Terdot Trojan likes social media

We usually advise people that have fallen victim to banker Trojans to change all their passwords, especially the ones that are related to their financial sites and apps. Besides the dangers of re-used passwords, there are other reasons why this is important. This advice is especially applicable t...

The state of ransomware among SMBs

In a report conducted by Osterman Research and sponsored by Malwarebytes, more than 1,000 small and medium-sized businesses were surveyed in June 2017 about ransomware and other critical security issues. What we discovered was surprising—ransomware authors aren’t only targeting enterprise...

The smart, alert, strong, kind, and brave way to Internet awesome

Mom and Dad, do you know when to start talking to your kids about internet safety? Google’s new Be Internet Awesome program might just be the perfect topic to start off that conversation. Launched this National Internet Safety Month, Be Internet Awesome aims to teach kids to explore the internet...

Mobile Menace Monday: Fake WannaCry Scanner

With all the buzz around the PC ransomware WannaCry, it’s no surprise that a fake antivirus FakeAV has emerged on Google Play. Entitled WannaCry Ransomware Protector for Android, the bold claim it makes is right in its name. So how do we know this claim is false? Simple, there is no WannaCry...

Cheers to a successful time at Infosec Europe 2017

With over 350 exhibitors, well over 10,000 visitors, and many widely respected speakers, Infosec Europe is one of Europe's biggest security events. The Malwarebytes stand attracted a lot of interested people, even without our robot Zero, who had obligations elsewhere. The new EMEA Channel...

New Android malware lets criminals use your bank card in real time

Researchers at Group-IB have discovered a new NFC relay malware family, purpose-built to capture live card data via NFC and forward it in real time to attackers. They dubbed it "WindRelay." NFC Near Field Communication is wireless technology that allows devices such as smartphones, payment cards,...

Valve warns Steam hardware buyers: Expect fake delivery scams

Most of us are wise to phishing emails that don't contain much personal information. Generic "your account is suspended" messages usually get binned on sight. But what about the phishing emails that use your real name and address, and reference the specific product you bought last month? Even for...

Shared Claude chats were searchable on Google

Reddit users found that by using a specific Google search query, it was possible to find Claude conversations that users had shared. This exposed sensitive material, including crypto wallet keys, names, addresses, work notes, and even erotic or otherwise policy-violating chats. Fortune says...

Deepfake porn sites are going offline (re-air) (Lock and Code S07E12)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast … If you weren't taking deepfakes seriously before, it's too late now to ignore them. According to new research from Malwarebytes, one in three people who use AI every day said it's okay to generate pornography of people without their consent. Nearly 10 year...

AI: Threat, tool, or both?

Public attitudes toward Artificial Intelligence AI are changing, and we wanted to understand why. A recent Pew Research survey found that about half of adults say the increased use of AI in daily life makes them more concerned than excited, and that concern has grown over the last few years. Peop...

Microsoft says Edge’s plaintext password behavior is “by design”

Some time ago, we discussed whether you should allow your browser to remember your passwords. In that article we mentioned the importance of encryption. “ With a browser password manager, someone with access to your browser could see your passwords in clear text, although Windows can be set to as...

Scam-checking just got a lot easier: Malwarebytes is now in Claude

For years, Malwarebytes has protected people by going where they are, and where people are today is increasingly within AI tools. As these chatbots tackle more everyday questions—like what to wear for an interview, how to replace a pendant light in the home, and where to eat during upcoming...

Mythos: An AI tool too powerful for public release

Anthropic’s most capable model to date, Claude Mythos Preview aka Mythos, has been described as a “step change” in AI performance, especially on cybersecurity tasks. Anthropic tried to keep Mythos a secret until a few weeks ago, when a data leak revealed the existence of what the company said was...

From fake Proton VPN sites to gaming mods, this Windows infostealer is everywhere

We’ve uncovered multiple campaigns distributing an infostealer we track as NWHStealer , using everything from fake VPN downloads to hardware utilities and gaming mods. What makes this campaign stand out isn’t just the malware, but how widely and convincingly it’s being spread. Once installed, it...

ClickFix finds a new way to infect Macs

ClickFix campaigns are looking for alternatives now that many Mac users have been made aware of the dangers of pasting certain commands into Terminal. Researchers found that ClickFix has kept the same social engineering playbook but completely sidestepped Terminal by using the applescript:// URL...

NSFW app leak exposes 70,000 prompts linked to individual users

MyLovely.AI, an AI “artwork” generation platform, has reportedly been compromised, affecting 106,362 registered users. The AI girlfriend app allows users to generate personalized NSFW content and engage in real-time conversations with AI-generated personas, often sharing highly personal prompts a...

Watch out for tax-season robocalls pushing fake “relief programs”

While Americans are sorting through paperwork to get their taxes filed in time, scammers are working overtime to grab a piece of the action. As tax season ramps up, so does scam activity. Our telemetry shows a spike in robocalls impersonating tax resolution firms, tax relief agencies, and vaguely...

