Ransomware cyberattack forces New Mexico jail to lock down

Five days after the new year, the Metropolitan Detention Center MDC in Bernalillo County, New Mexico suddenly went on lockdown. The reason? A ransomware cyberattack has knocked the jails internet connection offline, rendering most of their data systems, security cameras, and automatic doors...

Night Sky: the new corporate ransomware demanding a sky high ransom

Theres a new ransomware in town—isnt there always?—and its, unsurprisingly, after corporation-sized businesses. Its called Night Sky, and it was first spotted and revealed by MalwareHunterTeam, a group on Twitter who hunts malware online, on the first day of 2022. First day of the year, and a new...

Facebook’s own research reveals the harm that Instagram can inflict

For years, people have accused social media, and particularly image-driven sites like Instagram, of being bad for young people, particularly young women. It turns that Instagrams owner, Facebook, agrees. Thirty-two percent of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram...

That’s the way the cookie banner crumbles?

Elizabeth Denham, current head of the Information Commissioner’s Office ICO, the UK’s data protection watchdog and the organization tasked to ensure that businesses comply with the country’s strict data protection laws, is said to have met with her counterparts in the G7 nations on Tuesday to...

NAME:WRECK, a potential IoT trainwreck

A set of vulnerabilities has been found in the way a number of popular TCP/IP stacks handle DNS requests. Potentially this could impact hundreds of millions of servers, smart devices, and industrial equipment. The researchers that discovered the vulnerabilities have named them NAME:WRECK. Plural...

The one reason your iPhone needs a VPN

For years, Apple has marketed its iPhone as the more secure, more private option when compared to other smart phones, which do not, by default, include an end-to-end encrypted messaging app, warn users repeatedly about app location requests, or provide a privacy-forward Single Sign-On feature. Bu...

A week in security (April 23 – April 29)

Last week, we dug into behavioral biometrics, explored a new crossrider variant, and embraced the power of "no." We also launched another CrackMe challenge, took a deep dive into smart toys, and finished up with a look at digital privacy in the age of IoT. Other news LinkedIn does battle with...

FTC providing partial refunds for Advanced Tech Support victims

Last month, the FTC announced the recovery of 10 million dollars from Advanced Tech Support, one of the most successful US-based tech support scammers ever. This money will be put towards partial refunds for victims of ATS who purchased products or services from them between April 2012 and Novemb...

Update Chrome: Google patches actively exploited vulnerability and 73 others

Google has issued updates for the Chrome browser, patching a number of high‑severity vulnerabilities. The update includes fixes for 74 vulnerabilities, including one that is being actively exploited in the wild. The stable channel has been updated to 149.0.7827.102/.103 for Windows/Mac, and...

Kali365 phishing kit bypasses MFA and steals Microsoft logins

When the Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI publishes a dedicated public service announcement about a new phishing kit, it’s worth paying attention to. The agency is now warning about “Kali365,” a phishing‑as‑a‑service PhaaS platform that helps even low‑skilled attackers hijack Microsoft 365...

Meta’s confusing new approach to chat privacy

Recent news had us wondering whether Meta actually knows what it wants. On one platform, Meta is promoting AI chats that it says even it cannot read. On another, it has removed one of the few features that genuinely prevented Meta from accessing private conversations. "Meta removed support for...

ShinyHunters escalates Canvas attacks with school login defacements

Days after confirming a major data breach, Instructure is now facing a second blow. Earlier this week, Instructure confirmed a major data breach affecting its cloud‑hosted Canvas environment, with the ShinyHunters group claiming it stole hundreds of millions of records tied to thousands of school...

Thousands of Facebook accounts stolen by phishing emails sent through Google

Researchers have uncovered a long-running phishing operation that abuses trusted Google services to hijack tens of thousands of Facebook accounts. The compromised Facebook accounts are mainly business and advertiser profiles, which criminals can monetize after gaining access and control. The...

Chinese engineer stole US military and NASA software for years

International espionage isn't always about sophisticated malware and zero-day bugs. Sometimes it's as simple as pretending to be someone else asking for a favor. For four years, a Chinese aerospace engineer did just that. Dozens of researchers at NASA, the US military, and major universities hand...

Reddit, porn sites fined by UK regulators over children’s safety and privacy

The UK’s online safety and privacy regulators are targeting companies that violate new age verification laws at both ends : Porn sites that did not keep children out, and mainstream platforms that profited from children coming in. On February 23, media regulator Ofcom fined porn operators that...

February 2026 Patch Tuesday includes six actively exploited zero-days

Microsoft releases important security updates on the second Tuesday of every month, known as “Patch Tuesday.” This month’s update patches fix 59 Microsoft CVE’s including six zero-days. Let’s have a quick look at these six actively exploited zero-days. Windows Shell Security Feature Bypass...

