50 percent of schools did not prepare for secure distance learning, Labs report reveals

Education in the United States faced a crisis this year. The looming threat of the coronavirus—which spreads easily in highly-populated, enclosed rooms—forced schools across the country to develop new strategies for education. The dramatic stress of this transition is known. Teachers are working...

Looks like we’re stuck with Zoom: Is it any safer?

Earlier this month, Zoom’s stock price took a dive on news of two promising COVID vaccines offering over 90 percent effectiveness against the virus a third vaccine was just announced. That’s nice. Glad to know some people think this nightmare is ending soon and we’ll all go back to the office and...

Brute force attacks increase due to more open RDP ports

While leaving your back door open while you are working from home may be something you do without giving it a second thought, having unnecessary ports open on your computer is a security risk that is sometimes underestimated. Thats because an open port can be subject to brute force attacks. What...

Securing the MSP: why they’re their own worst enemy

We've previously discussed threats to managed service providers MSPs, covering their status as a valuable secondary target to both an assortment of APT groups as well as financially motivated threat groups. The problem with covering new and novel attack vectors, however, is that behind each new...

‘Data as property’ promises fix for privacy problems, but could deepen inequality

In mid-November, Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang unveiled a four-prong policy approach to solving some of today’s thornier tech issues, such as widespread misinformation, technology dependence, and data privacy. Americans, Yang proposed, should receive certain, guaranteed protections...

100 channels and nothing on, except TV Licensing phishes

We’ve seen a lot of people referencing fake TV Licensing emails they’ve received over the last few days. The majority so far appear to be fake refund notices, asking potential victims to log in to a phony TV License website and provide payment details for refunds. It's definitely keeping customer...

Where did the tech support scam blacklist go?

For about five years, we've maintained a blacklist of recognized tech support scammers, along with websites and phone numbers they might use to contact victims. The blacklist was part of our Tech support scams: help and resource page, which tells readers how scams work, what tricks to look out fo...

Stolen security logos used to falsely endorse PUPs

To gain the trust of users, many websites and companies feature the logos of reputable firms who endorse their products. Unfortunately, some unseemly companies do the same, using logos of companies who have not, in fact, endorsed their product in order to trick people into thinking that what they...

IPv6, it’s waiting for you

IPv6 is an expression IT professionals are likely to have seen or heard at one time, but what exactly is it? Let us give you a quick introduction, and then try to explain what it does differently by comparing it to its predecessor, IPv4. IPv4 and IPv6 are both Internet communications protocols...

A week in security (September 25 – October 01)

Recently, we talked about the hacking incident at Deloitte, one of the 'big four' global accounting firms. It was reported that client email addresses, usernames, and passwords were exposed. This also brought to light weaknesses in their policies and lack of threat intelligence to recover leaked...

Fake Claude site installs malware that gives attackers access to your computer

Claude’s rapid growth—nearly 290 million web visits per month—has made it an attractive target for attackers, and this campaign shows how easy it is to fall for a fake site. We discovered a fake website impersonating Anthropic’s Claude to serve a trojanized installer. The domain mimics Claude's...

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...

Windows Hello fingerprint authentication can be bypassed on popular laptops

Researchers have found several weaknesses in Windows Hello fingerprint authentication on Dell Inspiron 15, Lenovo ThinkPad T14, and Microsoft Surface Pro X laptops. Microsoft’s Offensive Research and Security Engineering MORSE asked the researchers to evaluate the security of the top three...

[Updated] Apple issues Rapid Security Response for zero-day vulnerability

Apple has issued an update for a vulnerability which it says may have been actively exploited. In the security content for Safari 16.5.2 we can learn that the vulnerability was found in the WebKit component which is Apples web rendering engine. In other words, WebKit is the browser engine that...

Surveillance camera insecurities argument comes to one inevitable conclusion: Always update

Chinese-made surveillance cameras find themselves in a spot of controversy, after a BBC investigation uncovered flaws in devices during several brand tests. Surveillance and webcam vulnerabilities are common, and weve covered them many times on our blog. Whats interesting with this story is that...

ChromeOS vulnerability found by Microsoft

Microsoft recently released a report about a ChromeOS remote memory corruption vulnerability. The issue has already been fixed. In fact, it was reported to Google in April. The fix was applied shortly after, and released on June 15. The resulting deep-dive from Microsoft is a fascinating look at...

AirTag stalking: What is it, and how can I avoid it?

