came up as the big winner in the video conferencing struggle that enabled us to work from home. Now that things are...

Update now! Apple fixes three actively exploited vulnerabilities

Apple has released security updates for several products to address a set of flaws that it says are being actively exploited. Updates are available for these products: Safari 16.5.1 | macOS Big Sur and macOS Monterey ---|--- iOS 16.5.1 and iPadOS 16.5.1 | iPhone 8 and later, iPad Pro all models,...

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...

Education hammered by exploits and backdoors in 2021 and 2022

In May of 2021, education underwent a siege of exploit attempts using the vulnerability CVE-2021-21551, which exploits a Dell system driver bug and helps attackers to gain access to a network. Considering that many schools across the United States use Dell hardware, its understandable to see such...

Gh0stCringe RAT makes database servers squeal for protection

Researchers have found that the Gh0stCringe RAT is infecting Microsoft SQL and MySQL, and seems to focus on servers with weak protection. The Gh0stCringe RAT communicates with a command and control C&C server to receive instructions and is capable of exfiltrating information. SQL SQL is short for...

Xenomorph banking Trojan downloaded over 50,000 times from Play Store

Besides the name of the creature that “stars” in the Alien movies by 20th Century Fox, Xenomorph is also the name given to an Android banking Trojan. Researchers found this banking Trojan to be distributed on the official Google Play Store, with more than 50,000 installations. The researchers...

Adobe patches actively exploited Magento/Adobe Commerce zero-day

Adobe has released an emergency advisory for users of its Commerce and Magento platforms. It explains that a critical zero-day vulnerability is actively being exploited in attacks against sites that use these two content management system CMSs. Users should apply the patch as soon as possible. Th...

Update now! Apple fixes actively exploited zero-day

Apple has released a security fix for a zero-day vulnerability CVE-2022-22620 that it says "may have been actively exploited." According to the security update information provided by Apple the vulnerability exists in WebKit—the HTML rendering engine component of its Safari browser—and can be use...

Please don’t buy this! 3 gift card scams to watch out for this holiday season

With the holiday season around the corner, we thought it was a good time to look at the dangers that come with gift cards. Gift cards can be an easy win in cases where you don’t know the receiver well enough to decide on a fitting gift, or when their wishes are out of your price range. But there...

Kaseya update delayed for security reasons

Software vendor Kaseya has been caught in the chaos of a supply-chain compromise by the REvil ransomware gang since Friday. Around 40 managed service providers MSPs that rely on Kaseya VSA software to administer customers IT—and up to 1,500 of their customers—have been stricken with the ransomwar...

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...

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...

WhatsApp calls and messages will break unless you share data with Facebook

WhatsApp told users last week that there was no need for alarm regarding an upcoming privacy policy deadline, as users who refuse to accept the privacy policy will not have their accounts deleted—they will just have their apps rendered useless, eventually incapable of receiving calls and messages...

Bitcoin scammers phish for wallet recovery codes on Twitter

Were no strangers to the Twitter customer support DM slide scam. This is where someone watches an organisation perform customer support on Twitter, and injects themselves into the conversation at opportune moments hoping potential victims don’t notice. This is aided by imitation accounts modelled...

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...

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...

Apple shines and buffs Mac security—Is it enough to stop today’s malware?

There’s a lot going on in the Mac security world lately. Over the last few months, Apple has ramped up security efforts across its platforms. From an endpoint security framework overhaul of macOS Catalina to phasing out kernel extensions, the tech giant has been battening down the...

Pow! Emotet’s down. Is it out?

In a coordinated action, multiple law enforcement agencies have seized control of the Emotet botnet. Agencies from eight countries worked together to deliver what they hope will be a decisive blow against one of the worlds most dangerous and sophisticated computer security threats. The Emotet...

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?...

Explained: juice jacking

When your battery is dying and you're nowhere near a power outlet, would you connect your phone to any old USB port? Joyce did, and her mobile phone got infected. How? Through a type of cyberattack called "juice jacking." Don’t be like Joyce. Although Joyce and her infected phone are hypothetical...

Labs report finds cyberthreats against healthcare increasing while security circles the drain

The team at Malwarebytes Labs is at it again, this time with a special edition of our quarterly CTNT report—Cybercrime tactics and techniques: the 2019 state of healthcare. Over the last year, we gathered global data from our product telemetry, honeypots, threat intelligence, and research efforts...

Cyber insurance: here to stay, whether we like it or not

Cyber insurance has been a big talking point in infosec circles for many months now. We’ve mentioned it in passing ourselves a few times, usually in relation to ransomware attacks. This isn’t surprising; ransomware may not be the threat that brought cyber insurance to life, but it absolutely help...

Data and device security for domestic abuse survivors

For more than a month, Malwarebytes has worked with advocacy groups, law enforcement, and cybersecurity researchers to deliver helpful information in fighting stalkerware—the disturbing cyber threat that enables domestic abusers to spy on their partners’ digital and physical lives. While we’ve...

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...

A week in security (June 24 – 30)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we peeled back the mystery on an elusive malware campaign that relied on blank JavaScript injections, detailed for readers our latest telemetry on the tricky GreenFlash Sundown exploit, and looked at one of the top campaigns directing traffic toward scareware pages...

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...

Exploring the virtual worlds of advergaming

Games and analytics services ran into one another headfirst recently, in a spat related to the game Conan Exiles. Developers had to remove a tracking service, which allowed game developers to track where Steam players had come from. By generating an API key and integrating it into the game,...

A week in security (January 22 – January 28)

Last week on Labs, we analyzed a rogue app outbreak on Twitter, took a look at how Singapore's government is faring with network defense, and rolled out our 2017 State of Malware report. We also became visionaries in Gartner's Magic Quadrant report and explored a VR data mishap. Other news Man...

BYOD, why don’t you?

Bring Your Own Device BYOD is a policy that allows employees to bring their own devices to the workplace and use them there. At one time, this was the latest bonus to attract and keep employees happy—plus save a few bucks. Nowadays the question is more like: Is there anyone who doesn't bring his...

Don’t let these gaming threats give you a Game Over

With EGX, the biggest gaming event in the UK opening its doors today, we thought it'd be timely to remind you of some of the threats currently facing gamers. No matter what type of game, client, or system you use, there's always something waiting to try and give you a bad day where the safety of...

Solution Corner: Malwarebytes for Android

People have become increasingly reliant on their mobile devices in recent years. Smartphones and tablets have revolutionized daily life. Unfortunately, such rapid growth has also attracted criminals, bringing Android up to par with Windows in terms of infection rates. Android threat landscape A...