Watch out for AT&T rewards phishing text that wants your personal details

A coworker shared this suspicious SMS where AT&T supposedly warns the recipient that their reward points are about to expire. Phishing attacks are growing increasingly sophisticated, likely with help from AI. They're getting better at mimicking major brands—not just in look, but in behavior...

Satellites leak voice calls, text messages and more

Scientists from several US universities intercepted unencrypted broadcast through geostationary satellites using only off-the-shelf equipment on a university rooftop. Geostationary satellites move at the same speed as the Earth’s rotation so it seems as though they are always above the same exact...

How to set up two-factor authentication (2FA) on your Facebook account

While two-factor authentication 2FA is not completely fool-proof, it is one of the best ways to protect your accounts from hackers. It adds an extra step when logging in, which is a small extra effort for you, but it dramatically boosts your security. With 2FA, you’ll be asked for a special login...

‘Car crash victim’ calls mother for help and $15K bail money. But it’s an AI voice scam

A woman in Florida was tricked into giving thousands of dollars to a scammer after her daughter's voice was AI-cloned and used in a scam. Sharon Brightwell says she received a call from someone who sounded just like her daughter. The woman on the other end was sobbing and crying, telling her mom...

Update your Chrome to fix new actively exploited zero-day vulnerability

Google has released an update for its Chrome browser to patch an actively exploited flaw. This update is crucial since it addresses an actively exploited vulnerability which can be exploited when the user visits a malicious website. It doesn’t require any further user interaction, which means the...

Scammers hijack websites of Bank of America, Netflix, Microsoft, and more to insert fake phone number

The examples in this post are actual fraud attempts found by Malwarebytes Senior Director of Research, Jérôme Segura. Cybercriminals frequently use fake search engine listings to take advantage of our trust in popular brands, and then scam us. It often starts, as with so many attacks, with a...

A week in security (June 9 – June 15)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Been scammed online? Here’s what to do How and where to report an online scam Google bug allowed phone number of almost any user to be discovered 44% of people encounter a mobile scam every single day, Malwarebytes finds GirlsDoPorn owner faces life in jail after...

Your Meta AI chats might be public, and it’s not a bug

Conversations that people are having with the Meta AI app are being exposed publicly, often without the users realizing it, revealing a variety of medical, legal, and private matters. The standalone app and the company's integrations with artificial intelligence AI across its platforms—Facebook,...

How to update Chrome on every operating system

We often write about important updates for the most popular browser, Google Chrome. Since it would be out of scope to post elaborate update instructions for every possible platform and operating system OS—like iOS, macOS, Windows, Android, etc.—we decided to turn this topic into a separate post...

New warning issued over toll fee scams

Over a year ago the FBI warned about what was then a new form of smishing phishing via SMS scam: text messages that demanded payment for toll fees. The FTC sent out a similar warning in January, 2025. Then, in April another wave of toll fee scams began doing the rounds. Now the Departments of Mot...

Did DOGE “breach” Americans’ data? (Lock and Code S06E08)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast … If you don't know about the newly created US Department of Government Efficiency DOGE, there's a strong chance they already know about you. Created on January 20 by US President Donald Trump through Executive Order, DOGE's broad mandate is “modernizing...

Hi, robot: Half of all internet traffic now automated

If you sometimes feel that the internet isn't the same vibrant place it used to be, you're not alone. New research suggests that most of the traffic traversing the network isn't human at all. Bots software programs that interact with web sites have been ubiquitous for years. But in its 2025 Bad B...

How ads weirdly know your screen brightness, headphone jack use, and location, with Tim Shott (Lock and Code S06E05)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast … Something's not right in the world of location data. In January, a location data broker named Gravy Analytics was hacked, with the alleged cybercriminal behind the attack posting an enormous amount of data online as proof. Though relatively unknown to most...

Android botnet BadBox largely disrupted

Removing 24 malicious apps from the Google Play store and silencing some servers almost halved a botnet known as BadBox. The BadBox botnet focuses on Android devices, but not just phones. It also affects other devices like TV streaming boxes, tablets, and smart TVs. The German BSI Federal Office...

A suicide reveals the lonely side of AI chatbots, with Courtney Brown (Lock and Code S06E03)

Today on the Lock and Code podcast … In February 2024, a 14-year-old boy from Orlando, Florida, committed suicide after confessing his love to the one figure who absorbed nearly all of his time—an AI chatbot. For months, Sewell Seltzer III had grown attached to an AI chatbot modeled after the...

These are the 10 worst PIN codes

Australian news outlet ABC NEWS analyzed a data set of 29 million 4-digit PIN numbers that people actually used to secure their devices, ATM withdrawals, building access, and more. What the outlet discovered is both expected and disappointing: Too many people use insecure PIN codes to protect...

