Tax scammer goes after small business owners and self-employed people

While most tax payers don’t particularly look forward to tax season, for some scammers it’s like the opening of their hunting season. So its no surprise that our researchers have found yet another tax-related scam. In this most recent scam, weve not seen the lure the scammer uses, but it is likel...

ALPHV ransomware gang fakes own death, fools no one

For the second time in only four months, all is not well on the ALPHV aka BlackCat ransomware gangs dark web site. Gone are the lists of compromised victims. In their place, a veritable garden of law enforcement badges has sprouted beneath the ominous message "THIS WEBSITE HAS BEEN SEIZED." The...

Malicious meeting invite fix targets Mac users

Cybercriminals are targeting Mac users interested in cryptocurrency opportunities with fake calendar invites. During the attacks the criminals will send a link supposedly to add a meeting to the target’s calendar. In reality the link runs a script to install Mac malware on the target’s machine...

Android banking trojans: How they steal passwords and drain bank accounts

For the most popular operating system in the world—which is Android and it isn’t even a contest—there’s a sneaky cyberthreat that can empty out a person’s bank accounts to fill the illicit coffers of cybercriminals. These are “Android banking trojans,” and, according to our 2024 ThreatDown State ...

Why keeping track of user accounts is important

CISA the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency has issued a cybersecurity advisory after the discovery of documents containing host and user information of a state government organization’s network environment—including metadata—on a dark web brokerage site. An attacker managed to...

A week in security (February 12 – February 18)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: GoldPickaxe Trojan steals your face! Microsoft Exchange vulnerability actively exploited Massive utility scam campaign spreads via online ads Facebook Marketplace users’ stolen data offered for sale How ransomware changed in 2023 Malwarebytes crushes malware all th...

How ransomware changed in 2023

In 2023, the CL0P ransomware gang broke the scalability barrier and shook the security world with a series of short, automated campaigns, hitting hundreds of unsuspecting targets simultaneously with attacks based on zero-day exploits. The gangs novel approach challenged a bottleneck that makes it...

Malwarebytes crushes malware all the time

About a month ago, The PC Security Channel TPSC ran a test to check out the detection capabilities of Malwarebytes. They tested Malwarebytes by executing a repository of 2015 “malicious” files to see how many Malwarebytes would detect. This YouTube video shows how a script executes the files and...

AI-generated voices in robocalls are illegal, rules FCC

The Federal Communications Commission FCC has announced that calls made with voices generated with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI will be considered “artificial” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act TCPA. Effective immediately, that makes robocalls that implement voice cloning...

2 million job seekers targeted by data thieves

A cybercriminal group known as ResumeLooters has infiltrated 65 job listing and retail websites, compromising the personal data of over two million job seekers. The group used SQL injection and cross-site scripting XSS attacks—both common techniques— to extract the sensitive information from the...

Google changes wording for Incognito browsing in Chrome

Users of Chrome Canary have noticed some slight changes in the wording that Google uses for Incognito mode. Chrome Canary is mainly intended for use by developers. It’s updated nearly daily with new features, and because it can be used alongside versions of the “normal” Chrome browser known...

A week in security (January 8 – January 14)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: FCC wants cars to make life harder for stalkers Joomla! vulnerability is being actively exploited Act now! Ivanti vulnerabilities are being actively exploited Ransomware review: January 2024 Info-stealers can steal cookies for permanent access to your Google accoun...

FCC wants cars to make life harder for stalkers

Most new model cars are not just cars anymore. With multiple digital systems, vehicles are increasingly plugged into web applications and digital processes. Some of them are basically smartphones on wheels. Even if we assume these new features were all created with your convenience in mind, some ...

How to recognize AI-generated phishing mails

Phishing is the art of sending an email with the aim of getting users to open a malicious file or click on a link to then steal credentials. But most phishers arent very good, and the success rate is relatively low: In 2021, the average click rate for a phishing campaign was 17.8%. However, now...

Why less is more: 10 steps to secure customer data

In an advisory aimed at the protection of customers’ personal data, the Australian Cyber Security Centre ACSC has emphasized that businesses should only collect personal data from customers that they need in order to operate effectively. While that may seem like kicking in an open door, it’s real...

A firsthand perspective on the recent LinkedIn account takeover campaign

Not long ago I wrote about a recent campaign to hold LinkedIn users' accounts to ransom. Shortly after I published the article, a co-worker, Pearce, reached out to me told me he'd been a target of the campaign. His story begins with an SMS text from LinkedIn telling him to reset his password. He...

