Chris Krebs, director of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, fired by President

On Tuesday evening, President Donald Trump fired Chris Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA, just days after CISA called the recent presidential election the “most secure in American history.” In a tweet posted the same day, the President justified his...

Lock and Code S1Ep17: Journalism’s role in cybersecurity with Alfred Ng and Seth Rosenblatt

Most everything about cybersecurity—the threats, the vulnerabilities, the breaches and the blunders—doesnt happen in a vacuum. And the public doesn’t learn about those things because threat actors advertise their exploits, or because companies trumpet their lackluster data security practices. No,...

Chaos in a cup: When ransomware creeps into your smart coffee maker

When the fledgling concept of the Internet of Things IoT was beginning to excite the world almost a decade ago, perhaps no coffee lover at that time wouldve imagined including the coffee machine in the roster of internet-connected devices—even in jest. True, the simple, utilitarian coffee machine...

How exposed are you to cybercrime?

No country, business, or person is immune to cybercrime, and as the Internets influence on our daily lives grows exponentially, so will the level of malicious activity throughout the world. An ever-changing cyber landscape will always carry with it new threats, but are they the same for everyone?...

Web skimmer hides within EXIF metadata, exfiltrates credit cards via image files

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Threat actors must have remembered that as they devised yet another way to hide their credit card skimmer in order to evade detection. When we first investigated this campaign, we thought it may be another one of those favicon tricks, which we had...

Facial recognition: tech giants take a step back

Last week, a few major tech companies informed the public that they will not provide facial recognition software to law enforcement. These companies are concerned about the way in which their technology might be used. What happens when software that threatens our privacy falls into the hands of...

Multi-stage APT attack drops Cobalt Strike using Malleable C2 feature

This blog post was authored by Hossein Jazi and Jérôme Segura On June 10, we found a malicious Word document disguised as a resume that uses template injection to drop a .Net Loader. This is the first part of a multi-stage attack that we believe is associated to an APT attack. In the last stage,...

Consumerization: a better way to answer cybersecurity challenges

A version of this article originally appeared in Forbes on February 12, 2020. Consumerization: The specific impact that consumer-originated technologies can have on enterprises. Gartner More and more, enterprises are coming to understand that they need to adopt the agile processes and product...

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...

A week in security (April 1 – 7)

Last week, Malwarebytes Labs took readers on a brief tour of some of the world's most notable data privacy laws, explored how gamers can protect themselves against cyberthreats, and offered thoughts about the reports that a 23-year-old Chinese woman gained access to President Donald Trump’s...

Bank robbers 2.0: digital thievery and stolen cryptocoins

Imagine running down the street and away from law enforcement with 2,000 pounds of gold bars. Or 1,450 pounds in $100 bills. With both of these physical currencies amounting to roughly US$64 million, you'd be making quite a steal…if you could get away with it. That's exactly what the next...

Yet more mobile adware found in Google Play

Finding an adware variant that made its way past the Google Play store is out of the ordinary. So when two adware variants slip by in one week, we take notice. Last week, we added two new Ad SDKs to our growing list of adware detections—Adware.Solid and Adware.Cootek. Both Ad SDKs were found in a...

Deloitte breached by hackers for months

On September 25, 2017, Deloitte announced that they detected a breach of the firm’s global email server via a poorly secured admin email in March of this year. Further, the attackers most likely had control of the server since November of 2016. Deloitte’s initial statement indicated that only six...

Crowdsourced fraud and kickstarted scams

Crowdsourced funding opportunities via Kickstarter, Patreon, and GoFundMe have removed many structural roadblocks for people to access capital quickly and conveniently. But they’ve also lowered the barrier to entry for many very old scams. So how do you tell the difference between a great cause o...

Fake Microsoft security scans trick victims into uninstalling their antivirus

A wave of websites is offering to check whether your antivirus is working. They call themselves SysScan , carry Microsoft branding, and all reach the same conclusion: Your computer has serious problems, and the cause is the antivirus software you installed. Windows, they claim, no longer supports...

Online backlash ends in Google rolling back Google Earth AI tool after a day

Google has walked back an AI feature that allowed users to generate artificial images inside Google Earth, after a predictable flurry of deepfakes. Google switched on the AI image generation feature inside Google Earth's web version on July 30. It was available to everyone. The system used Google...

The Odyssey piracy scams appear within hours of the movie’s release

Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey is one of the biggest movie releases of the year and scammers wasted no time taking advantage of it. Within hours of the film's release, we found scams targeting people looking for pirated copies. Some used fake browser warnings on piracy sites, while others...

How the Reddit and Discord false report scam steals accounts

A stranger messages you on Reddit. They say someone reported them, and the reporting account looks a lot like yours. Was it you? It wasn't. That's not really the point of the message. This version relies entirely on social engineering. There is no malware and no malicious links. It starts with a...

