How a VPN can protect your online privacy

Have you ever experienced the feeling of relief that comes when you do something silly, but youre glad you did it where people dont know you? Or maybe you wished you were somewhere like that, but alas… That is what a Virtual Private Network VPN can do for you: it can put you in a place where you...

Emotet returns just in time for Christmas

Emotet is a threat we have been tracking very closely throughout the year thanks to its large email distribution campaigns. Once again, and for about two months, the botnet stopped its malspam activity only to return days before Christmas. In typical Emotet fashion, the threat actors continue to...

Vastaamo psychotherapy data breach sees the most vulnerable victims extorted

“Hell is too nice a place for these people.” Never have we seen outrage about a cybercrime at such a level. The outrage is aimed at cybercriminals behind the data breach that occurred at Finnish psychotherapy practice Vastaamo. Vastaamo, which has treated some 40,000 patients, is a subcontractor ...

A week in security (February 17 – 23)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we highlighted the benefits and concerns of identity-as-a-service IDaaS, an identity management scheme deployed from the cloud; reported on scammers and squatters taking advantage of Rudy Giuliani’s Twitter typos; and gave a high-level overview of RobbinHood, the...

Malwarebytes Labs releases 2020 State of Malware Report

Today is Safer Internet Day—and what better way to celebrate/pay homage than to immerse yourself in research on the latest in malware, exploits, PUPs, web threats, and data privacy? It so happens we've got just the right content to kick-start the party because today we released the results of our...

Deepfakes laws and proposals flood US

In a rare example of legislative haste, roughly one dozen state and federal bills were introduced in the past 12 months to regulate deepfakes, the relatively modern technology that some fear could upend democracy. Though the federal proposals have yet to move forward, the state bills have found...

A week in security (January 13 – 19)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we taught you how to prevent a rootkit attack, explained what data enrichment means, informed you about new rules on deepfakes in the US, and demonstrated how backdoors in elastic servers expose private data. Other cybersecurity news An online group of cybersecurit...

A week in security (December 30 – January 5)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we took a dive into edge computing, looked at new web skimmer techniques, and rolled our eyes at silly people doing silly things. Other cybersecurity news: Stills and chills: A Reddit user notices their security camera is grabbing stills from other people’s devices...

Mac threat detections on the rise in 2019

Conventional wisdom has been that, although not invulnerable to cyberthreats as some old Apple ads would have you believe, Macs are afflicted with considerably fewer infections than Windows PCs. However, when reviewing our 2019 Mac detection telemetry, we noticed a startling upward trend. Indeed,...

New Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS) veterans program aims to bridge skills gap, diversify sector

The cybersecurity industry has a problem: We have zero unemployment rate. Or so we're told. With experts predicting millions of job openings in the years to come—coupled with the industry’s projected growth of US$289.9 billion by 2026 and soaring cyberattacks against businesses—now is as good a...

A week in security (November 11 – 17)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we offered statistics and information on a sneaky new Trojan malware for Android, inspected a bevy of current Facebook scams, and explained the importance of securing food and agriculture infrastructure. We also released our latest report on cybercrime tactics and...

Europol: Ransomware remains top threat in IOCTA report

The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, or Europol, just released its annual Internet Organized Crime Threat Assessment IOCTA report for the year. And we weren’t surprised to find that ransomware, despite its palpable decline in volume these past few months—a trend we’ve also...

A week in security (October 7 – 13)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we peered into the possible future of cybersecurity insurance, described the process for securing today’s managed service provider, and provided an in-depth explainer on the business espionage tactic known as “war shipping.” Further, in considering the intersection...

Capital One breach exposes over 100 million credit card applications

Just as we were wrapping up the aftermath of the Equifax breach—how was that already two years ago?—we are confronted with yet another breach of about the same order of magnitude. Capital One was affected by a data breach in March. The hacker gained access to information related to credit card...

Sophisticated threats plague ailing healthcare industry

The healthcare industry is no longer circling the drain, but it's still in critical condition. While many organizations in healthcare have aimed at or made positive strides toward a more robust cybersecurity and privacy posture, they still have a long way to go. In 2018, healthcare had the highes...

A week in security (October 1 – 7)

Last week, Malwarebytes welcomed National Cybersecurity Awareness Month by renewing our pledge to do what we do best: offer the best protection for our customers and promote security awareness for all. On Labs, we raised the question of whether it is a good idea to bring your own security or not,...

Cybersecurity New Year’s resolutions, you say? Why not.

It's mid-January, and oh, how time flies. It wasn’t long since we bid farewell to 2017 and welcomed the new year with renewed hope and vigor. Of course, with such positivity comes a sense of an equally favorable outlook for the year ahead. However good that may sound, being faced with a tabula ra...

