Location data leaks from family tracking app database

An app called Family Locator, which allows family members to keep track of one another recently experienced an exposed database issue of the worst kind. Specifically: the MongoDB database was left exposed with no password, like so many other recent infosec tales of woe. The end result is the...

GDPR causes a flood of new policies

The European Union claims that the General Data Protection Regulation GDPR, which comes to term on May 25, is the most important change in data privacy regulation in 20 years. Many companies have spent months preparing for the changes, working on policy and compliance, and introducing changes to...

Search engine shenanigans: Malwarebytes mentions aren’t what they seem

Thing might be a touch quiet at the moment as we ease into 2018, but that doesn't mean dubious antics and dodgy dealings aren't still making waves online. As a matter of fact, should you go searching for some of our researchers, their blog posts, or just a couple of notable quotables from news...

Winning the battle against PUPs on your computer and in court

I know very few people, other than lawyers, that get excited about corporate court cases. But, I want to share with you a recent decision that I believe is cause for every computer user to celebrate. This week, a United States District Court judge ruled in Malwarebytes' favor, dismissing a lawsui...

A week in security (September 4 – September 10)

Last week, we looked into expired domain names being used for malvertising, delved into dubious Facebook apps, and checked out Chinese seminar scams. We also explained the whys and wherefores of false positives, explained what Google is doing with HTTPs, warned you away from a fake DHS email, and...

Cerber ransomware delivered in format of a different order of Magnitude

As a follow up to our study into the Magnitude exploit kit and its gate which we profiled in a previous blog post, we take a look at an interesting technique used to distribute the Cerber ransomware. Exploit kits are a very effective means of serving malicious payloads and an important aspect is...

The numeric tech support scam campaign

There are many different tech support scam TSS campaigns active at any given moment, the majority of them are fueled by malicious adverts the browser lockers, or bundled software the screen lockers. Something interesting happened recently, where legitimate - but hacked - websites would redirect t...

41 deceptive download sites show a real link, then send you somewhere else

We identified a network of 41 websites impersonating popular games and Windows software, all designed to push visitors towards the same Download Studio installer. The sites advertise everything from Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Fallout, Roblox, PUBG, and The Witcher to VLC, 7-Zip, Paint.NET, VMware...

Junk Cleaner clears the clutter from your Android

Your phone is full again, and the warning appears at exactly the wrong moment. Suddenly you can't update apps, record a video, or save another photo. The cause is rarely one giant file. Storage disappears in a steady drizzle of leftovers: temporary files an app creates and forgets, caches that gr...

OpenAI explains how its AI agent breached Hugging Face

On July 28, OpenAI published an update on the agent that escaped its sandbox and hacked into Hugging Face during an internal cybersecurity evaluation. In the update, OpenAI reiterates that the “rogue” system was a more capable, pre‑release research model, not something intended for public...

OpenAI’s agent escaped its sandbox during a security test

During an internal OpenAI security evaluation, a chain of AI models escaped its sandbox, reached the internet, and then accessed Hugging Face infrastructure to complete the test objective. OpenAI is a leading artificial intelligence AI research and deployment company. Its best-known product is...

Meta’s face-recognition code raises new concerns about smart glasses

Meta’s smart glasses are once again at the center of a privacy debate due to face recognition. WIRED reports that Meta had quietly embedded unreleased face-recognition code, internally called “NameTag,” into its Meta AI companion app, which powers the company’s smart glasses. The code was not...

Scammers love Meta, according to Lloyds Bank

Scammers go phishing wherever the victims are. In the UK, that means Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, according to Lloyds Bank. It just revealed that Meta platforms account for over two thirds of fraud reports made by its customers. Writing in The Sunday Times, Lloyds Bank's fraud prevention...

Hackers claim to have accessed data tied to millions of crime tipsters

Millions of crime tips may have been exposed after a hacker group claims to have compromised systems used by Crime Stoppers programs and other organizations worldwide. The incident centers on P3 Global Intel, a Texas-based provider of cloud-based tip and intelligence management software owned by...

19 million plaintext passwords exposed by incorrectly configured Firebase instances

Three researchers scanned the internet for vulnerable Firebase instances, looking for personally identifiable information PII. Firebase is a platform for hosting databases, cloud computing, and app development. Its owned by Google and was set up to help developers build and ship apps. What the...

TikTok faces ban in US unless it parts ways with Chinese owner ByteDance

The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would effectively ban TikTok from the US unless Chinese owner ByteDance gives up its share of the immensely popular app. TikTok is an immensely popular social media platform that allows users to create, share, and discover, short video clips. It...

