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...

Introducing Malwarebytes Cloud Storage Scanning: How to scan for malware in cloud file storage repositories

Were excited to announce Malwarebytes Cloud Storage Scanning, a new service that extends Nebula malware scanning options to include files stored on cloud storage repositories that are part of your organizations digital ecosystem. Today, the service supports scanning of files under 100Mb in size...

Lock down your Neopets account: Data breach being investigated

Bad news for players of long-time virtual pet management title Neopets. Word is spreading of a compromise claimed to have accessed around 69 million user accounts. This compromise, posted to a hacking forum, is said to include both the database and around 460 MB of compressed source code from...

The winding road to compliance

“Here are the keys. Buy milk and bread. Drive safely.” These are important instructions for a new driver tasked with running an errand. But unless the driver knows where they are going, a bit of guidance on how to get to the store can only help. Without it, the driver may complete the errand...

Elden Ring maker Bandai Namco hit by ransomware and data leaks

Its not been a great couple of months for gaming giant Bandai Namco. The name behind smash hit titles like Elden Ring and Dark Souls has endured a long run of cheats and hacks. Hacking concerns led to Remote Code Execution issues, and multiplayer features in Souls titles were disabled for months...

PyPI starts rolling out required 2FA for important projects

The Python Package Index PyPI says it has begun rolling out a two-factor authentication 2FA requirement which enforces maintainers of critical projects to have 2FA enabled to publish, update, or modify them. PyPI plays an important role in the Python developers ecosystem. Python repository PyPi i...

It’s official, today you can say goodbye to Internet Explorer. Or can you?

Today, the Internet Explorer IE 11 desktop application goes out of support and will be retired for certain versions of Windows 10. The retirement consists of two phases. During the first phase—the redirection phase—devices will be progressively redirected from IE to Microsoft Edge over the...

Introducing Malwarebytes Vulnerability Assessment for OneView: How to check for Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs)

Malwarebytes is happy to announce our Vulnerability Assessment module for OneView, our multi-tenant console where you can manage Malwarebytes Nebula accounts, subscriptions, invoicing, and integrations. This module enables our MSPs to scan, identify, and assess vulnerabilities in customers’ digit...

ASyncRat surpasses Dridex, TrickBot and Emotet to become dominant email threat

Earlier this year Malwarebytes released its 2022 Threat Review, a review of the most important threats and cybersecurity trends of 2021, and what they could mean for 2022. Among other things it covers the years alarming rebound in malware detections, and a significant shift in the balance of emai...

Phishing mail claims a 3D Secure upgrade is required

Today we took a look at a phishing mail pinning its hopes on a QR code linking to a bogus website. Scammers claim that your mail address has "not been registered for the 3D Secure Security Update". 3D Secure phishing mail The mail reads as follows: Dear Sir / Madam, Our administration has shown...

Steer clear of fake premium mobile app unlockers

A site has been bouncing around YouTube comments for the past couple of weeks. The site sometimes changes, the messages alter slightly, but the essence remains the same: In all cases, people acting in suspiciously automated fashion ask if everyone is using this "glitch" or generator without ever...

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...

YouTube channels of Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Harry Styles, and other musicians compromised

Some of the biggest stars around have seen content placed on their YouTube accounts without permission over the last couple of days. Taylor Swift has around 40 million subscribers. Justin Bieber? 68 million. Harry Styles, a respectable 12 million. You can even add Eminem and Michael Jackson to th...

Don’t enter your recovery phrase! Phishers target Ledger crypto-wallet users

Ledger is one of the biggest hardware cryptocurrency wallets around and scammers have noticed. Phishing mails are in circulation, hoping to snag Ledger users with a sneaky request for passphrases. What is a Ledger recovery phrase? A recovery phrase is an incredibly important combination of words...

CISA warns of cyberespionage by Iranian APT “MuddyWater”

Cybersecurity agencies in the US and UK have issued a joint cybersecurity advisory CSA on MuddyWater, a government-sponsored Iranian advanced persistent threat APT actor. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI, the US Cyber Command Cyber...

Watch out for this bump in LinkedIn phishing

LinkedIn is sometimes forgotten about in more general coverage of phishing attacks. Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram receive regular attention. Cryptowallet customer support scams run wild in the replies to any cryptocurrency themed tweet. Facebook users can often be...

Microsoft: Slow MFA adoption presents “dangerous mismatch” in security

Multi-factor authentication MFA has been around for many years now, but few enterprises have fully embraced it. In fact, according to Microsofts inaugural "Cyber Signals" report, only 22 percent of all its Azure Active Directory AD enterprise clients have adopted two-factor authentication 2FA, a...

