QR codes used to phish for Microsoft credentials

Researchers have published details about a phishing campaign that uses QR codes to phish for Microsoft credentials. A QR Quick Response code is a kind of two-dimensional barcode that holds encoded data in a graphical black-and-white pattern. The data that a QR code stores can include URLs, email...

A week in security (August 7 - August 13)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Zoom clarifies user consent requirement when training its AI Several hospitals still counting the cost of widespread ransomware attack Old exploit kits still kicking around in 2023 YouTube makes sweeping changes to tackle spam on Shorts videos Googles "browse...

Malvertising: A stealthy precursor to infostealers and ransomware attacks

This article is based on research by Jerome Segura, Senior Director of Threat Intelligence at Malwarebytes, who oversees data collection from spam feeds and telemetry to identify the most relevant threats. Malvertising, the practice of using online ads to spread malware, can have dire...

Phishing scam takes $950k from DoorDash drivers

A particularly nasty slice of phishing, scamming, and social engineering is responsible for DoorDash drivers losing a group total of around $950k. DoorDash drivers are contractors who pick up food deliveries from stores and restaurants and deliver the products to the customer. A 21 year old man...

A week in security (June 5 - 11)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Trusting AI not to lie: The cost of truth: Lock and Code S04E12 5 unusual cybersecurity tips that actually work The 2023 State of Ransomware in Education: 84% increase in attacks over 6-month period Information stealer compromises legitimate sites to attack other...

5 unusual cybersecurity tips that actually work

So, youre on top of your software updates, you use a password manager, youve enabled two-factor authentication wherever you can, youve got BrowserGuard installed, and youre running Malwarebytes Premium. If you're doing all of that you're already winning at security. But you want more, because you...

Google adds unwanted tracker detection to Find My Device network

Last week we reported that Google and Apple were looking for input on a draft specification to alert users in the event of suspected unwanted tracking. Apple and Google said other tracker makers like Samsung, Tile, Chipolo, eufy Security, and Pebblebee have expressed interest in their draft. Now,...

The one and only password tip you need

OK, its time for me to keep a promise. Back in October 2022, I wrote an article called Why almost everything we told you about passwords was wrong. The article summarizes how a lot of what youve been told about passwords over the years was either wrong change your passwords as often as your...

Sextortion "assistance" scammers con victims further

The FBI is warning of a particular aspect of sextortion scams: Supposed organisations that offer "help" to remove stolen images, often at a significant financial cost and no guarantee of success. Sextortion, the act of blackmailing individuals for cash in return for not leaking sensitive imagery...

Western Digital confirms breach, affects My Cloud and SanDisk users

Western Digital, a big brand in digital storage, says it has suffered a "network security incident--potentially ransomware--which resulted in a breach and some system disruptions in its business operations. The company identified the incident on March 26 and said an unnamed third party unlawfully...

Fake ransomware demands payment without actually encrypting files

Fake it till you make it ransomware groups are trying to get rich off the backs of genuine ransomware authors. Why are they "fake it till you make it"? Because they dont actually create ransomware or compromise networks in any way. Theyre simply lying through their teeth and hoping that recipient...

New macOS malware steals sensitive info, including a user's entire Keychain database

A new macOS malware--called MacStealer--that is capable of stealing various files, cryptocurrency wallets, and details stored in specific browsers like Firefox, Chrome, and Brave, was discovered by security researchers from Uptycs, a cybersecurity company specializing in cloud security. It can al...

LockBit ransomware demands $2 million for Pierce Transit data

The Pierce County Public Transportation Benefit Area Corporation Pierce Transit has fallen victim to a cyberattack using LockBit ransomware. Pierce Transit is a public transit operator in Washington state. The attack began on February 14, 2023, and required Pierce Transit to implement temporary...

WordPress sites backdoored with ad fraud plugin

WordPress is an immensely popular content management system CMS powering over 43% of all websites. Many webmasters will monetize their sites by running ads and need to draw particular attention to search engine optimization SEO techniques to maximize their revenues. But some people will take a...

Up to 10 million people potentially impacted by JD Sports breach

Were at the start of February, and news of breaches keeps on coming. In this case, though, while the news that 10 million JD Sports customers may have been impacted by a cyber attack has only just arrived, the data potentially accessed in that attack is already several years old. The danger zone ...

40% of online shops tricking users with “dark patterns”

The European Commission has been looking at retail websites to see if they're misleading consumers with "dark patterns". Spoiler: Yes, they are. The Commission, along with the national consumer protection authorities of 23 EU member states, plus Norway and Iceland, have released the results of...

