You get a passkey, you get a passkey, everyone should get a passkey

Microsoft is rolling out passkey support for all consumer accounts. Passkeys are a very secure replacement for passwords that cant be cracked, guessed or phished, and let you log in easily, without having to type a password every time. After enabling them in Windows 11 last year, Microsoft accoun...

Picking fights and gaining rights, with Justin Brookman: Lock and Code S05E09

This week on the Lock and Code podcast… Our Lock and Code host, David Ruiz, has a bit of an apology to make: “Sorry for all the depressing episodes.” When the Lock and Code podcast explored online harassment and abuse this year, our guest provided several guidelines and tips for individuals to lo...

Airbnb scam sends you to a fake Tripadvisor site, takes your money

One of my co-workers who works on Malwarebytes’ web research team just witnessed a real life example of how useful his work is in protecting people against scammers. Stefan decided to visit Amsterdam with his girlfriend, and found a very nice and luxurious apartment in Amsterdam on Airbnb. In the...

A true tale of virtual kidnapping: Lock and Code S05E02

This week on the Lock and Code podcast… On Thursday, December 28, at 8:30 pm in the Utah town of Riverdale, the city police began investigating what they believed was a kidnapping. 17-year-old foreign exchange student Kai Zhuang was missing, and according to Riverdale Police Chief Casey Warren,...

Malvertisers zoom in on cryptocurrencies and initial access

During the past month, we have observed an increase in the number of malicious ads on Google searches for "Zoom", the popular piece of video conferencing software. Threat actors have been alternating between different keywords for software downloads such as "Advanced IP Scanner" or "WinSCP"...

Social media giants to testify over failing to protect kids

US senators have urgently invited the CEOs of five of the major social media giants to testify about their failure to protect children online. The Senate Judiciary Committee said it will hear from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, X formerly Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, Snap CEO...

How to stop fake System notifications on macOS

Scammers are abusing an Apple feature that allows websites to create push notifications that look like theyre coming from macOS, or apps. The notifications try to scare users into clicking a link with fake virus alerts or messages saying their account has been hacked. Years ago we warned our...

Judge rules it’s fine for car makers to intercept your text messages

A federal judge has refused to bring back a class action lawsuit that alleged four car manufacturers had violated Washington state’s privacy laws by using vehicles’ on-board infotainment systems to record customers’ text messages and mobile phone call logs. The judge ruled that the practice doesn...

Defeating Little Brother requires a new outlook on privacy: Lock and Code S04E23

This week on the Lock and Code podcast… A worrying trend is cropping up amongst Americans, particularly within Generation Z—theyre spying on each other more. Whether reading someones DMs, rifling through a partners text messages, or even rummaging through the bags and belongings of someone else,...

Patch…later? Safari iLeakage bug not fixed

Apple has released updates for its phones, Macs, iPads, watches, and TV streaming devices, fixing a bunch of security problems. But amid all that activity, one fix is notably absent—there is nothing to address the vulnerability dubbed iLeakage. iLeakage is a side-channel attack that can force the...

Explained: Quishing

Quishing is phishing using QR Quick Response codes. QR codes are basically two-dimensional barcodes that hold encoded data, and they can be used to work as a link. Point your phone's camera at a QR code and it will ask you if you want to visit the link. The use of QR codes in malicious campaigns ...

A week in security (September 18 - September 24)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Emergency update! Apple patches three zero-days T-Mobile spills billing information to other customers Involved in a data breach? Heres what you need to know Steer clear of cryptocurrency recovery phrase scams DoppelPaymer ransomware group suspects identified The...

iPhone 15 launch: Wonderlust scammers rear their heads

Yesterday, Apple launched its latest iPhone and Watch models at its massive Wonderlust event. As with many high profile launches like this, it attracted not just a mountain of press, but a whole load of scammers too. One site uses the Apple brand to host a cryptocurrency scam. The hook is a...

Mac users targeted in new malvertising campaign delivering Atomic Stealer

Summary Malicious ads for Google searches are targeting Mac users Phishing sites trick victims into downloading what they believe is the app they want The malware is bundled in an ad-hoc signed app so it cannot be revoked by Apple The payload is a new version of the recent Atomic Stealer for OSX...

Chrome will soon start removing extensions that may be unsafe

Retroactive removals are finally on the way for malicious Chrome browser extensions. Beginning with Chrome 117, Chrome will "proactively highlight to users when an extension they have installed is no longer in the Chrome web store". Previously, if you installed an extension which was subsequently...

Film companies lose battle to unmask Reddit users

An interesting case marking the limits of what data big business can expect to dig up has concluded its day or to be more accurate, many days in court. Ars Technica reports that film companies have lost their battle to make social site Reddit identify anonymous users discussing piracy. No fewer...

Global ransomware attacks at an all-time high, shows latest 2023 State of Ransomware report

Ransomware attacks have shown no signs of slowing down in 2023. A new report from the Malwarebytes Threat Intelligence team shows 1,900 total ransomware attacks within just four countries--the US, Germany, France, and the UK--in one year. The findings, compiled together in the 2023 State of...