Google Chrome’s silent 4GB AI download problem [updated]

Google Chrome has been quietly downloading a 4GB AI model onto users' devices without asking first. Security researcher Alexander Hanff, aka ThatPrivacyGuy, reports that Chrome has been silently installing Gemini Nano, Google's on-device AI model, as a file called weights.bin stored in the...

“Urgent reminder” tax scam wants to phish your Microsoft credentials

Tax season is in full force, and with the filing deadline fast approaching on April 15, scammers are happy to use that sense of urgency to coax us into handing them our cash. In one example, one of our customers recently received an email with an attachment titled "Urgent reminder.” The attachmen...

A week in security (November 4 – November 10)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Hello again, FakeBat: popular loader returns after months-long hiatus TikTok ordered to close Canada offices following "national security review" Air fryers are the latest surveillance threat you didn’t consider Malwarebytes acquires AzireVPN to fuel additional VPN...

Google patches actively exploited zero-day in Chrome. Update now!

Google has released an update for its Chrome browser which includes a patch for a vulnerability that Google says is already being exploited, known as a zero-day vulnerability. Google has fixed that zero-day with the release of versions 128.0.6613.84/.85 for Windows/macOS and 128.0.6613.84 for Lin...

Google Manifest V3 and Malwarebytes Browser Guard

We wanted to update you on some changes that Google’s making, and what we’re doing in Browser Guard to keep you protected. Some of our customers have recently reported seeing messages that say Browser Guard may soon no longer be supported in their browser. Luckily, theres no need for you to worry...

Data leak site BreachForums is back, boasting Live Nation/Ticketmaster user data. But is it a trap?

Notorious data leak site BreachForums appears to be back online after it was seized by law enforcement a few weeks ago. At least one of BreachForums domains and its dark web site are live again. However, questions have been raised over whether it is a genuine attempt to revive the forums once aga...

Update Chrome now! Google patches possible drive-by vulnerability

Google has released an update to Chrome which includes seven security fixes. Version 123.0.6312.86/.87 of Chrome for Windows and Mac and 123.0.6312.86 for Linux will roll out over the coming days/weeks. The easiest way to update Chrome is to allow it to update automatically, which basically uses...

Law enforcement trolls LockBit, reveals massive takedown

In an act of exquisite trolling, the UKs National Crime Agency NCA has announced further details about its disruption of the LockBit ransomware group by using the groups own dark web website. The LockBit dark web site has a new look Since the demise of Conti in 2022, LockBit has been unchallenged...

Raccoon Infostealer operator extradited to the United States

A Ukrainian national, Mark Sokolovsky, has been indicted for crimes related to fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft and extradited to the United States from the Netherlands, the US Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Texas has announced. In March 2022, around the same ti...

Apple warns of “privacy and security threats” after EU requires it to allow sideloading

Despite several warnings about the risks, Apple will allow European iPhone owners to install apps obtained from outside the official App store sideloading. These drastic changes are brought about to comply with the European Union’s EU Digital Markets Act DMA. The Digital Markets Act DMA establish...

Investment fraud a serious money maker for criminals

Europols’s spotlight report ‘Online fraud schemes: a web of deceit’, looks into online fraud schemes—a major crime threat in the EU and beyond—and one of the reports primary themes is investment fraud. But first I want to share some more remarkable conclusions from the report: Charity scams that...

US pharmacy Rite Aid banned from operating facial recognition systems

Pharmacy chain Rite Aid has been denied the right to run facial recognition systems in its stores for five years, by a Federal Trade Commission FTC ruling. The regulator found so many flaws in the retailers surveillance program that it concluded Rite Aid had failed to implement reasonable...

Signal is testing usernames so you don’t have to share your phone number

Messaging service Signal is testing support for usernames as a replacement for phone numbers to serve as user identities. Signal provides encrypted instant messaging and is popular among people that value their privacy. Compared to more popular services like WhatsApp, Signal offers more layers of...

Introducing Advanced Device Control: Shielding businesses from USB threats

With experts noting a troubling threefold surge in USB drive malware incidents in early 2023, Device Control has just leveled up with a key addition: the Advanced Auto Scanning & Block Until Scan feature. Heres the breakdown: When a USB device is connected, ThreatDown now doesnt just control...

Should you allow your browser to remember your passwords?

At Malwarebytes weve been telling people for years not to reuse passwords, and that a password manager is a secure way of remembering all the passwords you need for your online accounts. But we also know that a password manager can be overwhelming, especially when youre just getting started. Once...