Ransomware in 2023 recap: 5 key takeaways

This article is based on research by Marcelo Rivero, Malwarebytes’ ransomware specialist, who monitors information published by ransomware gangs on their Dark Web sites. In this report, “known attacks” are those where the victim did not pay a ransom. This provides the best overall picture of...

Malvertiser copies PC news site to deliver infostealer

The majority of malvertising campaigns delivering malicious utilities that we have tracked so far typically deceive victims with pages that are almost the exact replica of the software vendor being impersonated. For example, we have seen fake websites appearing like the real Webex, AnyDesk or...

Okta breach happened after employee logged into personal Google account

Okta has revealed details about a recent breach which exposed files belonging to customers. As we explained in our article about 1Password being a victim of this breach, it’s normal for Okta support to ask customers to upload a file known as an HTTP Archive HAR file. Having this file allows the...

Europol lifts the lid on cybercrime tactics

The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation Europol, has published a report that examines developments in cyberattacks, discussing new methodologies and threats observed by Europols operational analysts. The report also discusses the criminal organizations behind cyberattacks and th...

Ransomware review: July 2023

This article is based on research by Marcelo Rivero, Malwarebytes' ransomware specialist, who monitors information published by ransomware gangs on their Dark Web sites. In this report, "known attacks" are those where the victim did not pay a ransom. This provides the best overall picture of...

Microsoft: You're already using the last version of Windows 10

Microsoft issued a client roadmap update on Thursday to remind us once again that Windows 10 support is slowly coming to an end. In less than three years, all Windows 10 users will need to have moved to Windows 11. While moving to Windows 11 should be a win for security, some Windows 10 fans may ...

Update now, there's a Chrome zero-day in the wild

Google has announced an important update for Chrome to help fend off a zero-day. The update fixes several issues, and readers are advised to ensure they're using the latest version of the browser. Mitigation If youre using Chrome on Mac, Windows, or Linux, you need to update as soon as you possib...

Medibank customers' personal data compromised by cyber attack

Australian health care insurance company Medibank confirmed that the threat actor behind a cyberattack on the company had access to the data of at least 4 million customers. Although Medibank at first said that there was "no evidence that customer data has been accessed," a week later their...

Researchers found one-click exploits in Discord and Teams

A group of security researchers have discovered a series of vulnerabilities in Electron, the software underlying popular apps like Discord, Microsoft Teams, and many others, used by tens of millions of people all over the world. Electron is a framework that allows developers to create desktop...

New variant of Android SpyJoker malware removed from Play Store after 3 million+ installs

Security researcher Maxime Ingrao has found a new variant of Android/Trojan.Spy.Joker which hes dubbed Autolycos. Malware in this family secretly subscribes users to premium services. The researcher noted that the eight applications that contained this malware had racked up a total of over 3...

A week in security (June 27 – July 3)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Ransomware review: June 2022 AstraLocker 2.0 ransomware isn’t going to give you your files back YTStealer targets YouTube content creators ZuoRAT is a sophisticated malware that mainly targets SOHO routers Amazon Photos vulnerability could have given attackers acce...

Facebook phish claims “Someone tried to log into your account”

Watch out for bogus Facebook phishing messages winging their way to your mailbox. The ruse is quite simple: The mail senders are relying on the recipient’s sense of panic to respond without thinking about it. The mail looks professional enough, and seeks to imitate what would be a fairly typical...

Let’s Encrypt to revoke “mis-issued” certificates

If you use a Let’s Encrypt SSL/TLS certificate, you may wish to check your account over the coming days. Revocation is coming, and you’ve only got until tomorrow to figure things out. What’s the deal with free certificates? If you’re running a website, you want to make sure that it’s HTTPs. It...

Shrootless: Microsoft finds Apple macOS vulnerability

Microsoft researchers have discovered a vulnerability in macOS, dubbed Shrootless, that can allow attackers to bypass System Integrity Protection SIP and perform malicious activities, such as gaining root privileges and installing rootkits on vulnerable devices. Microsoft reported the Shrootless...

Watch what you send on anonymous SMS websites

Its a good idea to try and keep certain things private. For example, people have been using anonymous email services for years. These either hide your real email address, or replace it entirely for specific tasks. Folks will go one step further, setting aliases for each service they sign up to. I...

US government and private sector agree to invest time, money in cybersecurity

In the wake of several high-profile ransomware attacks against critical infrastructure and major organizations in the last few months, President Biden met with private sector and education leaders to discuss a whole-of-nation effort needed to address cybersecurity threats and bolster the nation’s...

The best browsers for privacy and security

Unfortunately there is a low correlation factor between what most people find the best browsers and what are the best browsers when it comes to privacy and security. If you look at the market share of the most popular browsers, there is one browser that steals the crown without a lot of...

