How to remove Google from your life

Swearing off a company used to be easier. Rude customer service, an unfortunate bout of food poisoning, even standing up for workers’ rights against the alleged involvement of a private company to order a country’s military to brutally quash a strike—almost every facet of an individual boycott...

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...

FBI warns of bogus job postings on recruitment sites

Before Christmas was a busy time down at the fake job factory, with all manner of dubious antics out to ruin someone’s day. We’re now info February and the bogus job offers show no sign of abating. In fact, the FBI considers it to be such a problem that its issued an alert. This isn’t your typica...

Security researchers play peek-a-boo with Conti ransomware server

It’s not been a great time for ransomware authors recently. Well, some ransomware authors at any rate. While many are making huge amounts of money from their device-locking antics, its not a profession without risk. Every so often something can and does go wrong, and ransomware groups get into al...

“Free Steam game” scams on TikTok are Among Us

TikTok has long since evolved beyond being thought of as "just" dance clips, also becoming a home for educational and informative content presented in a fun and casual way. There are accounts themed around pretty much any interest you can think of, and one of the biggest is gaming. Its not all...

3 security lessons from an MSP that survived the Kaseya VSA attack

Jay Tipton, chief executive for the Managed Service Provider MSP Technology Specialists, remembers his Fourth of July weekend this year like many MSP employees likely remember theirs: As a bit of a nightmare. “That’s like the worst feeling you’ll ever have,” Tipton said about his initial...

FBI warns of ransomware threat to food and agriculture

The FBI has issued a Private Industry Notification PIN about cybercriminal actors targeting the food and agriculture sector with ransomware attacks. Farms are literally the first step in one of the most important, if not the most important, supply chain in our economy: The food supply chain. As...

Game over: Apex Legends players locked out by protest message

Messages placed directly in or around games is a common hack technique. It can be used for trolling, phishing, scams, or anything else the message-placer can think of. Messages can also be placed in games for the purposes of advertising but thats a tale for a different day. Recently, players of...

iPhone app exposed other people’s call recordings

Video and audio are huge privacy concerns for people. If something goes wrong with tech it can have major ramifications. You’re likely very familiar with warnings about video. However, audio hasn’t always been so prominent. It’s only really since the rise of home assistants like Amazons Alexa tha...

Google FLoC puts ad trackers on a cookie-free diet

Cookie tracking is dying and Google needs a replacement. Its betting on FLoC, an ad tracking technology that lets it understand peoples behaviour while respecting their privacy. Google has announced that its tests show promising signs that FLoC is working. Is this a milestone on the road to more...

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...

Phishers spoof reliable cybersecurity training company to garner clicks

"It happens to the best of us." And, indeed, no adage is better suited to a phishing campaign that recently made headlines. Fraudsters used the brand, KnowBe4—a trusted cybersecurity company that offers security awareness training for organizations—to gain recipients’ trust, their Microsoft Outlo...

Is domain name abuse something companies should worry about?

Even though some organizations and companies may not realize it, their domain name is an important asset. Their web presence can even make or break companies. Therefor, "domain name abuse" is something that can ruin your reputation. Losing control There are several ways in which perpetrators can...

Report: Pandemic caused significant shift in buyer appetite in the dark web

Last year, credentials for PayPal, Facebook, and Airbnb were among the top goods on high demand in the dark web, aka the Internets underground market. But due to the COVID-19 outbreak, with most of the worldwide population sheltering, working, and studying indoors, many facets of life have made a...

RevenueWire to pay $6.7 million to settle FTC charges

What can you do as a scammer when no legitimate payment provider wants to process your payments anymore? Or, what if you are growing sick and tired of these same payment providers reimbursing disgruntled customers who claim that your products didn't fix computers, like—you know—you said they woul...

Cloud data protection: how to secure what you store in the cloud

The cloud has become the standard for data storage. Just a few years ago, individuals and businesses pondered whether or not they should move to the cloud. This is now a question of the past. Today, the question isn't whether to adopt cloud storage but rather how. Despite its rapid pace of...

New AgentTesla variant steals WiFi credentials

AgentTesla is a .Net-based infostealer that has the capability to steal data from different applications on victim machines, such as browsers, FTP clients, and file downloaders. The actor behind this malware is constantly maintaining it by adding new modules. One of the new modules that has been...

