‘Fix It’ social-engineering scheme impersonates several brands

More and more, threat actors are leveraging the browser to deliver malware in ways that can evade detection from antivirus programs. Social engineering is a core part of these schemes and the tricks we see are sometimes very clever. Case in point, there has been an increase in attacks that involv...

Update now! Apple releases new security patches for vulnerabilities in iPhones, Macs, and more

Apple has released security patches for most of its operating systems, including iOS, Mac, iPadOS, Safari, and visionOS. To check if you’re using the latest software version, go to Settings or System Settings General Software Update. It’s also worth turning on Automatic Updates if you haven’t...

Malwarebytes Premium Security stops 100% of malware during AV Lab test

Malwarebytes Premium Security has maintained its long-running, perfect record in protecting users against online threats by blocking 100% of the malware samples deployed in the AV Lab Cybersecurity Foundation’s “Advanced In-The-Wild Malware Test.” For its performance in the May 2024 evaluation,...

[updated] Deleted iPhone photos show up again after iOS update

iPhone owners are reporting that photos theyd deleted are now back on their phones, after updating to iOS 17.5. With so many users reporting similar oddities, it would seem something went wrong, or at least different than to be expected. Here are some examples from Reddit: “When in conversation...

Ring agrees to pay $5.6 million after cameras were used to spy on customers

Amazons Ring has settled with the Federal Trade Commission FTC over charges that the company allowed employees and contractors to access customers private videos, and failed to implement security protections which enabled hackers to take control of customers’ accounts, cameras, and videos. The FT...

Mental health company Cerebral failed to protect sensitive personal data, must pay $7 million

The Federal Trade Commission FTC has reached a settlement with online mental health services company Cerebral after the company was charged with failing to secure and protect sensitive health data. Cerebral has agreed to an order that will restrict how the company can use or disclose sensitive...

35-year long identity theft leads to imprisonment for victim

Sometimes the consequences of a stolen identity exceed anything you could have imagined. Matthew David Keirans, a 58-year-old former hospital employee has pleaded guilty to assuming another man’s identity since 1988. He was convicted of one count of making a false statement to a National Credit...

How to back up your iPhone to iCloud

They say the only backup you ever regret is the one you didnt make. iPhone backups can be used to easily move your apps and data to a new phone, to recover things youve lost, or to fix things that have failed. The most convenient way to backup your iPhone is to have it backup to iCloud. Backups a...

Powering the future of ThreatDown with AI

Nobody can deny the influence of AI today. In just a few years, we have observed AIs capacity to be as transformative as the internet and smartphones, especially for cybersecurity. Indeed, the potential of AI to radically simplify complex security environments is unmistakable, and aligns closely...

Social media influencers targeted by identity thieves

Social media influencers are attractive targets for identity thieves. With large followings and a literal influence on their followers, its no wonder they are targeted by scammers and spreaders of fake news. A subset of influencers are the so-called "finfluencers": influencers that provide their...

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...

Warzone RAT infrastructure seized

On February 9, 2024, the Justice Department announced that an international operation had seized internet domains that were selling information-stealing malware. Federal authorities in Boston seized www.warzone.ws and three related domains, which sold the Warzone RAT malware. The Warzone RAT...

Facebook introduces another way to track you – Link History

In what seems like yet another attempt to adapt its platform to prepare for new regulations, Facebook has started rolling out a new feature called Link History. Link History allows users to view and re-visit links they have visited with their Facebook browsing activity. Obviously Facebook will te...

23andMe blames “negligent” breach victims, says it’s their own fault

In a surprising move, in a letter to legal representatives of victims of the recent 23andMe data breach, the company has laid the blame at the feet of victims themselves. 23andMe even goes as far as to claim that this wasn’t a data breach at 23andMe at all. The reasoning: “… unauthorized actors...

DNA data deserves better, with Suzanne Bernstein: Lock and Code S05E01

This week on the Lock and Code podcast… Hackers want to know everything about you: Your credit card number, your ID and passport info, and now, your DNA. On October 1 2023, on a hacking website called BreachForums, a group of cybercriminals claimed that they had stolen—and would soon...

Update now! Apple issues patches for older iPhones and other devices

Apple has issued emergency updates that include patches for older iOS devices concerning the two actively used zero-day vulnerabilities that were patched last week in newer devices. Updates are available for: Safari 17.2| macOS Monterey and macOS Ventura| ---|---|--- iOS 17.2 and iPadOS 17.2|...

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...