Attackers demand ransoms for stolen LinkedIn accounts

An ongoing campaign targeting LinkedIn accounts has led to victims losing control of their accounts, or being locked out following repeated login attempts. Whether the attackers are using brute force methods or credential stuffing isn't known, but because some victims are being being locked out...

Of sharks, surveillance, and spied-on emails: This is Section 702, with Matthew Guariglia

In the United States, when the police want to conduct a search on a suspected criminal, they must first obtain a search warrant. It is one of the foundational rights given to US persons under the Constitution, and a concept that has helped create the very idea of a right to privacy at home and...

Black Cat ransomware group wants $4.5m from Reddit or will leak stolen files

The ramifications of a Reddit breach which occurred back in February are now being felt, with the attackers threatening to leak the stolen data. The February attack, billed as a "sophisticated phishing campaign" by Reddit, involved an attempt to swipe credentials and two-factor authentication...

Strava heatmap loophole may reveal users' home addresses

Researchers at NC State University have outlined potential privacy issues with popular fitness app Strava which could lead to users' homes being pinpointed. The researchers' findings are detailed in a paper called Heat marks the spot: de-anonymising users' geographical data on the Strava heat map...

Update your Cisco System Secure Client now to fix this AnyConnect bug

Cisco Secure Client is the fresh recipient of a fix to address a high-severity vulnerability related to improper permissions. The flaw allows attackers to potentially escalate privileges to the SYSTEM account. From the vulnerability advisory: A vulnerability in the client update feature of Cisco...

Warning: Victims' faces placed on explicit images in sextortion scam

The FBI has issued a warning about criminals digitally manipulating people's faces on to pornographic images--known as deepfaking--and then using those images to harass or extort money out of their victim in a practice known as sextortion. The FBI said the victims include children. From the...

PharMerica breach impacts almost 6 million people

US pharmacy giant PharMerica has notified over 5.8 million people about a security incident in which it says personal information and medical information may have been obtained by cybercriminals. The Data Breach Notification lists the total number of persons affected as 5,815,591. An investigatio...

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...

FTC tackles tech support scams by chasing payment processor firms

A multinational payment processing company and two of its executives are facing a potential $650k fine as a result of allegedly processing credit card payments for tech support scammers. While this fine isnt exactly massive in comparison to some of the privacy breaches and other incidents seen do...

Payment giant's point-of-sale outage caused by ALPHV ransomware

On April 12, 2023, payment giant NCR reported it was looking into an issue with its point-of-sale POS systems that caused an outage, leaving customers unable to use the system. The NCR Aloha POS systems are popular in hospitality services. Customers include Wendys, Chuck e Cheese, Cafe Rio, Leean...

TikTok: What’s going on and should I be worried?

Since 2020, several governments and organizations have banned, or considered banning, the immensely popular social media app TikTok from their staffs devices. With all these alarming bells ringing, we thought it might be handy to break down what we know and see if we can plot a sensible strategy...

A look at a Magecart skimmer using the Hunter obfuscator

Threat actors are notorious for trying to hide their code in various ways, from binary packers to obfuscators. On their own, these tools are not always malicious as they can also be be used by companies or individuals who wish to keep their work safe from piracy, but overall they tend to be large...

Emotet adopts Microsoft OneNote attachments

Last week, Emotet returned after a three month absence when the botnet Epoch 4 started sending out malicious emails with malicious Office macros. While the extracted attachments were inflated to several hundred megabytes, it was surprising to see that Emotet persisted in using the same attack...

Ransomware pushes City of Oakland into state of emergency

The ransomware attack that hit Oakland on Wednesday February 8, 2023 is still crippling many of the citys services a week later. In fact, the situation is so bad that the Interim City Administrator has now declared a state of emergency. Tweet announcing the state of emergency The ransomware attac...

One in nine online stores are leaking your data, says study

eCommerce security company Sansec has revealed it's found a number of online stores accidentally leaking highly sensitive data. After studying 2,037 online stores, the company found that 12.3 percent exposed compressed files in ZIP, SQL, and TAR archive formats, which BleepingComputer noted appea...

Consent to gather data is a "misguided" solution, study reveals

When researchers from the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication conducted a survey to see if "informed consent" practices are working online with regard to user data gathering, the results revealed weaknesses in a framework that, for decades, has served as the basis for...

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...

Hive! Hive! Hive! Ransomware site submerged by FBI

On January 26, 2023, the United States Department of Justice DoJ released details about a disruption campaign against the Hive ransomware group. The disruption campaign has reportedly had access to Hive's infrastructure since July of 2022. Its access became public on Thursday when Hive's dark web...