More voices are being raised against the use of everyday technology repurposed to attack and stalk people. Most recently, its reported that Ohio has proposed a new bill in relation to electronic tagging devices. The bill, aimed at making short work of a loophole allowing people with no stalking o...

Beware tragic “my daughter died…” Facebook posts offering free PS5s

Tragic tales are being posted to Facebook, combined with the offer of a giveaway. However, some are perhaps not quite what they seem. The PS5 is still one of the hottest bits of tech around, and near-total lack of availability, combined with a high sale price, means that some people will do...

Potential cybersecurity impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

On Thursday night, Russia launched a military invasion of its neighbor and former Soviet Union member Ukraine, drawing a broad rebuke from international leaders, along with significant protest from the Russian public. The toll of human life from this war is unknown, and, like the many internation...

A multi-stage PowerShell based attack targets Kazakhstan

This blog post was authored by Hossein Jazi. On November 10 we identified a multi-stage PowerShell attack using a document lure impersonating the Kazakh Ministry of Health Care, leading us to believe it targets Kazakhstan. A threat actor under the user name of DangerSklif perhaps in reference to...

[updated]REvil ransomware disappears after Tor services hijacked

With some pests you hope they never recover from a blow. It’s almost too good to be true, but one can hope. This is one of them. The REvil ransomware group has shut down their operation for the second time this year after losing control over their Tor-based domains. Shutdown number 1 REvils first...

Stop. Do you really need another security tool?

The last few years have seen a mushrooming of the number and type of security tools that organizations can use to protect themselves. You can have tools, tools to integrate the tools, tools to monitor the tools, APIs, dashboards so many dashboards, and machine learning with everything. And yet,...

TrickBot indictment reveals the scale and complexity of organized cybercrime

Back in 2016, we saw the emergence of a botnet mainstay called TrickBot. Initially observed by our Labs team spreading via malvertising campaigns, it quickly became a major problem for businesses everywhere. Whether spread by malvertising or email spam, the end result was the same. Data...

Colonial Pipeline attack spurs new rules for critical infrastructure

Following a devastating cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline, the Transportation Security Administration—which sits within the government’s Department of Homeland Security—will issue its first-ever cybersecurity directive for pipeline companies in the United States, according to exclusive reporti...

Shining a light on dark patterns with Carey Parker: Lock and Code S02E09

This week on Lock and Code, we speak to cybersecurity advocate and author Carey Parker about "dark patterns," which are subtle tricks online to get you to make choices that might actually harm you. Dark patterns have been around for years, and the tricks theyre based on are even older. Ever bough...

FBI shuts down malware on hundreds of Exchange servers, opens Pandora’s box

A rather remarkable story has emerged, setting the scene for lively debates about permissible system access. A press release from the US Department of Justice Judge has revealed that the FBI were granted permission to perform some tech support backdoor removal. Bizarrely, they did this without...

LazyScripter: From Empire to double RAT

Malwarebytes’ Threat Intelligence analysts are continually researching and monitoring active malware campaigns and actor groups as the prevalence and sophistication of targeted attacks rapidly evolves. In this paper, we introduce a new APT group we have named LazyScripter, presenting in-depth...

NCSC: Be Cyber Aware, especially during the Christmas season

In early December, the National Cyber Security Centre, a UK-based cybersecurity body and a part of GCHQ, kicked off the next chapter of its Cyber Aware campaign initiative, focusing on online shopping threats during the Christmas season. Cyber Aware is the UK government’s "national campaign on...

A week in security (November 23 – November 29)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we talked with Chris Boyd about charities that track you online. We also looked back at Zoom, and wondered whether its any safer months after its first vulnerability was reported. We talked about how Apples security is hampering the detection of potentially unwante...

Taurus Project stealer now spreading via malvertising campaign

For the past several months, Taurus Project—a relatively new stealer that appeared in the spring of 2020—has been distributed via malspam campaigns targeting users in the United States. The macro-laced documents spawn a PowerShell script that invokes certutil to run an autoit script ultimately...

A week in security (May 25 – 31)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we published our most recent episode of our podcast Lock and Code, providing an in-depth discussion on web browser privacy, looked at the membership bump for the Coalition against Stalkerware, and dug into EDR solutions. We also looked at twists added to the threat...

Fake “Corona Antivirus” distributes BlackNET remote administration tool

Scammers and malware authors are taking advantage of the coronavirus crisis in full swing. We have seen a number of spam campaigns using COVID-19 as a lure to trick people into installing a variety of malware, but especially data stealers. As more of us work from home, the need to secure your...