Google and Facebook fined $240 million for making cookies hard to refuse

French privacy watchdog, the Commission Nationale de lInformatique et des Libertés CNIL, has hit Google with a 150 million euro fine and Facebook with a 60 million euro fine, because their websites—google.fr, youtube.com, and facebook.com—dont make refusing cookies as easy as accepting them. The...

Microsoft disrupts China-based hacking group Nickel

Microsoft has taken control of 42 web domains that a hacking group was using to try to breach its targets. On December 2, the Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit DCU filed pleadings with the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia seeking authority to take control of the sites that it...

Emotet being spread via malicious Windows App Installer packages

As reported by Cryptolaemus on Twitter, and demonstrated step by step by BleepingComputer, Emotet is now being distributed through malicious Windows App Installer packages that pretend to be Adobe PDF software. How does the attack work? To understand what Microsoft is supposed to do about this...

Patch now to bypass Firefox add-ons that abuse the proxy API to deny updates

In a Firefox security announcement, Mozilla said 455,000 users have downloaded Firefox add-ons that interfere with how they connect to the internet. The interference in itself was not the deciding factor, however. The add-ons abused the proxy API to prevent users who had installed them from...

A week in security (Oct 11 – Oct 17)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs Google warns some users that FancyBear’s been prowling around Inside Apple: How macOS attacks are evolving The joy of phishing your employees ExpressVPN made a choice, and so did I: Lock and Code S02E19 Update now! Apple patches another privilege escalation bug in i...

The FCC moves to curb SIM swap attacks

The Federal Communications Commission FCC is going to set new rules to curb the rising threat of SIM swapping, also known as SIMjacking. SIM swapping and the very similar port-out fraud is the unlawful use of someones personal information to steal their phone number and swap or transfer it to...

New Mac malware masquerades as iTerm2, Remote Desktop and other apps

Last week, security researcher Patrick Wardle released details of a new piece of malware masquerading as the legitimate app iTerm2. The malware was discovered earlier the same day by security researcher Zhi @CodeColorist on Twitter, and detailed on a Chinese-language blog. For those who dont spea...

Why backups aren’t a “silver bullet” against ransomware, with Matt Crape: Lock and Code S02E17

A recent spate of ransomware attacks in the US and abroad have derailed major corporations, spurring a fuel shortage on the US East Coast, shuttering grocery stores in Sweden, and sending students home from grade schools. The solution, so many cybersecurity experts say, is to implement backups,...

Facebook puts on Ray-Bans, struts into the privacy minefield of smart glasses

Facebook, neck-deep in virtual / augmented reality with the Oculus headset, continues to move things up a gear. Its announced “Ray-Ban stories”, smart glasses which take video and photos. The company may yet go one step further and incorporate these features into Augmented Reality AR specs which ...

Apple delays plans to search devices for child abuse imagery

After the uproar from users and privacy advocates about Apple’s controversial plans to scan users devices for photos and messages containing child abuse and exploitation media, the company has decided to put the brakes on the plan. If you may recall, Apple announced in early August that it would...

Alleviating ransomware’s legal headaches with Jake Bernstein: Lock and Code S02E08

This week on Lock and Code, we speak to cybersecurity and privacy attorney Jake Bernstein about ransomware attacks that dont just derail a companys reputation and productivity, but also throw them into potential legal peril. In 2020, the cybersecurity community noticed a worrying trend from...

Hospital ransomware: Gangs are back to target healthcare

Healthcare is not in a good place right now. With some countries and states deciding to go back in to lockdown due to the continued rise of reported COVID-19 infections—and several garnering record-high numbers compared to when almost every country initially went into lockdown—it seems horrible...

Lock and Code S1Ep13: Monitoring the safety of parental monitoring apps with Emory Roane

This week on Lock and Code, we discuss the top security headlines generated right here on Labs and around the Internet. In addition, we talk to Emory Roane, policy counsel at Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, about parental monitoring apps. These tools offer parents the capabilities to spot where the...

Seven security tips for staying safe on an iPhone

iPhones have a reputation for being notoriously secure. After all, they caused quite the kerfuffle between Apple and the FBI because they are, from the FBI's point of view, too secure! However, don't let that lull you into a false sense of security. Using an iPhone is not an automatic guarantee o...

Labs CTNT report shows shift in threat landscape to cryptomining

It's that time again! Time for the quarterly Malwarebytes Labs Cybercrime Tactics and Techniques report aka the Labs CTNT report. To get a more complete picture of what's been going on in cybercrime this quarter, the Labs team has combined intel and statistics gathered from January through March...