Criminals hack Tupperware website with credit card skimmer

Update 2: A spokesperson for Tupperware has given a public statement to Alex Scroxton, Security Editor at ComputerWeekly. You can read it here. Update: Following our blog post, we continued to monitor the Tupperware website. As of 03/25 at 1:45 PM PT, we noticed that the malicious PNG file had be...

The effects of climate change on cybersecurity

Outside the coronavirus pandemic and its related healthcare and economic fallout, climate change and cybersecurity are seen by many as the two most urgent problems facing our planet now and in the near future. They are two distinct and separate problems, to be sure. There are some areas, however,...

Adposhel adware takes over browser push notifications administration

Since late last year, our researchers have been monitoring new methods being deployed by cybercriminals to potentially abuse browser push notifications. Now, an adware family detected by Malwarebytes as Adware.Adposhel is doing just that, taking control of push notifications in Chrome at the...

A week in security (January 20 – 26)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we reported on a Ryuk ransomware attack on The Tampa Bay Times, a newspaper in Florida; unmasked an elaborate browser locking scheme behind the more advanced tech support operations that are currently active; and looked at the latest laws on regulating deepfakes...

A week in security (December 9 – 15)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we cautioned readers against purchasing potentially privacy-invasive, cyber-insecure smart doorbells, warned about a new credit card skimmer vulnerability embedded within hundreds of fraudulent web sites selling supposedly name-brand shoes, and looked at the newest...

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...

Of hoodies and headphones: a spotlight on risks surrounding audio output devices

More than a decade ago, cardiologists from the Beth Israel Medical Center in Boston presented their findings at the American Heart Association AHA Scientific Sessions 2008 about MP3 headphones causing disruptions with heart devices—such as the pacemaker and the implantable cardioverter...

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...

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...

A week in security (December 11 – December 17)

Last week we explained what fast flux is and how it's being abused, we showed you all kinds of Bitcoin-related scams, presented a video recording of a tech support scammer trying to sell free software, and pointed out some free software to keep an eye on your Internet traffic. We also informed yo...

“Free World Cup stream” sites are serving scams, not football

With the World Cup on, you'll find no shortage of websites promising every match, live, in HD, for free. They look convincing, usually with a video player, a "Live Stream Available" indicator, a row of server buttons, maybe a match schedule, and a "Watch Live" button. There's no signup, no paywal...

WhatsApp for Windows vulnerable to attacks. Update now!

In a security advisory, Meta has disclosed a vulnerability that allowed an attacker to run arbitrary code on a user’s system that existed in all WhatsApp versions before 2.2450.6. WhatsApp offers a desktop application for Windows and macOS, which users can synchronize with their mobile devices...

Disney “breached,” data dumped online

A group of cybercriminals going by the handle NullBulge claims to have downloaded the Slack channels used by Disney’s developers. “DisneySlackLeak Disney has had their entire dev slack dumped. 1.1TiB of files and chat messages. Anything we could get our hands on, we downloaded and packaged up. Wa...

Facebook spied on Snapchat users to get analytics about the competition

Social media giant Facebook snooped on Snapchat users network traffic, engaged in anticompetitive behavior and exploited user data through deceptive practices. Thats according to a court document filed March 23, 2024. The document mentions Facebook’s so-called In-App Action Panel IAAP program,...

Clorox counts the cost of cyberattack

Cleaning products maker Clorox has reported losses of $49 million in connection to a cyberattack it suffered in August of last year. On Monday, August 14, 2023, Clorox disclosed it had identified unauthorized activity on some of its IT systems. Despite a business continuity plan, the incident...

A week in security (December 18 – December 24)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Comcast’s Xfinity breached by Citrix Bleed; 36 million customer’s data accessed How does ThreatDown Vulnerability Assessment and Patch Management work? How Outlook notification sounds can lead to zero-click exploits Update Chrome now! Emergency update patches...

Apple to introduce new feature that makes life harder for iPhone thieves

Reportedly, Apple has plans to make it harder for iPhone thieves to steal your personal information even if they have your device’s passcode. A new feature called Stolen Device Protection is included in the beta version of iOS 17.3. The feature limits access to your private information in case...

CISA issues warning to US businesses: Beware of China's state-sponsored cyber actor

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA has an urgent message for US businesses: watch out for Volt Typhoon, a threat actor sponsored by the Peoples Republic of China PRC. The agency's joint Cybersecurity Advisory CSA published last week highlights a cluster of tactics,...