Mailchimp breach feels like deja vu

A threat actor successfully used compromised employee credentials to gain access to 133 accounts on Mailchimp, the mainstream Intuit-owned email marketing platform, in a security incident that recently came to light. "On January 11, the Mailchimp Security team identified an unauthorized actor...

2023 prediction: Security workforce shortage will lead to nationally significant cyberattack

If 2022 was any indication, businesses are about to face an unprecedented volume, frequency, and sophistication of cyberthreats in 2023. Global cyberattacks have increased by 483 percent over the last two years, and at the current rate of growth, damage from such attacks will amount to $10.5...

Pokemon NFT card game malware chooses you

Pokemon fans are urged to be on their guard after bogus card game portals have been offering up malware under the guise of NFTs. The sites in question offer up an enticing looking mix of card gaming with a splash of money making on the side. Digital card games are big business in gaming circles,...

A week in security (January 1 - 8)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Why does technology no longer excite us? Lock and Code S04E01 New device? Here's how to safely dispose of your old one LastPass updates security notice with information about a recent incident Okta breached last month, no customers compromised Update VPN Plus Serve...

Okta breached last month, no customers compromised

Some of Oktas source code fell into the hands of an unauthorized party. The code was stolen from GitHub in the first part of December, according to a statement issued by the company. In the same statement the company reassured users that there was no impact to any customers. Okta Okta is an acces...

LinkedIn introduces new security features to combat fake accounts

LinkedIn knows it has a problem with bots and fake accounts, and has acknowledged this on more than one occasion. For years, it has been aware of spam, fake job offers, phishing, fraudulent investments, and at times malware, and has been trying to combat those issues. In 2018, LinkedIn rolled out...

Police warn of fake law enforcement arrest warrant calls

Brownsville Police Department is warning about scammers impersonating law enforcement in order to extract money from potential victims. The scam involves pressure from an immediate threat, several ways to extract yourself from this non-existent claim of wrongdoing, and multiple levels of...

Point-of-sale malware used to steal 167,000 credit cards

In the 19 months between February 2021 and September 2022, two point-of-sale POS malware operators have stolen more than 167,000 payment records, mainly from the US, according to researchers at Group-IB. The researchers were able to retrieve information about infected machines and compromised...

Former cop abused unrevoked system access to extort women

When Bryan Wilson, a former Louisville Metropolitan Police Department LMPD officer in Kentucky, pleaded guilty to cyberstalking charges in June, details of his crime weren't revealed. Now they have. A new court document discloses facts about how he stole sexually explicit photos and videos from...

Admin from hell facing 10 years for sabotaging ex-employer's network

The perils of the insider threats are often talked about in abstract terms, probably because most organisations want to keep a lid on internally-based bad actors. Every so often, concrete details emerge to highlight what a thoroughly rotten day a rogue employee can inflict on everybody else thoug...

A week in security (September 26 – October 2)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Why almost everything we told you about passwords was wrong Two new Exchange Server zero-days in the wild Local government cybersecurity: 5 best practices Optus data breach "attacker" says sorry, it was a mistake Fast Company hacked to send obscene and racist...

School app Seesaw compromised to send shock NSFW image

On Wednesday, parents and teachers reported that student learning platform, Seesaw, had been hacked after some users received an infamous explicit photo known as "goatse" on private chats. Schools from districts in Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, New York, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Texas...

Facebook engineers aren't sure where all user data is kept

If it takes a village to raise a child, apparently it takes Facebook a team to tell you what data the company keeps about you and where they keep it. In the recently unsealed transcript of a hearing led by "Discovery Special Master" Daniel Garrie, an expert appointed by the court, two Facebook...

The North Face hit by credential stuffing attack

The North Face clothing brand, which specialises in outdoor and heavy weather outerwear, has experienced a "large-scale" credential stuffing attack. This has resulted in no fewer than 194,905 accounts being compromised. What is credential stuffing, and how did it affect The North Face customers?...

Instagram receives record fine of $400M for abuse of children's data

Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner DPC, the lead regulator in Europe for Meta and other tech giants, has slapped Instagram with a fine of €405M--roughly equivalent to $402M--following an investigation on how the company handled children's data. In the investigation that started in 2020, the D...

What is a keylogger?

A blog post published earlier this year posed the question "Is Grammarly a keylogger?" I have personally had people reference that post and ask me to add detection of Grammarly to Malwarebytes. The answer has always been, "no." Whether or not you like what Grammarly does, Grammarly is not a...

A week in security (August 15 - August 21)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Donut breach: Lessons from pen-tester Mike Miller: Lock and Code S03E17 Introducing Malwarebytes Cloud Storage Scanning: How to scan for malware in cloud file storage repositories JSSLoader: the shellcode edition CISA and FBI issue alert about Zeppelin ransomware H...