Ransomware revenue significantly down over 2022

According to blockchain data platform Chainalysis, ransomware revenue "plummeted" from $765.6 in 2021 to at least $456.8 in 2022. The data is based on an analysis of the cryptocurrency addresses known to be controlled by ransomware attackers. Precision While the real numbers are likely much highe...

A week in security (January 16—22)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Google to support the use of Rust in Chromium Law enforcement app SweepWizard leaks data on crime suspects Accountant ordered to pay ex-employer after bossware shows "time theft" TikTok dances to the tune of $5.4m cookie fine "Untraceable" surveillance firm sued fo...

[updated]Ransomware money laundering operation disrupted, founder arrested

The US Department of Justice DOJ has released information about the arrest of Anatoly Legkodymov, the founder and majority owner of a cryptocurrency exchange called Bitzlato, on money laundering charges. Legkodymov, a Russian national who lives in China, is accused of processing over $700 million...

Millions of Gemini cryptocurrency exchange user details leaked

If youre a user of the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange, its time to be on your guard against phishing attacks. Gemini says its own systems have not been compromised, but an unnamed third party has become the focal point for a breach. On December 13 or some point before, rogues gained access to jus...

Virtual kidnapping scam strikes again. Spot the signs

Warnings abound of a major new piece of fraud doing the rounds which uses your relatives voice as part of a blackmail scam. What happens is the victim receives a call from said relatives number, and theyre cut off by blackmailers who have them held hostage. The only way to get them back safely is...

Lazarus group uses fake cryptocurrency apps to plant AppleJeus malware

The North Korean Lazarus Group, aka APT38, is one of the most sophisticated North Korean APTs. It's been active since 2009 and is responsible for many high profile attacks. In January of 2022 the Malwarebytes Intelligence Team uncovered a campaign where Lazarus conducted spear phishing attacks...

Eufy "no cloud" security cameras streaming data to the cloud

Eufy home security cameras are currently in a spot of trouble as a result of door camera footage. This is because it turns out that data which should not have been going to the cloud was doing so anyway in certain conditions. Securing your home: a complicated proposition Insecure cameras,...

What is ransomware-as-a-service and how is it evolving?

Ransomware attacks are becoming more frequent and costlier--breaches caused by ransomware grew 41 percent in the last year, the average cost of a destructive attack rising to $5.12 milllion. Whats more, a good chunk of the cyber criminals doing these attacks operate on a ransomware-as-a-service...

Top 5 ransomware detection techniques: Pros and cons of each

In the fight against ransomware, much of the discussion revolves around prevention and response. Actually detecting the ransomware, however, is just as important to securing your business. To understand why, just consider the following example. Lets say youre a farmer taking care of a flock of...

Here are the new security and privacy features of iOS 16

On Monday, September 12, Apple released iOS 16, which included a host of new security and privacy features. Let's look at what these are--and some quality-of-life QoL changes. Lockdown Mode As Macrumors calls it, Lockdown Mode is an "extreme" security setting ideal for those who regularly find...

How to set up an iPhone for your kids

Thanks to Thomas Reed for his expertise and guidance. This is it. After much hemming and hawing, you've finally given in and bought your child their first smartphone, which you plan to give to them before the school year starts. But before you give it to them, it's worth sitting them down to talk...

British Airways customers targeted in lost luggage Twitter scam

Getting back into the travel habit? Jumping on a plane soon? Experienced a bit of a luggage disaster and looking for help on social media? Watch out, because a lack of prior research could prove very costly. Word has spread of a bogus Twitter account pretending to be a customer support channel of...

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...

Binance chief says a “sophisticated hacking team” turned him into a deepfake hologram

Deepfakes are back, and causing major problems for people involved in financial circles. Scammers have been targeting people in the cryptocurrency community for some time now. Theres huge money to be made via the act of ripping folks off. Some of it is phishing, other attacks focus on breaking in...

When a sextortion victim fights back

When Katie Yates suddenly started receiving nude photos of her friend, Natalie Claus, over on Snapchat, she instantly recognized that Claus had just become a victim of a sextortion attack. She also knew how Claus should respond. This happened in December 2019 when Claus was a sophomore. Both were...

Demo: Your data has been encrypted! Stopping ransomware attacks with Malwarebytes EDR

It’s no secret that ransomware is one of the most pressing cyber threats of our day. What worse, ransomware gangs have increased their attacks on a range of vulnerable industries, with disruptions to business operations, million-dollar ransom demands, data exfiltration, and extortion. With...