Scam Guard for desktop: A second set of eyes for suspicious moments

Scams aren’t so obvious anymore. They're well-written, have working grammar, and can lead victims to very convincing branded webpages. Scammers increasingly use AI tools to clone sites and create highly sophisticated scams at scale, so don't expect to rely on spotting obvious typos anymore. That’...

Firefox joins Chrome and Edge as sleeper extensions spy on users

A group of cybercriminals called DarkSpectre is believed to be behind three campaigns spread by malicious browser extensions: ShadyPanda, GhostPoster, and Zoom Stealer. We wrote about the ShadyPanda campaign in December 2025, warning users that extensions which had behaved normally for years...

Why iPhone users should update and restart their devices now

If you were still questioning whether iOS 26+ is for you, now is the time to make that call. Why? On December 12, 2025, Apple patched two WebKit zero‑day vulnerabilities linked to mercenary spyware and is now effectively pushing iPhone 11 and newer users toward iOS 26+, because that’s where the...

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...

Leaks show Intellexa burning zero-days to keep Predator spyware running

Intellexa is a well-known commercial spyware vendor, servicing governments and large corporations. Its main product is the Predator spyware. An investigation by several independent parties describes Intellexa as one of the most notorious mercenary spyware vendors, still operating its Predator...

Malwarebytes scores 100% in AV-Comparatives Stalkerware Test 2025

The AV-Comparatives Stalkerware Test 2025 delivers a sobering look at the evolving threat posed by stalkerware on mobile devices. Despite measures from both the tech industry and platform providers, stalkerware-type apps, which are apps that can be installed covertly to spy on a victim’s private...

Mango discloses data breach at third-party provider

Mango has reported a data breach at one of its external marketing service providers. The Spanish fashion retailer says that only personal contact information has been exposed—no financial data. The breach took place at the service provider and did not affect Mango’s own systems. According to the...

Troops and veterans’ personal information leaked in CPAP Medical data breach

In December 2024, CPAP Medical Supplies and Services Inc. CPAP, a Jacksonville—a Florida-based provider of sleep therapy services and CPAP machines—experienced a cybersecurity incident that compromised the personal data of over 90,000 patients. Since CPAP Medical specializes in tailored sleep apn...

Startup takes personal data stolen by malware and sells it on to other companies

A tech startup is using personal data stolen by infostealer malware that it has found on the dark web, and then selling access to that data. And it claims to be working within the law. According to 404 Media, for as little as $50, Farnsworth Intelligence will give companies a look at records from...

Victims risk AsyncRAT infection after being redirected to fake Booking.com sites

Cybercriminals have started a campaign of redirecting links placed on gaming sites and social media—and as sponsored ads—that lead to fake websites posing as Booking.com. According to Malwarebytes research, 40% of people book travel through a general online search, creating a lot of opportunities...

184 million logins for Instagram, Roblox, Facebook, Snapchat, and more exposed online

A recent discovery by cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler of an unsecured database containing over 184 million unique login credentials has once again highlighted the growing threat posed by infostealers. While the sheer volume of exposed data—including emails, passwords, and authorization...

Stalkerware apps go dark after data breach

A stalkerware company that recently leaked millions of users' personal information online has taken all of its assets offline without any explanation. Now Malwarebytes has learned that the company has taken down other apps too. Back in February, news emerged of a stalkerware app compromise...

Zero-day attacks on browsers and smartphones drop, says Google

Cybercriminals are having less success targeting end-user technology with zero-day attacks, said Google's security team this week. While most attacks do still target personal technology like smartphones and browsers, the focus is moving increasingly to enterprise tech. Zero-day vulnerabilities ar...

Oops! Google accidentally deletes some users’ Maps Timeline data

Google has admitted it accidentally deleted some users' Google Maps Timeline data after a "technical issue". As reported by Forbes on March 11, users started noticing that their Google Maps Timelines had completely disappeared. At the time, we didn't know anything about the cause of this issue...

What Google Chrome knows about you, with Carey Parker (Lock and Code S06E06)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast … Google Chrome is, by far, the most popular web browser in the world. According to several metrics, Chrome accounts for anywhere between 52% and 66% of the current global market share for web browser use. At that higher estimate, that means that, if the 5.5...

A week in security (March 3 – March 9)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: TikTok: Major investigation launched into platform’s use of children’s data PayPal scam abuses Docusign API to spread phishy emails Android zero-day vulnerabilities actively abused. Update as soon as you can I spoke to a task scammer. Here’s how it went Android...

Google now allows digital fingerprinting of its users

In the ongoing saga that is Google’s struggle to replace tracking cookies, we have entered a new phase. But whether that’s good news is another matter. For years, Google has been saying it will phase out the third-party tracking cookies that power much of its advertising business online, proposin...