"Free" Evil Dead Rise movie scam lurks in Amazon listings

Scammers are using a novel technique with Amazon listings to trick fans of Evil Dead into downloads they may not want, and expensive rolling payments they have no interest in. Evil Dead Rise, the breakout horror film of 2023, started with big cinema numbers and has moved on to a victory lap in...

Leaked Babuk ransomware builder code lives on as RA Group

The bones of long gone ransomware group Babuk continue to rattle in the breeze, in the form of reused code. Researchers from Cisco Talos have named this new team the "RA Group", a ransomware collective which may have only been up and running since last month. Babuk famously threatened to leak law...

Newspaper evades Russian censors, hides news in Counter-Strike map

A Finnish newspaper is making clever use of popular video game titles to promote press freedom and bypass Russian media restrictions regarding the invasion of Ukraine. The plan: Hide a secret room underneath a map, which players can stumble upon and see facts, figures, and photographs of whats be...

AI-powered content farms start clogging search results with ad-stuffed spam

A recent study by NewsGuard, trackers of online misinformation, makes some alarming discoveries about the role of artificial intelligence AI in content farm generation. If youve previously held your nose at the content mill grind, its probably going to become a lot more unpleasant. Content farms...

Fileless attacks: How attackers evade traditional AV and how to stop them

When you hear about malware, theres a good chance you think of sketchy executables or files with extensions like .DOCX or .PDF that, once opened, execute malicious code. These are examples of file-based attacks--and while they can be bad, theyre nothing compared to their fileless cousins. As the...

KFC, Pizza Hut owner employee data stolen in ransomware attack

Upon learning that attackers accessed and siphoned data in January, Yum! Brands, the fast-food chain operator behind The Habit Burger Grill, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, has begun sending Notice of Security Breach letters to employees whose data were potentially affected. "We are writing to...

A whirlwind adventure: Malwarebytes' 15-year journey in business cybersecurity

As we raise a glass to toast Malwarebytes' 15th anniversary of boldly venturing into the realm of business cybersecurity, we're feeling nostalgic. It's time to buckle up and embark on a whimsical journey through the twists and turns of Malwarebytes' evolution. From modest beginnings to becoming a...

ChatGPT happy to write ransomware, just really bad at it

This morning I decided to write some ransomware. I've never done it before, and I can't code in C, the language ransomware is mostly commonly written in, but I have a reasonably good idea of what ransomware does. Previously, this lack of technical skills would have served as something of a barrie...

Ryuk ransomware laundering leads to guilty plea

Ryuk, a mainstay of the ransomware scene for some years until it transformed into Conti and then split off into other groups after that, is back in the news again... though not in the way you might have imagined. Its not a compromise, or a surprise comeback. What we have is a guilty plea, as a...

Up to 10 million people potentially impacted by JD Sports breach

Were at the start of February, and news of breaches keeps on coming. In this case, though, while the news that 10 million JD Sports customers may have been impacted by a cyber attack has only just arrived, the data potentially accessed in that attack is already several years old. The danger zone ...

A private moment, caught by a Roomba, ended up on Facebook. Eileen Guo explains how: Lock and Code S04E03

In 2020, a photo of a woman sitting on a toilet--her shorts pulled half-way down her thighs--was shared on Facebook, and it was shared by someone whose job it was to look at that photo and, by labeling the objects in it, help train an artificial intelligence system for a vacuum. Bizarre? Yes...

Why does technology no longer excite us? Lock and Code S04E01

When did technology last excite you? If Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, is to be believed, your own excitement ended, simply had to end, after turning 35 years old. Decades ago, at first writing privately and later having those private writings published after his...

Maintenance Mode aims to keep phone data private during repairs

One of the biggest data related headaches youll face with a mobile device is what do to in the event of a repair. When you have to send your phone in for a fix, what happens to your data? In many cases, the repair technicians will simply scrub the phone by default unless you ask them not to. In...

Android and iOS leak some data outside VPNs

Virtual Private Networks VPNs on Android and iOS are in the news. Its been discovered that in certain circumstances, some of your traffic is leaked so it ends up outside of the safety cordon created by the VPN. Mullvad, the discoverers of this Android "feature" say that it has the potential to...

Calling in the ransomware negotiator, with Kurtis Minder: Lock and Code S03E20

Ransomware can send any company into crisis. Immediately following an attack, the notoriously disruptive malware can spread across networks and machines, locking up important files and rendering vital data almost useless for all employees. As we learned in a previous episode of Lock and Code, a...

Malvertising on Microsoft Edge's News Feed pushes tech support scams

While Google Chrome still dominates as the top browser, Microsoft Edge, which is based on the Chromium source code, is gradually gaining more users. Perhaps more importantly, it is the default browser on the Microsoft Windows platform and as such some segments of its user base are of particular...

