Meta rolls out anti-scam tools across WhatsApp, Facebook, and Messenger

Meta has rolled out more anti-scam protections across WhatsApp, Facebook, and Messenger to fight sophisticated fraud tactics. The features will help stop celebrity impersonators and brand spoofers from defrauding its users, the company said. Meta is also targeting attackers who exploit legitimate...

How to see your Google Search history (and delete it)

Your Google Search history provides one of the most detailed windows into your private life, and I know this because when I looked at my own search history last year, I was overwhelmed by the information buried within. Across just 18 months, Google tracked the 8,079 searches I made and the 3,050...

Facebook ads spread fake Windows 11 downloads that steal passwords and crypto wallets

Attackers are running paid Facebook ads that look like official Microsoft promotions, then directing users to near-perfect clones of the Windows 11 download page. Click Download Now and instead of a Windows update, you get a malicious installer—one that silently steals saved passwords, browser...

Apple patches zero-day flaw that could let attackers take control of devices

Apple has released security updates for iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple Watches, Apple TVs, and Safari, fixing, in particular, a zero-day flaw that is actively exploited in targeted attacks. Exploiting this zero-day flaw would allow cybercriminals to run any code they want on the affected device,...

Flock cameras shared license plate data without permission

Mountain View, California, pulled the plug on its entire license plate reader camera network this week. It discovered that Flock Safety, which ran the system, had been sharing city data with hundreds of law enforcement agencies, including federal ones, without permission. Flock Safety runs an...

“Reprompt” attack lets attackers steal data from Microsoft Copilot

Researchers found a method to steal data which bypasses Microsoft Copilot's built-in safety mechanisms. The attack flow, called Reprompt , abuses how Microsoft Copilot handled URL parameters in order to hijack a user’s existing Copilot Personal session. Copilot is an AI assistant which connects t...

CISA warns of active attacks on HPE OneView and legacy PowerPoint

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA added both a newly discovered flaw and a much older one to its catalog of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities KEV. The KEV catalog gives Federal Civilian Executive Branch FCEB agencies a list of vulnerabilities that are known to be exploite...

December Patch Tuesday fixes three zero-days, including one that hijacks Windows devices

These updates from Microsoft fix serious security issues, including three that attackers are already exploiting to take control of Windows systems. In total, the security update resolves 57 Microsoft security vulnerabilities. Microsoft isn't releasing new features for Windows 10 anymore, so Windo...

A week in security (June 1 – June 7)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: What does Facebook know about me? Lock and Code S06E11 Victims risk AsyncRAT infection after being redirected to fake Booking.com sites Juice jacking warnings are back, with a new twist The North Face warns customers about potentially stolen data Scammers are...

Scammers are constantly changing the game, but so are we. Introducing Malwarebytes Scam Guard

Mobile scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated, leaving people vulnerable to cybercriminals. We recently reported on the ever-increasing number of scams that are created by AI-supported tools, with attackers crafting highly convincing phishing emails that target both individuals and...

A week in security (March 17 – March 23)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: What Google Chrome knows about you, with Carey Parker Lock and Code S06E06 Personal data revealed in released JFK files Semrush impersonation scam hits Google Ads Targeted spyware and why it’s a concern to us The "free money" trap: How scammers exploit financial...

43% of couples experience pressure to share logins and locations, Malwarebytes finds

All isn’t fair in love and romance today, as 43% of people in a committed relationship said they have felt pressured by their own partners to share logins, passcodes, and/or locations. A worrying 7% admitted that this type of pressure has included the threat of breaking up or the threat of physic...

Google’s Chrome changes make life harder for ad blockers

Despite protests, Google is rolling out changes in the Chrome browser that make it harder for ad blockers to do their job. Starting last Monday, June 3, 2024, Chrome Beta, Dev, and Canary channels will see the effects of the implementation of the new extension platform Manifest V3. The gradual...

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...