Is AI being used for virtual kidnapping scams?

You may have seen a worrying report of Artificial Intelligence AI being used in a virtual kidnapping scam. The AI was supposedly used to imitate the voice of an Arizona resident's daughter, who claimed to have been kidnapped. The daughter was safe and well elsewhere on a school trip. Unfortunatel...

Zero-day spells disaster for Bitcoin ATM

Bitcoin ATMs have experienced a severe bout of cash drain after a zero-day bug was exploited to steal a total of $1.5 million in digital currency. The ATMs, located in various convenience stores, function along the lines of regular banking ATMs except your dealings are all in the cryptocurrency...

TikTok "a loaded gun" says NSA

America's TikTok-addicted youth is playing with a "loaded gun" according to General Paul Nakasone, Director of the National Security Agency NSA. Speaking at a US Senate hearing on Wednesday, the general said "one third of Americans get their news from TikTok", adding "one sixth of American youth...

University suffers leaks, shutdowns at the hands of Vice Society

The Vice Society ransomware gang is back and making some unfortunate waves in the education sector. According to Bleeping Computer, the Society has held their ransomware laden hands up and admitted an attack on the University of Duisberg-Essen. Sadly this isnt the Universitys first encounter with...

New Twitter data dump is a cleaned up version of old Twitter dump

News of data dumps is often scary as the possibilities of identity theft, account takeovers, user de-anonymization, and other online data-driven threats rear their ugly heads. Reading about the latest reports of a new Twitter dump, however, is like opening up an already-healed wound, as the dump...

Update now! NetGear routers’ default configuration allows remote attacks

NetGear has made a hotfix available for its Nighthawk routers after researchers found a network misconfiguration in the firmware allowed unrestricted communication with the internet facing ports of the device listening through IPv6. No auto-update The hotfix is available for the model RAX30, also...

Android is slowly mastering memory management vulnerabilities

Recently we wrote about why the NSA wants you to shift to memory safe programming languages. The short version is: If you ever read our posts describing security vulnerabilities, you will see a lot of phrases like "buffer overflow", "failure to release memory", "use after free", "memory...

Ransomware protection with Malwarebytes EDR: Your FAQs, answered!

We get a few questions about ransomware protection and how our Endpoint Detection and Response software can protect you from ransomware. In this post, our security experts answer some of your most frequently asked questions about ransomware and how our EDR can help--lets get started. Q: When...

Tech support scammers caught by their own cameras

A Youtuber has hacked into the CCTV cameras of an office used by tech support scammers and reported them to the police. The video feed of what is going on in that office ends with the arrest of the scammers. CCTV The Youtuber, acting under the handle Scambaiter, turned his attention to Punjab in...

Okta admits 366 customers may have been impacted by LAPSUS$ breach

Through its usual means of communication, its Telegram channel, the LAPSUS$ group has posted screenshots of what appears to be superuser access to the Okta management console. As such, the group claims to have acquired "superuser/admin" access to Okta.com and gained access to Oktas customer data,...

How to share your Wi-Fi password safely

You may not have as many people visiting your home due to the pandemic, but restrictions are a hit-and-miss affair. Its possible your region has opened up a little, and youre seeing folks in your home for the first time in a long time. They may well be bringing new devices to your home, and you m...

New iPhone malware spies via camera when device appears off

When removing malware from an iOS device, it is said that users need to restart the device to clear the malware from memory. That is no longer the case. Security researchers from ZecOps have created a new proof-of-concept PoC iPhone Trojan capable of doing "fun" things. Not only can it fake a...

When renting a hitman online goes horribly wrong

You might think looking up an illegal act online, and then visiting a website claiming to be all about doing said act, would be a huge mistake. Nobody would do this, right? Right? Its too wild to contemplate. You can barely move online for warnings about tracking or tracing. Even your web browser...

Police take a piece out of a ransomware gang, but won’t say which one

One of the worlds ransomware groups appears to be a couple of members short today—and about two million dollars less rich—but nobody is sure which one. Police are staying tight-lipped about whos short-handed following the arrest of two individuals in Kyiv, Ukraine. The arrests are part of a joint...

Teaching cybersecurity skills to special needs children with Alana Robinson: Lock and Code S02E18

School is fully back in session for kids all across the world, and for many students, that means logging back online to learn, do homework, submit assignments, and maybe even continue some distance learning, depending on their schools pandemic precautions. But with more Internet activity comes...