Alleged creator of Fruitfly indicted for 13 years of spying

Way back at the start of last year, we took a look at something called Fruitfly, a Mac backdoor using old code that had been around for a long time and could deep breath upload files to computers, record images and video, snoop around in victims' information, take screenshots, and also log...

Mobile Menace Monday: despicable adware

Are you wondering how that mysterious icon ended up on your Android phone's start screen? Annoyed at the ads clogging your notification bar? You aren't alone. Thousands of Android apps now include software that shoves marketing icons onto your phone's start screen or pushes advertising into your...

Fake CleanMyMac site installs SHub Stealer and backdoors crypto wallets

A convincing fake version of the popular Mac utility CleanMyMac is tricking users into installing malware. The site instructs visitors to paste a command into Terminal. If they do, it installs SHub Stealer, macOS malware designed to steal sensitive data including saved passwords, browser data,...

Android vulnerability used in targeted attacks patched by Google

Google has released patches for 46 vulnerabilities in Android, including a remote code execution RCE vulnerability that it says has been used in limited, targeted attacks. You can find your device’s Android version number, security update level, and Google Play system level in your Settings app...

A week in security (April 8 – April 14)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: How to change your Social Security Number Apple warns people of mercenary attacks via threat notification system How to check if your data was exposed in the AT&T breach Microsoft’s April 2024 Patch Tuesday includes two actively exploited zero-day vulnerabilities H...

How to check if your data was exposed in the AT&T breach

AT&T has notified US state authorities and regulators about its recent or not data breach, saying 51,226,382 people were affected. For those that have missed the story so far: Back in 2021, a hacker named Shiny Hunters claimed to have breached AT&T. On March 20, 2024, we reported how the data of...

SEC X account hacked to hawk crypto-scams

We have seen several high-profile accounts that were taken over on X formerly Twitter only to be used for cryptocurrency related promotional activities, like expressing the approval of exchange-traded funds ETFs. The latest victim in this line-up is the Securities and Exchange Commission SEC. The...

Explained: Domain fronting

Domain fronting is a technique of using different domain names on the same HTTPS connection. Put simply, domain fronting hides your traffic when connecting to a specific website. It routes traffic through a larger platform, masking the true destination in the process. The technique became popular...

A week in security (October 10 - 16)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Teen talk: What it's like to grow up online, and the role of parents: Lock and Code S03E21 White House unveils Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights Credential stuffers take aim at Final Fantasy XIV players Meta accuses apps of stealing WhatsApp accounts Smart lights...

KMSpico explained: No, KMS is not "kill Microsoft"

Thanks to Pieter Arntz and the Threat Intelligence Team who contributed to the research. A hack tool is a program that allows users to activate software even without a legitimate, purchased key. Hack tools are often used to root devices in order to among others remove barriers that stop users fro...

“URGENT BUSINESS PROPOSAL!!!” 419 scammer wants your help to move someone’s inheritance

We’ve received several emails over the last couple of days which follow the classic 419 mail scam method. Titled “URGENT BUSINESS PROPOSAL!!!”, the mail reads as follows: Greetings, I am Mukhtar M. Hussain. I got your contact information from a reputable business/professional directory. I'm worki...

Valorant cheats on YouTube are actually information-stealing malware

Valorant, the popular free-to-play team based shooter, is attracting the attention of scammers. It’s reported that a malware distribution campaign is leveraging YouTube to push infection files. The campaign distributes a file known for password theft, and hunts for those passwords in browsers,...

Blunting RDP brute-force attacks with rate limiting

Thanks to the Malwarebytes Threat Intelligence Team for the information they provided for this article. Not long ago, guessing a Windows Remote Desktop Protocol RDP password successfully was widely regarded as ransomware operators number one choice for breaching a target. It attracted a lot of...

A week in security (January 31 – February 6)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Threat actor steals email with Zimbra zero-day FBI warns of bogus job postings on recruitment sites Investment scams are on the rise A worrying Etsy listing reveals the stalking potential of Apple’s AirTags Beware bogus OperaGX sponsorship offers $320 milllion stol...

Investment scams are on the rise

Preying on one of the most basic human flaws, investment scams and other get-rich-quick schemes are making up an ever larger portion of the online scammers cake. The number of victims, for now, is lower than the number of victims of fraudulent sales, identity fraud, and dating fraud, but the cost...

Discord scammers go CryptoBatz phishing

It’s not been a great couple of weeks for people looking to get in on NFTs. Missing apes, rug-pulls, it’s all go in non-fungible token land. The latest mishap has come to light, in the shape of bad planning and the slowly shifting impermanence of link ownership. Rockstar Ozzy Osbourne announced...