When contractors attack: two years in jail for vengeful IT admin

An IT contractor working for an IT consultancy company took it upon himself to perform an act of revenge against the firm he worked at, after they complained about his performance. The charge he faced was breaking into the network of a company in Carlsbad, California. And it got him two years in...

ProxyLogon PoCs trigger a game of whack-a-mole

As we reported recently, the use of the Microsoft Exchange Server ProxyLogon vulnerabilities has gone from “limited and targeted attacks” to a full-size panic in no time. Criminal activities, ranging in severity from planting crypto-miners to deploying ransomware, and conducted by numerous groups...

Spotify resets some user logins after hacker database found floating online

A team of researchers working for vpnMentor has found a treasure trove in the form of an unsecured Elasticsearch database containing over 380 million records. The trove contained login credentials and other data belonging to Spotify users. So whats Spotify doing leaving its user data hanging arou...

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...

The impact of COVID-19 on healthcare cybersecurity

As if stress levels in the healthcare industry weren’t high enough due to the COVID-19 pandemic, risks to its already fragile cybersecurity infrastructure are at an all-time high. From increased cyberattacks to exacerbated vulnerabilities to costly human errors, if healthcare cybersecurity wasnt...

It’s baaaack: Public cyber enemy Emotet has returned

It was never a question of "if" but "when". After five months of absence, the dreaded Emotet has returned. Following several false alarms over the last few weeks, a spam campaign was first spotted on July 13 showing signs of a likely comeback. The Emotet botnets started pushing malspam actively o...

Threat spotlight: WastedLocker, customized ransomware

WastedLocker is a new ransomware operated by a malware exploitation gang commonly known as the Evil Corp gang. The same gang that is associated with Dridex and BitPaymer. The attribution is not based on the malware variants as WastedLocker is very different from BitPaymer. What was kept was the...

Tampa Bay Times hit with Ryuk ransomware attack

Florida newspaper The Tampa Bay Times suffered a Ryuk ransomware attack Thursday, making it the latest major victim of the notorious ransomware family that continues to rise in popularity. Curiously, the paper is at least the third Florida-based Ryuk victim in the past year. The attack, which The...

A week in security (December 2 – December 8)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we took a look at a new version of the IcedID Trojan, described web skimmers up to no good, and took a deep dive into containerization. We also explored a report bringing bad news for organizations and insider threats, and threw a spotlight on a video game phish...

Is FIDO the future instrument to prove our identity?

FIDO, short for Fast IDentity Online, is an industry consortium started in 2013 to address the lack of interoperability among strong authentication devices and the problems users face creating and remembering multiple usernames and passwords. Among the founders were those who work in the financia...

Be wary of Mega Millions winner “giveaway” on social media

I don't do lotteries, but if I did, I'd probably never, ever win in a million years. That's not a problem faced by 20-year-old Shane Missler, winner of the fourth-largest haul in Mega Millions' 21 years of handing out large bundles of cash. He's on record as saying he wants to "do some good" for...

Of scammers and cute puppies

We’ve followed tech support scammers for quite a while at Malwarebytes. They’ve been of particular interest because of their preference for scamming the poor, the elderly, and the developmentally disabled. But there’s a diverse spectrum of online scams a criminal can profit from, and today we’re...

Terror EK actor experiments with URL shortener fraud

Terror EK is an exploit kit made from a mishmash of stolen code and with very limited distribution. In the past few months, we have seen a few minor updates to its code base which remains largely simplistic in comparison to professional-grade exploit kits of the past such as Angler EK, or...

Shark vacuum flaw exposes cameras, home maps and Wi-Fi passwords

Shark’s cloud-connected robot vacuums are currently exposed by an unpatched AWS Amazon Web Services IoT Internet of Things policy flaw that could turn one compromised device into a remote-control skeleton key for many others in the same region, with access to cameras, maps, and Wi‑Fi passwords. A...

Elite network says it was hacked after members’ personal data was left exposed

Some organizations exist to be exclusive. They're invite-only, and discreet, the kind of place where the membership directory is the product. Dialog, the exclusive network founded by billionaire investor and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, whose members include a sitting NATO commander, two US...

GTA 6 early access is nothing but a scam

A new wave of scam websites is offering something millions of people want: a way to play Grand Theft Auto VI before it comes out. " Get GTA 6 before everyone else." " Buy VIP early access." Pay a few hundred dollars in cryptocurrency, enter a payment code, and supposedly unlock the game. But it's...

Fake BlueWallet steals passwords, accounts, and crypto from Macs

A fake website impersonating BlueWallet a real Bitcoin wallet is targeting Mac users with a simple but effective attack. BlueWallet itself has not been compromised. Instead, cybercriminals have stolen the name and branding of the legitimate Bitcoin wallet to make a malicious download appear...