Student discount: Get 50% off Malwarebytes

Technology is now an indispensable part of student life, used for everything from socialising and calling home, to writing and researching essays. Unfortunately, that makes students taking their first steps into adult life a prime target for cybercrime. But how can you be sure the Wi-Fi network...

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...

Meta whistleblower says company has long ignored how it sexually endangers children

At a Senate hearing, a Meta whistleblower has revealed some shocking numbers around children’s experiences of its platforms. Arturo Béjar, a former engineering director at Meta, testified before the US Congress on Tuesday. Not only did he share his own daughters’ experience suffering harassment o...

Malwarebytes MDR wins G2 awards for "Best ROI," "Easiest to Use," and more

Malwarebytes Managed Detection and Response MDR earned a placed in 12 new reports on G2s Fall 2023 reports, winning badges for "Easiest to do Business With," "Best Est. ROI," "Easiest to Use," and "Easiest Admin." Purpose-built for resource constrained teams, Malwarebytes MDR provides IT staff wi...

Watch out, this LastPass email with "Important information about your account" is a phish

The consequences of last year's LastPass breach continue to be felt, with the latest insult to users coming in the form of a highly convincing phishing email. Although the "unauthorized party" that compromised LastPass users' data was able to steal password vaults, it's likely that they are havin...

Smart chastity device exposes sensitive user data

A security breach or piece of inadvertent exposure can be a devastating thing, not just for the company impacted but also the people whose data is stolen or exposed to the world. The usual roll-call of "name, address, phone number and card details" is bad enough. If such things are tied to...

Malwarebytes acquires Cyrus Security

Today, I am absolutely thrilled to share some exciting news: Malwarebytes is officially welcoming Cyrus Security into our family. This acquisition signifies an exciting chapter in our journey, and I wanted to share why this development is so special, and what it means for the millions who trust...

Malvertisers up their game against researchers

Threat actors constantly take notice of the work and takedown efforts initiated by security researchers. In this constant game of cat and mouse chasing, tactics and techniques keep evolving from simple to more complex, and more covert. This is a trend we have observed time and time again, no matt...

5 facts to know about the Royal ransomware gang

When we first introduced the Royal ransomware gang in our November 2022 review, little did we know they'd rapidly evolve into one of the most potent threats in our ongoing monthly threat intelligence briefings. In fact, the Malwarebytes Threat Intelligence team has tracked down a staggering 195...

Fake security researchers push malware files on GitHub

Researchers from VulnCheck have observed a campaign using real security researchers as bait for malware. The campaign goes to some lengths to appear genuine, using fake profiles, downloads, websites, and bogus GitHub profiles, to paint a convincing picture of security professionals offering up...

Tracking down a trojan: An inside look at threat hunting in a corporate network

At Malwarebytes, we talk a lot about the importance of threat hunting for SMBs--and not for no good reason, either. Just consider the fact that, when a threat actor breaches a network, they dont attack right away. The median amount of time between system compromise and detection is 21 days. By th...

Malwarebytes achieves perfect score in latest AVLab assessment

Malwarebytes has once again earned a perfect score in AVLabs March 2023 real-world malware detection tests, marking the sixth consecutive quarter achieving this feat. Let's delve into the details of the test and how both consumer and business products outperformed competitors in exhaustive testin...

Magecart threat actor rolls out convincing modal forms

To ensnare new victims, criminals will often devise schemes that attempt to look as realistic as possible. Having said that, it is not every day that we see the fraudulent copy exceed the original piece. While following up on an ongoing Magecart credit card skimmer campaign, we were almost fooled...

Avoid this "lost injured dog" Facebook hoax

Facebook users are advised to be wary of posts involving injured dogs receiving treatment at a vet surgery, or pets sitting next to people post-operation adorned with bandages and plaster casts. The dog-themed missives all follow a similar format, with the primary change between them being the...

Google Pay accidentally handed out free money, bug now fixed

Days ago, several Google Pay users in the US received some unexpected cashback from Google, congratulating them "for dogfooding the Google Pay Remittance experience". Confused and a tad happy, some looked to Twitter for answers, while others aired their experiences on the /r/googlepay/ Reddit pag...

"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-...

"Log-out king" Instagram scammer gets accounts taken down, then charges to reinstate them

A fraudster going by "OBN Brandon" has been defrauding Instagram influencers and entertainment figures out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by taking down their accounts and then asking for money to get them back up again, ProPublica reports. OBN has been successful in his exploits taking...