A week in security (April 15 – April 21)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Law enforcement reels in phishing-as-a-service whopper Mental health company Cerebral failed to protect sensitive personal data, must pay $7 million Cannabis investment scam JuicyFields ends in 9 arrests Should you share your location with your partner? Giant Tiger...

Jackson County hit by ransomware, declares state of emergency

On April 2, 2024, Jackson County tweeted that it had identified significant disruptions within its IT systems, "potentially attributable to a ransomware attack". Jackson County is one of 114 counties in Missouri, with a population of approximately 718,000 people, mostly in Kansas City. We have...

3 important lessons from a devastating ransomware attack

In October 2023, The British Library was attacked by the Rhysida ransomware gang in a devastating cyberattack. The library, a vast repository of over 170 million items, is still deep in the recovery process, but recently released an eighteen page cyber incident review describing the attack, its...

A week in security (March 11 – March 17)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Ransomware’s appetite for US healthcare sees known attacks double in a year Webinar recap: 6 critical cyberthreats in 2024 and how to counter them TikTok faces ban in US unless it parts ways with Chinese owner ByteDance Malwarebytes Premium blocks 100% of malware...

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...

Facebook bug could have allowed attacker to take over accounts

A vulnerability in Facebook could have allowed an attacker to take over a Facebook account without the victim needing to click on anything at all. The bug was found by a bounty hunter from Nepal called Samip Aryal and has now been fixed by Facebook. In his search for an account takeover...

GoldPickaxe Trojan steals your face!

Well, the GoldPickaxe Trojan does not literally steal your face, but it does steal an image of your face in order to be able to identify as you. Researchers have found a family of Trojans, attributed to a financially motivated Chinese group, which come in versions for iOS and Android...

If only you had to worry about malware, with Jason Haddix: Lock and Code S05E04

Today on the Lock and Code podcast… If your IT and security teams think malware is bad, wait until they learn about everything else. In 2024, the modern cyberattack is a segmented, prolonged, and professional effort, in which specialists create strictly financial alliances to plant malware on...

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,...

Fidelity National Financial acknowledges data breach affecting 1.3 million customers

In November 2023, real estate services company Fidelity National Financial FNF got its systems knocked offline for a week after a cyberincident. As is often the case these days, it turns out that the cyberincident was very likely a ransomware attack that included a data breach. Ransomware operato...

A week in security (January 1 – January 7)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Police investigate sexual assault on an avatar How AI hallucinations are making bug hunting harder Explained: SMTP smuggling Facebook introduces another way to track you – Link History 23andMe blames "negligent" breach victims, says it’s their own fault Microsoft...

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"...

A week in security (December 4 – December 10)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Meta’s Purple Llama wants to test safety risks in AI models US government is snooping on people via phone push notifications, says senator Android phones can be taken over remotely – update when you can How IT teams can conduct a vulnerability assessment for...

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...

$19 Stanley cup deal is a Black Friday scam

Scammers never miss an opportunity to make a quick buck, and love to piggy back on the latest trends. So what better way to kick off the scamming season than by offering Black Friday sales on one of the most popular products around: a Stanley cup. We found an ad on Facebook offering a Stanley...

Atomic Stealer distributed to Mac users via fake browser updates

Atomic Stealer, also known as AMOS, is a popular stealer for Mac OS. Back in September, we described how malicious ads were tricking victims into downloading this piece of malware under the disguise of a popular application. In an interesting new development, AMOS is now being delivered to Mac...

AI sneak attacks, location spying, and definitely not malware, or, what one teenager fears online: Lock and Code S04E21

This week on the Lock and Code podcast... What are you most worried about online? And what are you doing to stay safe? Depending on who you are, those could be very different answers, but for teenagers and members of Generation Z, the internet isn't so scary because of traditional threats like...

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...

A history of ransomware: How did it get this far?

Today's ransomware is the scourge of many organizations. But where did it start? If we define ransomware as malware that encrypts files to extort the owner of the system, then the first malware that could be classified as ransomware is the 1989 AIDS Trojan. However, while it encrypted filenames a...