Twitter security under scrutiny after former executive turns whistleblower

A former Twitter executive has acted as a whistleblower and alleged some serious problems. Provided these accusations are true, the disclosure shows a side of Twitter that poses a threat to its own users' personal information, to company shareholders, to national security, and to democracy...

Twitter data breach affects 5.4M users

Twitter has confirmed that it was breached last month via a now-patched 0-day vulnerability in Twitters systems, allowing an attacker to link email addresses and phone numbers to user accounts. This enabled the attacker to compile a list of 5.4 million Twitter user account profiles. "We want to l...

A week in security (July 4 – July 10)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: My Body, My Data Act would lock down reproductive and sexual health data "Free UK visa" offers on WhatsApp are fakes HackerOne insider fired for trying to claim other people’s bounties Update now! Chrome patches ANOTHER zero-day vulnerability Cloud-based malware is...

Cybersecurity agencies: You don’t have to delete PowerShell to secure it

Microsofts PowerShell is a useful, flexible tool that is as popular with criminals as it is with admins. Cybercrooks like it becasue PowerShell is powerful, available almost everywhere, and doesnt look out of place running on a company network. In most places it isnt practical to block PowerShell...

Interpol’s First Light operation smashes crime on a global scale

A large-scale Interpol operation has resulted in arrested and ill-gotten gains seizures galore. Operation First Light took place between March and May of this year. It involved 76 countries taking social engineers and telecommunications fraudsters to task, with multiple wins for those involved...

Don’t panic! “Unpatchable” Mac vulnerability discovered

Researchers at MITs Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Lab CSAIL found an attack surface in a hardware-level security mechanism utilized in Apple M1 chips. The flaw is unpatchable, but attackers would need to chain it with other vulnerabilities to make use of the attack method. The hardwa...

A week in security (May 16 – 22)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Fake reCAPTCHA forms dupe users via compromised WordPress sites How COVID-19 fuelled a surge in malware Why MRG-Effitas matters to SMBs “Look what I found here” phish targets Facebook users AirTag stalking: What is it, and how can I avoid it? Long lost @ symbol get...

“Chemical attack” email warnings deliver Jester Stealer malware

Jester Stealer, a malicious file capable of large amounts of data theft, is on the prowl again. The Ukrainian Computer Emergency Response Team CERT-UA has warned of a large distribution campaign abusing a "chemical attack" theme. Receiving an email like this in the invasion-affected regions of...

FBI warns food and agriculture to brace for seasonal ransomware attacks

The Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI recently released a Private Industry Notification warning agriculture cooperatives also known as "farmers co-ops" of the looming danger of well-timed ransomware attacks. The agency warns that during the critical planting and harvesting seasons, attacks coul...

How to password protect a folder

There are times when you would like a folder to be accessible by you alone. Financial information, personal documents, or work related files on your personal system sometimes need to be hidden from prying eyes. One of the ways to do this is to password protect the folder. Windows For the Windows...

CafePress faces $500,000 fine for data breach cover up

The US Federal Trade Commission FTC has announced that it took action against online customized merchandise platform CafePress over allegations that it failed to secure consumers’ sensitive personal data and covered up a major breach. CafePress is a popular online custom T-shirt and merchandise...

Duo of Android dropper and payload target certain countries and app users

After making its first in-the-wild appearance in March 2021, Vultur—an information-stealing RAT that runs on Android—is back. And its dropper is equally nasty. Vultur Romanian for "vulture" is known to target banks, cryptocurrency wallets, social media Facebook, TikTok, and messaging services...

Segway store compromised with Magecart skimmer

In the early 2000s, the Segway company released a personal transporter that would become iconic. The Segway Human Transporter was quickly sold on Amazon and featured in a number of movies. Since 2015, Segway has been a subsidiary of Chinese-based company Ninebot and sells electric scooters under...

Software engineer hacked webcams to spy on girls—Here’s how to protect yourself

A 32 year-old software engineer has been sentenced to two years and two months in prison for remotely accessing chat logs, photos, videos, and webcams of his female victims. For nine years, between 2010 to 2019, Robert Davies used malware to infiltrate his targets devices and access their data...

Everything you always wanted to know about NFTs (but were too afraid to ask): Lock and Code S02E24

In August, the NFT for a cartoon rock sold for $1.3 million, and ever since then, much of the world has been asking: What the heck is going on? NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, have skyrocketed in popularity this year, with the NFTs for several artworks selling for more than $2 million each; the mos...

Update now! Mozilla fixes security vulnerabilities in Firefox 94

In a security advisory, Mozillas announced that several security issues in its Firefox browser have been fixed. Several of these vulnerabilities were listed as having a high impact. Publicly disclosed computer security flaws are listed in the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures CVE database. Its...

ExpressVPN made a choice, and so did I: Lock and Code S02E19

On September 14, the US Department of Justice announced that it had resolved an earlier investigation into an international cyber hacking campaign coming from the United Arab Emirates that has reportedly impacted hundreds of journalists, activists, and human rights defenders in Yemen, Iran, Turke...