Warning issued over tampered QR codes

Avid readers of the Malwarebytes Labs blog will be well aware of QR code scams. Take, for example, that QR code scam in the Netherlands that victimized at least a dozen and definitely more car owners. It went like this: Someone approaches you and says they want to pay for their parking but cant...

Vulnerability in Windows 10 URI handler leads to remote code execution

Researchers at Positive Security have discovered a drive-by remote code-execution RCE bug in Windows 10. The vulnerability can be triggered by an argument injection in the Windows 10 default handler for ms-officecmd: URIs. It is likely that this vulnerability also exists in Windows 11. What’s...

Windows 11 is out. Is it any good for security?

Windows 11, the latest operating system OS from Microsoft, launches today, and organizations have begun asking themselves when and if they should upgrade from Windows 10 or older versions. The requirements and considerations of each organization will be different, and many things will inform the...

US offers huge reward in fight against state-sponsored cybercriminals

The US Department of State has announced that its Rewards for Justice RFJ program is now offering: …up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or location of any person who, while acting at the direction or under the control of a foreign government, participates in malicious...

Two Google plans that could make open source code more secure

Recently Google announced that it will fund the further development of Rust. Rust is a low-level programming language that is designed to be more memory secure than other popular programming languages, such as C. Google has also proposed an end-to-end framework for supply chain integrity which it...

A week in security (May 31 – June 6)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we looked at an interesting trend in facial recognition technology—hint: its a slow fade, the latest ransomware attacks on JBS and Steamship Authority, Cobalt Strike, a Coronavirus phishing campaign, WhatsApp’s decision to not limit app functionalities for...

JBS says it is recovering quickly from a ransomware attack

This week another major supplier reported it had been hit with ransomware. After the Colonial Pipeline attack last month, this time the victim is the worlds largest meatpacker, JBS. JBS halted cattle slaughter at all its US plants on Tuesday after the attack caused their Australian operations to...

Insider threats: If it can happen to the FBI, it can happen to you

If you’re worried about the risk of insider threats, you’re not alone. It can affect anyone, even the FBI. A federal grand jury has just charged a former intelligence analyst with stealing confidential files from 2004 to 2017. That’s an incredible 13 years of “What are you doing with that pile of...

iPhone calendar spam attacks on the rise

Recently, we have seen an increasing number of reports from iPhone users about their calendars filling up with junk events. These events are most often either pornographic in nature, or claim that the device has been infected or hacked, and in all cases they contain malicious links. This phenomen...

Millions put at risk by old, out of date routers

Since the first stay-at-home measures were imposed by governments to keep everyone safe from the worsening COVID-19 pandemic, we at Malwarebytes have been making sure that you, dear reader, are as cyber-secure as possible in your home network, while you try to work and while your children attend...

City fined for tracking its citizens via their phones

The Dutch information watchdog—the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens AP—has fined the city of Enschede for € 600,000 for tracking its citizens movements without permission. It is the first time that a Dutch government body has been fined by the AP. The investigation was set in motion after it received ...

International Women’s Day: Women in tech name their heroes

Happy Monday! And if you haven’t yet checked the significance of this day—March 8—before grabbing coffee, today is International Women’s Day IWD. Since March 19, 1911, the year the very first IWD was observed in several European countries, millions of people have been calling for women to be give...

How NOT to fail at PDF redaction

The heated spat between Europe and AstraZeneca over a contract has segued into an unexpected blunder that left many of us chuckling and surprised at the same time. Perhaps even feeling a bit awkward. Recently, the European Commission published a PDF version of the contract it had with AstraZeneca...

Malwarebytes targeted by Nation State Actor implicated in SolarWinds breach. Evidence suggests abuse of privileged access to Microsoft Office 365 and Azure environments

A nation state attack leveraging software from SolarWinds has caused a ripple effect throughout the security industry, impacting multiple organizations. We first reported on the event in our December 14 blog and notified our business customers using SolarWinds asking them to take precautionary...

Smart toy security: How to keep your kids safe this Christmas

Christmas is coming, and so are the smart toys. The ever-present pandemic has meant a lot more staying at home this year. Videogame playing has increased considerably, because why not? Screentime for kids has gone up, because again, it’s bound to. It hasn’t brought about the end of civilisation a...

A week in security (December 7 – December 13)

Last week on Malwarebytes podcast we talked to Doug Levin, founder of the K12 cybersecurity resource center and advisor to the K12 Security Information Exchange, about how schools can plan for a cybersecure 2021. We also released a Malwarebytes Labs report revealing that 50 percent of schools did...

Malwarebytes detects leaked tools from FireEye breach

Hello folks! If you have not heard yet, the security firm FireEye has had a breach of many red team assessment tools used for identification of vulnerabilities to help protect customers. While it is not known exactly who was behind this attack, a big concern is the sharing and use of these stolen...