YouTube makes sweeping changes to tackle spam on Shorts videos

YouTube is rolling out unclickable links. Video portals like YouTube have had to deal with spam comments and bogus links for many years. With new additions to a platform come new places for scammers to go about their business. YouTube is now cracking down on links posted to the comments section o...

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...

Public companies must now disclose breaches within 4 days

Public organisations in the US impacted by a cyberattack will now have to disclose it within four days…with some caveats attached. On Wednesday, new rules were approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission SEC. These rules mean that publicly traded companies will need to reveal said attac...

"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...

9 basic security tips for seniors

Before we get into the tips: a caveat. We know many seniors who are digitally more up to date than people 20 years younger, but for those who aren't, this guide is for you. If youre offended by the word seniors in the title, feel free to replace it with "computer illiterate people." And keep in...

How to keep your ChatGPT conversations out of its training data

Last week, OpenAI announced it had given ChatGPT users the option to turn off their chat history. ChatGPT is a "generative AI", a machine learning algorithm that can understand language and generate written responses. Users can interact with it by asking questions, and the conversations users hav...

Is it OK to train an AI on your images, without permission?

Website owners are once again at war with tools designed to scrape content from their sites. An AI scraper called img2dataset is scouring the Internet for pictures that can be used to train image-generating AI tools. These generators are increasingly popular text-to-image services, where you ente...

"BingBang" flaw enabled altering of Bing search results, account takeover

Researchers from Wiz have discovered a way to allow for search engine manipulation and account takeover. The research in question focuses on several Microsoft applications, with everything stemming from a new type of attack aimed at Azure Active Directory. Azure Active Directory is a single sign-...

A week in security (February 13 - 19)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: What is AI good at and what the heck is it, actually, with Josh Saxe: Lock and Code S04E04 Malwarebytes recognized as endpoint security leader by G2 CISA issues alert with South Korean government about DPRK's ransomware antics Jailbreaking ChatGPT and other large...

Riot Games refuses to pay ransom to avoid League of Legends leak

After confirming threat actors were able to steal some of its code, Riot Games has also revealed that it received a ransom email from its attacker. The attackers demanding $10 million to stop them leaking source code from League of Legend's and other games. Riot's reply? Today, we received a rans...

Credit card fraud group member could get up to 30 years in jail

Card fraud, a staple diet of scammers online, is currently featuring heavily on the US Department of Justice portal. The reason? A story which has rumbled on for a few years finally seems to be pulling into its final destination, as a man admits his role in a slice of fraud which impacted thousan...

Google sponsored ads lead to rogue imitation sites

Theres a big push in rogue advert land at the moment, with multiple forms of bogus websites being used as bait to rob people of their logins and funds. This story first came to light a few days ago, with news of a well known cryptocurrency fan "NFT God" being caught out by a bogus video recording...

EDR vs MDR vs XDR – What’s the Difference?

Cyberattacks are rapidly evolving, leaving businesses and their IT security teams to handle immense workloads. Keeping up with todays cyberthreats not only involves staying up to date in an ever-changing threat landscape, it also involves managing complex security infrastructure and technologies...

Introducing Patch Management for OneView

We're thrilled to announce our Patch Management module for OneView, which is paired alongside our Vulnerability Assessment module to help you uncover vulnerabilities, respond to threats, and keep your customers productive and safe. Vulnerability identification and system patching are critical to...

Reddit users crowdsourcing explicit images and identities

The BBC is warned of a large photograph trading ring which operated on popular group forum site Reddit. These warnings are in relation to stolen nude photographs and other content shared without permission. In this case, even non-explicit photos are being posted alongside frequently degrading and...

A week in security (July 25 – July 31)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Update Google Chrome now! New version includes 11 important security patches Lightning Framework, modular Linux malware Malware spent months hoovering up credit card details from 300 US restaurants Lock down your Neopets account: Data breach being investigated Demo...