Malware creator who compromised 10,000 computers arrested

The creator of a Remote Access Trojan RAT, responsible for compromising more than 10,000 computers, has been arrested by law enforcement in Ukraine. At the time of the arrest, the developer still had real-time access to 600 PCs. According to the announcement, the RAT could tell infected devices t...

Investment fraud overtakes business email compromise as most reported fraud

The Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI has published its 2022 Internet Crime Report. One of the most notable points is that investment fraud has now overtaken business email compromise BEC as the most reported and most damaging type of fraud. The numbers are based on the complaints reported to t...

AI voice cracks telephone banking voice recognition

Voice ID is slowly rolling out across various banks worldwide as a way to perform user authentication over the phone. However, questions remain about just how secure it is. Now that we have freely available artificial intelligence AI happily replicating peoples voices, could it be a security risk...

What is AI good at (and what the heck is it, actually), with Josh Saxe: Lock and Code S04E04

In November of last year, the AI research and development lab OpenAI revealed its latest, most advanced language project: A tool called ChatGPT. ChatGPT is so much more than "just" a chatbot. As users have shown with repeated testing and prodding, ChatGPT seems to "understand" things. It can give...

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...

On the 20th Safer Internet Day, what was security like back in 2004?

Today is the 20th Safer Internet Day. Since 2004, there's been an annual event designed to "Promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially amongst children and young people across the world." 2004 was a key year for several safety activities, encompassin...

The rise of multi-threat ransomware

Today we have a ten minute YouTube expedition into the murky world of ransomware. In the video, "The rise of multi-threat ransomware" embedded below, I cover a couple of key talking points that always seem to come up in conversation. Single, double, triple? The video covers how ransomware made th...

Fighting technology's gender gap with TracketPacer: Lock and Code S04E02

Last month, the TikTok user TracketPacer posted a video online called "Network Engineering Facts to Impress No One at Zero Parties." TracketPacer regularly posts fun, educational content about how the Internet operates. The account is run by a network engineer named Lexie Cooper, who has worked i...

Raspberry Robin worm used as ransomware prelude

Raspberry Robin aka Worm.RaspberyRobin started out as an annoying, yet relatively low-profile threat that was often installed via USB drive. First spotted in September 2021, it was typically introduced into a network through infected removable drives, often USB devices. Now the worm has been foun...

Romance scammer deepfakes Mark Ruffalo to con elderly artist

Deepfakes have settled into a groove, as most scam techniques do. It seems most deepfakers have decided to make as much cash as possible from unsuspecting victims instead of doing anything particularly earth-shattering with their technology. One curious twist we may not have seen coming is the...

Twitter fixes bug that left devices logged in after password reset

Twitter says it has fixed a bug that meant users weren't logged out of active sessions on all devices after manually resetting their passwords. Writing on its blog, Twitter said: "We want to let you know that we recently fixed a bug that allowed Twitter accounts to stay logged in from multiple...

Grand Theft Auto 6 suffers grand theft

For games publisher Take-Two Interactive, damage control is in full effect as word spreads of a Grand Theft Auto-centric network compromise. Developer Rockstar Games has suffered a major leak of upcoming game content, specifically unfinished video footage of Grand Theft Auto 6. The first anyone...

Hookup site targeted by typo-squatters

Ethical hacker and security researcher Kody Kinzie shared with BleepingComputer a list of over 50 domains of which many are spelling variations of the brand name Sniffies. Sniffies identifies itself as a "modern, map-based, meetup app for gay, bi, and curious guys." Kody used an open source tool...

The MSP playbook on deciphering tech promises and shaping security culture

The in-person cybersecurity conference has returned. More than two years after Covid-19 pushed nearly every in-person event online, cybersecurity has returned to the exhibition hall. In San Francisco earlier this year, thousands of cybersecurity professionals walked the halls of Moscone Center at...

YouTuber on the run after allegedly swiping $55m from followers

We mostly hear about bogus advertising and offers via compromised accounts on Instagram or Facebook. Strict advertising rules on social media involve making it clear that someone is promoting an ad or offering up a risky venture. However, sometimes things go wrong on other platforms like YouTube...

Tech support scammers target Microsoft users with fake Office 365 USB sticks

Microsoft is a hot target for scammers and acts of fraud. For example, tech support scam websites cover themselves in Windows branding and messages. Phone scammers claim to be calling directly from Microsoft. If its not a Bill Gates themed lottery spam mail in your mailbox, its a fake Excel...