Malwarebytes named leader across six endpoint security categories, marking its ease of use, in G2 Fall 2023 results

The peer-to-peer review source G2 has released their Fall 2023 reports, ranking Malwarebytes as a leader across a number of endpoint protection categories. In the most recent results, Malwarebytes is the only vendor to earn the "Easiest to Use" and "Easiest Admin" recognition for its Endpoint...

Ransomware review: September 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...

Docker Hub images found to expose secrets and private keys

Numerous Docker images shared on Docker Hub are exposing sensitive data, according to a study conducted by researchers at the German university RWTH Aachen. Needless to say, this poses a significant security risk. In traditional software development, programmers code an application in one computi...

Criminals target businesses with malicious extension for Meta's Ads Manager and accidentally leak stolen accounts

Like all social media platforms, Facebook constantly has to deal with fake accounts, scams and malware. We have written about scams targeting consumers that redirect to fake Microsoft alert pages, but there are also threats targeting businesses that use Facebook to promote their products and...

Rheinmetall attacked by BlackBasta ransomware

On Friday May 19, 2023, the German arms producer Rheinmetall acknowledged a cyber-incident at one of its subsidiaries in the private sector. The BlackBasta ransomware group has already claimed responsibility for the attack through its leak-site. Entry for Rheinmetall on BlackBasta leak site...

APT attacks: Exploring Advanced Persistent Threats and their evasive techniques

Cyber criminals come in all shapes and sizes. On one end of the spectrum, theres the script kiddie or inexperienced ransomware gang looking to make a quick buck. On the other end are state-sponsored groups using far more sophisticated tactics--often with long-term, strategic goals in mind. Advanc...

A week in security (May 1 - 7)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: How to protect your small business from social engineering Microsoft: You're already using the last version of Windows 10 Is it OK to train an AI on your images, without permission? Upcoming webinar: Is EDR or MDR better for your business? Google Authenticator WILL...

GitHub accidentally exposes RSA SSH key

Late last week, GitHub tweeted that it had replaced its RSA SSH "out of an abundance of caution," after accidentally exposing the key on a publicly accessible repository. How the accidental exposure managed to happen is unknown, but it means that anyone that happened to notice it and was able to...

DeepStreamer: Illegal movie streaming platforms hide lucrative ad fraud operation

This investigation was a joint effort between Malwarebytes Threat Intelligence's Jerome Segura, DeepSee's Rocky Moss and Antonio Torres. Key findings Over a dozen unique domains were found selling ad inventory through Google Ad Manager, even though the pages were embedded invisibly under the...

Ransomware led to multiple DISH Network outages

Satellite broadcast organisation DISH experienced a major system issue over the past week which affected multiple services. Websites and channels were unavailable, logins were non-functional, and some folks couldnt even pay their bills as a result of the downtime. There was a suspicion that...

TrickBot gang members sanctioned after pandemic ransomware attacks

In a collaborative partnership, officials in the United States and the United Kingdom unmasked and imposed financial sanctions against seven members of the notorious Russian gang TrickBot alias "TrickLoader", a mainstream banking Trojan turned malware-as-a-service MaaS platform for other criminal...

APT28 attack uses old PowerPoint trick to download malware

Researchers at Cluster25 have published research about exploit code that's triggered when a user moves their mouse over a link in a booby-trapped PowerPoint presentation. The code starts a PowerShell script that downloads and executes a dropper for Graphite malware. Graphite is named after...

A week in security (August 22 - August 28)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Cryptojackers growing in numbers and sophistication CISA wants you to patch these actively exploited vulnerabilities before September 8 Reddit users crowdsourcing explicit images and identities Criminals socially engineer their way to bank details with fake arrest...

Rogue cryptocurrency billboards go phishing for wallets

Billboards and digital real world advertising has raised many questions of privacy and anonymity in recent years. Until now, the primary concern has been mostly legal, yet potentially objectionable geolocation and user profiling. Bluetooth beacons work in tandem with geofenced billboards to send...

Prometheus ransomware’s flaws inspired researchers to try to build a near-universal decryption tool

This blog is part of our live coverage from RSA Conference 2022: Prometheus—a ransomware build based on Thanos that locked up victims’ computers in the summer of 2021—included a major “vulnerability” that led security researchers at IBM to try and build a one-size-fits-all ransomware decryptor th...

3 ways DNS filtering can save SMBs from cyberattacks

If you’re an SMB, chances are that you’re already well-aware of the fact that cyber threats can wreak havoc on your business. Everything from rootkits to ransomware threaten not just financial losses, but also significant network downtime and reputational damage as well. Couple this with the fact...

Canon printer owners: Be careful of bogus driver download sites

Think of all the really common, very mundane things you search for of a tech nature. Drivers. Scanners. Printers. A broken photocopier. USB sticks not recognised. Activating a streaming service which refuses to play ball. Some of the above have many issues already with bogus search engine results...