The seven most colossal data breaches of 2017

By Logan Strain If it seems like the words “leak,” “compromised data,” and “breach” are constantly in the news, it’s not just you. The frequency of major data breaches is increasing. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, the number of breaches is expected to top 1,500 in 2017. That’s a...

A week in security (Jun 12 – Jun 18)

Last week was very busy for the Labs, with a look at so-called numeric tech support scams, a visit to the huge Infosec Europe conference, an exploration of Mac Malware as a Service, and a walk through the myths of online bullying. Elsewhere: A huge click-farm is busted Jaff Ransomware is thwarted...

Breaking the attack chain

The attack chain. It’s a term used often in infosecurity. Also known as the kill chain, it was originally used as a military concept to describe the structure of an attack. It serves the same function in cybersecurity, where various methods of malware infiltration, deployment, and execution are...

New Mac Malware-as-a-Service offerings

A couple weeks ago, two new Malware-as-a-Service MaaS offerings for the Mac became available. These two offerings - a backdoor named MacSpy and a ransomware app named MacRansom - were discovered by Catalin Cimpanu of Bleeping Computer on May 25. Cimpanu evidently had some trouble getting hold of...

Fake Netflix, Coca-Cola, and FIFA job scams target marketers

Attackers are impersonating major companies and recruiters to target marketing professionals, using trusted services and browser tricks to make the scam look legitimate. A BleepingComputer article detailing the campaign found at least 34 domains impersonating high-value companies, including...

A week in security (May 18 – May 24)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Update Chrome now: Critical bugs could let attackers run code Microsoft Defender vulnerabilities are being exploited in the wild TikTok, YouTube, and Roblox face scrutiny, but age gates won’t fix child safety Catch spyware in the act with Windows Webcam Monitoring...

1 in 8 employees have sold company logins or know someone who has

UK anti-fraud non-profit Cifas just published research that should bother anyone who runs a business, or buys from one: One in eight workers at large enterprises have either sold their company login credentials or know someone who did. The internet is awash with compromised credentials that...

Massive AI investment scam network spans 15,500 domains

Researchers tracked a large AI‑themed investment scam campaign involving more than 15,000 domains. It uses cloaking and deepfakes to hide from security tools while targeting ordinary users. Criminals abused the Keitaro ad-tracking platform as part of a cloaking system so real victims see scam...

Hobby coder accidentally creates vacuum robot army

Sammy Azdoufal wanted to steer his robot vacuum with a PS5 controller. Like any good maker, he thought it would be fun to drive a new DJI Romo around manually. He ended up gaining access to an army of robotic cleaners that gave him eyes into thousands of homes. Driven by purely playful reasons,...

WhatsApp rolls out new protections against advanced exploits and spyware

WhatsApp is quietly rolling out a new safety layer for photos, videos, and documents, and it lives entirely under the hood. It won't change how you chat, but it will change what happens to the files that move through your chats—especially the kind that can hide malware. The new feature, called...

Fake LastPass maintenance emails target users

The LastPass Threat Intelligence, Mitigation, and Escalation TIME team has published a warning about an active phishing campaign in which fake “maintenance” emails pressure users to back up their vaults within 24 hours. The emails lead to credential-stealing phishing sites rather than any...

“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...

Malware-infected printer delivered something extra to Windows users

You'd hope that spending $6,000 on a printer would give you a secure experience, free from viruses and other malware. However, in the case of Procolored printers, you'd be wrong. The Shenzen-based company sells UV printers, which are able to print on a variety of materials including wood, acrylic...

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...

Apple fixes zero-day vulnerability used in “extremely sophisticated attack”

Apple has released an emergency security update for a vulnerability which it says may have been exploited in an "extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals.” The update is available for: iOS 18.3.1 and iPadOS 18.3.1 - iPhone XS and later, iPad Pro 13-inch, iPad Pro...

Change Healthcare confirms the customer data stolen in ransomware attack

For the first time since news broke about a ransomware attack on Change Healthcare, the company has released details about the data stolen during the attack. First, a quick refresher: On February 21, 2024, Change Healthcare experienced serious system outages due to a cyberattack. The incident led...

800 arrests, 40 tons of drugs, and one backdoor, or what a phone startup gave the FBI, with Joseph Cox: Lock and Code S05E12

This week on the Lock and Code podcast… This is a story about how the FBI got everything it wanted. For decades, law enforcement and intelligence agencies across the world have lamented the availability of modern technology that allows suspected criminals to hide their communications from legal...

How to tell if a VPN app added your Windows device to a botnet

On May 29, 2024, the US Department of Justice DOJ announced it had dismantled what was likely the world’s largest botnet ever. This botnet, called “911 S5,” infected systems at over 19 million IP addresses across more than 190 countries. The main sources of income for the operators, who stole a...