7-Zip bug could allow a bypass of a Windows security feature. Update now

A patch is available for a vulnerability in 7-Zip that could have allowed attackers to bypass the Mark-of-the-Web MotW security feature in Windows. The MotW is an attribute added to files by Windows when they have been sourced from an untrusted location, like the internet or a restricted zone. Th...

Google Chrome AI extensions deliver info-stealing malware in broad attack

Small businesses and boutique organizations should use caution when leaning on browser-friendly artificial intelligence AI tools to generate ideas, content, and marketing copy, as a set of Google Chrome extensions were recently compromised to deliver info-stealing malware disguised as legitimate...

Connected contraptions cause conniption for 2024

The holidays are upon us, which means now is the perfect time for gratitude, warmth, and—because modern society has thrust it upon us—gift buying. It’s Bluey and dig kits and LEGOs for kids, Fortnite and AirPods and backpacks for tweens, and, for an adult you particularly love, it’s televisions,...

Is nowhere safe from AI slop? (Lock and Code S05E27)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast … You can see it on X. You can see on Instagram. It's flooding community pages on Facebook and filling up channels on YouTube. It's called "AI slop" and it's the fastest, laziest way to drive engagement. Like "click bait" before it "You won't believe what...

Our Santa wishlist: Stronger identity security for kids

Sorry for the headline, but we have to get creative to get anyone to read an article on a Friday like this one, even if it is an important story. As we enter the holidays and parents begin to rest after another hectic year of shopping for their kids, Malwarebytes Labs wants to draw some attention...

Spotify, Audible, and Amazon used to push dodgy forex trading sites and more

Spotify and Amazon services have been flooded with bogus listings that push dubious "forex trading" sites, Telegram channels, and suspicious links claiming to offer pirated software according to our friends over at BleepingComputer. Cybercriminals are abusing the options to inject keywords and...

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...

Air fryers are the latest surveillance threat you didn’t consider

Consumer group Which? has warned shoppers to be selective when it comes to buying smart air fryers from Xiaomi, Cosori, and Aigostar. We've learned to expect that “smart” appliances come with privacy risks—toothbrushes aside—but I really hadn’t given my air fryer any thought. Now things are about...

Europol warns about counterfeit goods and the criminals behind them

With the holidays around the bend, many are looking for gifts for their family and friends. And since we somehow decided we want to give more each time, we’re also looking for good deals. But European law enforcement agency Europol issued a warning about buying fake goods. Sure, they are cheaper,...

100 million US citizens officially impacted by Change Healthcare data breach

In April, we reported that a “substantial proportion” of Americans may have had their health and personal data stolen in the Change Healthcare breach. That was based on a report provided by the UnitedHealth Group after the February cyberattack on its subsidiary Change Healthcare. The attack on...

Google Search user interface: A/B testing shows security concerns remain

For the past few days, Google has been A/B testing some subtle visual changes to its user interface for the search results page. You may only get the new UI for certain types of searches or based on your current geolocation. This test is not to be confused with but could part of a previously...

Don’t share the viral Instagram Meta AI “legal” post

A new variation of a hoax that has been doing the rounds on Facebook for years has crossed over to Instagram. We’re seeing this post on Instagram Stories a lot suddenly over the last few days. The post is usually posted as a shareable screenshot on Instagram Stories, but it’s also been spotted on...

100 million+ US citizens have records leaked by background check service

A background check left a huge database unprotected online containing 2.2TB of people's data, according to research by Cybernews. The database was left passwordless and easily accessible to anyone on the internet by background check firm MC2 Data. MC2 Data gathers publicly available data to provi...

Snapchat wants to put your AI-generated face in its ads

Snapchat is reserving the right to use your selfie images to power Cameos, Generative AI, and other experiences on Snapchat, including ads, according to our friends at 404 Media, The Snapchat Support page about its My Selfie feature says: “You’ll take selfies with your Snap camera or select image...

A week in security (September 9 – September 15)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Ford seeks patent for conversation-based advertising Scammers advertise fake AppleCare+ service via GitHub repos Facebook scrapes photos of kids from Australian user profiles to train its AI PartnerLeak scam site promises victims full access to "cheating" partner’s...

Scammers advertise fake AppleCare+ service via GitHub repos

Weve uncovered a malicious campaign going after Mac users looking for support or extended warranty from Apple via the AppleCare+ support plans. The perpetrators are buying Google ads to lure in their victims and redirect them to bogus pages hosted on GitHub, the developer and code repository...

TDECU data breach affects half a million people

The Texas Dow Employees Credit Union TDECU has filed a data breach notification, reporting that the data of 500,474 people has been accessed in an external system breach. TDECU is the largest Houston-area credit union, and the fourth largest in the state of Texas. The credit union was founded by...

National Public Data leaked passwords online

Earlier this month, a huge trove of data from scraping service National Public Data was posted online. The dump made international headlines because it included data on hundreds of millions of people, and included Social Security Numbers. As if that wasnt bad enough, KrebsOnSecurity is now...