Nearly 2,000 Signal users affected by Twilio phishing attack

New findings following the Twilio phishing attack revealed that Signal, one of its high-value clients and a popular encrypted messaging platform, was particularly affected. 1,900 of its users had their phone numbers and SMS registration codes exposed. However, Signal reassured users that the...

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...

TikTok owner ByteDance pushed a pro-China agenda to Americans, say former employees

Controversy over supposed pro-China messaging in apps from TikTok owner Bytedance continues to grow. Tales are emerging relating to a now shelved app called TopBuzz. Former employees have spoken to BuzzFeed, making claims of both pro-China content promotion and forms of censorship elsewhere...

Anti-vaxxer dating site exposes user data

An anti-vax dating site has been revealed as shockingly easy to compromise by security researchers. Many major aspects of the site, from membership subscriptions to support tickets, were found to be vulnerable. The site, called Unjected, has been around since last year. It functions as a sort of...

Malware spent months hoovering up credit card details from 300 US restaurants

Criminal hackers have been able to steal at least 50,000 credit cards from 300 restaurants in the US, after launching two Magecart campaigns that target the MenuDrive, Harbortouch, and InTouchPOS online payment platforms: Magecart is a web-skimmer—malware that is injected onto a vulnerable websit...

Roe v. Wade: How the cops can use your data: Lock and Code S03E15

On the evening of June 23, in the United States, millions of women went to bed with a Constitutional right to choose to have an abortion, and they went to bed with the many assurances that are tied to that right—to speak about getting an abortion, to organize and provide support to those seeking...

North Korean APT targets US healthcare sector with Maui ransomware

State-sponsored North Korean threat actors have been targeting the US Healthcare and Public Health HPH sector for the past year using the Maui ransomware, according to a joint cybersecurity advisory CSA from the FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA, and the Department of the...

Immigration organisations targeted by APT group Evilnum

Organisations working in the immigration sector are advised to be on high alert for Advanced Persistent Threat APT attacks. Bleeping Computer reports that European organisations, specifically, are under threat from the Evilnum hacking group. Evilnum, on the APT scene since 2018 at the earliest an...

Conti ransomware group’s pulse stops, but did it fake its own death?

The dark web leak site used by the notorious Conti ransomware gang has disappeared, along with the chat function it used to negotiate ransoms with victims. For as long as this infrastructure is down the group is unable to operate and a significent threat is removed from the pantheon of ransomware...

ALPHV squeezes victim with dedicated leak site for employees and customers

Eyebrows were raised this week when the ALPHV ransomware group created a leak site dedicated to just one of its victims. The site was aimed at the employees and guests of a hotelier that had been attacked, and allowed them to see if their personal details had been leaked. The new tactic seems to ...

Microsoft Autopatch is here…but can you use it?

Updating endpoints on a network can be a daunting task. Testing before rollout can take time. Delays to patches going live can cause all manner of headaches. Windows Autopatch aims to tackle some of these issues, and is now live for public preview. The release comes with a few caveats which youll...

Why you should act like your CEO’s password is “qwerty”

A poor password at the highest levels of an organisation can cost a company millions in losses. Recent findings show that half of IT leaders store passwords in shared documents. On top of that, it seems that folks at executive level are not picking good passwords either. Researchers from NordPass...

Long lost @ symbol gets new life obscuring malicious URLs

Threat actors have rediscovered an old and little-used feature of web URLs, the innocuous @ symbol we usually see in email addresses, and started using it to obscure links to their malicious websites. Researchers from Perception Point noticed it being used in a cyberattack against multiple...

Clearview AI banned from selling facial recognition data in the US

Clearview AI, a facial recognition software and surveillance company, is permanently banned from selling its faceprint database within the United States. The company also cannot sell its database to state and law enforcement entities in Illinois for five years. This is a historic win for the...

Facebook phishers threaten users with Page Recovery Help Support

We’ve seen multiple hijacked profiles on Facebook recently claiming to be account recovery services. These bogus account recovery services arent here to help. Theyre actually just trying to scare users into falling for phishing attempts. The people behind these scams target Facebook pages belongi...

A week in security (April 18 – 24)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Why you shouldn’t automate your VirusTotal uploads North Korean Lazarus APT group targets blockchain tech companies Watch out for Ukraine donation scammers in Twitter replies Beware tragic “my daughter died…” Facebook posts offering free PS5s US warns of APT groups...

Watch out for Ukraine donation scammers in Twitter replies

The invasion of Ukraine has been a money making opportunity for scammers since the moment it began: Fake donation sites, bogus Red Cross portals, phishing pages, the works. These scams can also be found on social media. Faking donations on Twitter Some users of social media have become very...