Free AI editor lures in victims, installs information stealer instead on Windows and Mac

A large social media campaign was launched to promote a free Artificial Intelligence AI video editor. If the "free" part of that campaign sounds too good to be true, then that's because it was. Instead of the video editor, users got information stealing malware. Lumma Stealer was installed on...

An air fryer, a ring, and a vacuum get brought into a home. What they take out is your data (Lock and Code S05E24)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast… The month, a consumer rights group out of the UK posed a question to the public that they’d likely never considered: Were their air fryers spying on them? By analyzing the associated Android apps for three separate air fryer models from three different...

122 million people’s business contact info leaked by data broker

A data broker has confirmed a business contact information database containing 132.8 million records has been leaked online. In February, 2024, a cybercriminal offered the records for sale on a data breach forum claiming the information came from pureincubation.com. Pure Incubation was founded in...

Why your vote can’t be “hacked,” with Cait Conley of CISA (Lock and Code S05E23)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast … The US presidential election is upon the American public, and with it come fears of "election interference." But "election interference" is a broad term. It can mean the now-regular and expected foreign disinformation campaigns that are launched to sow...

Patch now! New Chrome update for two critical vulnerabilities

Google has released an update for its Chrome browser which includes patches for two critical vulnerabilities. The update brings the Stable channel to versions 130.0.6723.91/.92 for Windows and Mac and 130.0.6723.91 for Linux. The easiest way to update Chrome is to allow it to update automatically...

AI girlfriend site breached, user fantasies stolen [updated]

A hacker has stolen a massive database of users’ interactions with their sexual partner chatbots, according to 404 Media. The breached service, Muah.ai, describes itself as a platform that lets people engage in AI-powered companion NSFW chat, exchange photos, and even have voice chats. As you can...

A week in security (July 8 – July 14)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: "Nearly all" AT&T customers had phone records stolen in new data breach disclosure Fake Microsoft Teams for Mac delivers Atomic Stealer Dangerous monitoring tool mSpy suffers data breach, exposes customer details iPhone users in 98 countries warned about spyware by...

US bans Kaspersky, warns: “Immediately stop using that software”

The US government will ban the sale of Kaspersky antivirus products to new customers in the United States starting July 20, with a follow-on deadline to prohibit the cybersecurity company from providing users with software updates after September 29. The move follows years of allegations that the...

Psychotherapy practice hacker gets jail time after extorting patients, publishing personal therapy notes online

On October 30, 2020, I started a article with the words: “Hell is too nice a place for these people.” The subject of this outrage focused on the cybercriminals behind an attack on Finnish psychotherapy practice Vastaamo. Because it was a psychotherapy practice, the records contained extremely...

PetSmart warns customers of credential stuffing attack

Pet retail company PetSmart has emailed customers to alert them to a recent credential stuffing attack. Credential stuffing relies on the re-use of passwords. Take this example: User of Site A uses the same email and password to login to Site B. Site A gets compromised and those login details are...

A week in security (February 26 – March 3)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: PikaBot malware on the rise: What organizations need to know Malicious meeting invite fix targets Mac users Pig butchering scams, how they work and how to avoid them Airbnb scam sends you to a fake Tripadvisor site, takes your money Facebook bug could have allowed...

ThreatDown EDR update: Streamlined Suspicious Activity investigation

Navigating the complex world of alerts just got easier, thanks to our latest enhancements to the ThreatDown Endpoint Detection and Response EDR platform. The detailed technical information in EDR alerts—replete with complicated diagrams and references to advanced cybersecurity tactics—can overwhe...

Malvertising: This cyberthreat isn’t on the dark web, it’s on Google

On the internet, people need to worry about more than just opening suspicious email attachments or entering their sensitive information into harmful websites—they also need to worry about their Google searches. That’s because last year, as revealed in our 2024 ThreatDown State of Malware report,...

Safer Internet Day, or why Brad Pitt needed an internet bodyguard

February 6, 2024 is Safer Internet Day. When I was asked to write about the topic, I misunderstood the question and heard: “can you cover save the internet” and we all agreed that it might be too late for that. While we laughed about it, it made me think. The internet has been around for quite so...

Alleged FruitFly malware creator ruled incompetent to stand trial

On January 4, 2017, Case Western Reserve University CWRU, located in Cleveland, Ohio, became aware of an infection on more than 100 of its computers. The university was notified by an undisclosed third party, who provided information to help the team find and identify the malware. CWRU began...

Exposing the ransomware lie to “leave hospitals alone”

Ransomware groups are liars, yes, but even when these dangerous cybercriminals would ransack organizations and destroy entire companies, a few select groups espoused a sort of "honor among thieves.” According to those few groups, their cybercriminal actions would never include organizations...