Cybercriminals impersonate World Health Organization to distribute fake coronavirus e-book

The number of scams, threats, and malware campaigns taking advantage of public concern over the coronavirus is increasing each day. As a result, we've been actively monitoring emails within our spam honeypot to flag such threats and make sure our users are protected. Yesterday, we observed a...

RemoteSec: achieving on-prem security levels with cloud-based remote teams

The world of work is changing—by the minute, it feels these days. With the onset of the global coronavirus pandemic, organizations around the world are scrambling to prepare their workforce, and their infrastructure, for a landslide of remote connections. This means that the security perimeter of...

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 (April 29 – May 5)

Last week on Labs we discussed the possible exit scam of dark net market Wall Street Market, how the Electrum DDoS botnet reaches 152,000 infected hosts, we looked at the sophisticated threats plague ailing healthcare industry, a mysterious database that exposed personal information of 80 million...

Electrum DDoS botnet reaches 152,000 infected hosts

By Jérôme Segura, Adam Thomas, and S!Ri We have been closely monitoring the situation involving the continued attacks against users of the popular Electrum Bitcoin wallet. Initially, victims were being tricked to download a fraudulent update that stole their cryptocurrencies. Later on, the threat...

“Funky malware format” found in Ocean Lotus sample

Recently, at the SAS conference I talked about "Funky malware formats"—atypical executable formats used by malware that are only loaded by proprietary loaders. Malware authors use them in order to make static detection more difficult, because custom formats are not recognized as executable by AV...

Are hackers gonna hack anymore? Not if we keep reusing passwords

Enterprises have a password problem, and it’s one that is making the work of hackers a lot easier. From credential stuffing to brute force and password spraying attacks, modern hackers don’t have to do much hacking in order to compromise internal corporate networks. Instead, they log in using wea...

The digital entropy of death: BSides Manchester

Last week, I gave a talk at BSides Manchester based on a previous blog series for Malwarebytes Labs called "The digital entropy of death." What do you do when a relative or close friend dies, leaving all of their digital accounts lying around for anyone to break into and make use of? Which...

Phony WhatsApp used Unicode to slip under Google’s radar

After a troubling week for Google not so long ago, the company is under the spotlight once more for missing another app that, after further investigations by several members of Reddit, was found laden with adware. This app, which was called "Update WhatsApp Messenger," used the logo and developer...

No, it’s not OK to delete that new inetpub folder

In a new update for the guide concerning CVE-2025-21204 Microsoft told users they need the new inetpub folder for protection. As part of April’s patch Tuesday updates, Microsoft released a patch to a link following flaw in the Windows Update Stack. Applying the patch creates a new...

“Can you try a game I made?” Fake game sites lead to information stealers

The background and the IOCs for this blog were gathered by an Expert helper on our forums and Malwarebytes researchers. Our thanks go out to them. A new, malicious campaign is making the rounds online and it starts simple: Unwitting targets receive a direct message DM on a Discord server asking...

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...

Fake Microsoft Teams for Mac delivers Atomic Stealer

Competition between stealers for macOS is heating up, with a new malvertising campaign luring Mac users via a fraudulent advert for Microsoft Teams. This attack comes on the heels of the new Poseidon OSX.RodStealer project, another threat using a similar code base and delivery techniques. Based o...

New Go loader pushes Rhadamanthys stealer

Malware loaders also known as droppers or downloaders are a popular commodity in the criminal underground. Their primary function is to successfully compromise a machine and deploy one or multiple additional payloads. A good loader avoids detection and identifies victims as legitimate i.e. not...

Joomla! patches XSS flaws that could lead to remote code execution

On February 20, Joomla! posted details about four vulnerabilities it had fixed in its Content Management System CMS, and one in the Joomla! Framework that affects the CMS. Joomla! is an open-source CMS that’s been around since 2005, and has been one of the most popular CMS platforms by market sha...

Oops! Black Basta ransomware flubs encryption

Researchers at SRLabs have made a decryption tool available for Black Basta ransomware, allowing some victims of the group to decrypt files without paying a ransom. The decryptor works for victims whose files were encrypted between November 2022 and December 2023. The decryptor, called Black Bast...

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...

What Gen Z really cares about when it comes to privacy

It would be easy to think that Gen Z doesn’t care about privacy. They worry less about ad tracking, do little to stem the flow of their private information online, and, as Malwarebytes recently uncovered, monitor one another’s lives far more than other generations. But it isn’t that Gen Z,...