Fake Chrome updates spread malware

Compromised websites are causing big headaches for Chrome users. A campaign running since November 2022 is using hacked sites to push fake web browser updates to potential victims. Researcher Rintaro Koike says this campaign has now expanded to also target those who speak Korean, Spanish, and...

A week in security (April 10 - 16)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: How the cops buy a "God view" of your location data, with Bennett Cyphers: Lock and Code S04E09 Apple releases emergency updates for two known-to-be-exploited vulnerabilities Don't plug your phone into a free charging station, warns FBI KFC, Pizza Hut owner employe...

Don't plug your phone into a free charging station, warns FBI

In a recent tweet, the FBI office in Denver warned consumers against using free public charging stations, stating that criminals have managed to hijack public chargers with the objective of infecting devices with malware or other software that can give hackers access to your phone, tablet or...

Do cyber regulations actually make K–12 schools safer? Navigating compliance while securing school and student data

Over the last decade, K-12 schools have made great strides in employing technologies that facilitate learning--especially since the onset of pandemic-induced distance education. While students have long since returned to the classroom, digital platforms for instruction, collaboration, and homewor...

TikTok misused children's data, faces $15.6M fine

TikTok has been ordered to pay a fine of $15.6M £12.7M for failing to protect 1.4 million UK children under the age of 13 from accessing its platform in 2020. The Information Commissioner's Office ICO, the UK's data protection watchdog, imposed the fine after finding the company used children's...

Pre-ransomware notifications are paying off right from the bat

CISA Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has published the first results of its pre-ransomware notifications that were introduced at the start of 2023. Even though this initiative is relatively young, CISA says it has notified over 60 entities across the energy, healthcare,...

A week in security (March 27 - April 2)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Solving the passwords hardest problem with passkeys, featuring Anna Pobletts Food giant Dole reveals more about ransomware attack Bogus Chat GPT extension takes over Facebook accounts Ransomware gunning for transport sector's OT systems next GitHub accidentally...

ChatGPT leaks bits of users' chat history

New gadgets and software come with new bugs, especially if they're rushed. We can see this very clearly in the race between tech giants to push large language models LLMs like ChatGPT and its competitors out the door. In the most recently revealed LLM bug, ChatGPT allowed some users to see the...

Facebook illegally processed user data, says court

The Amsterdam court has ruled that Facebook illegally processed user data in a case started by the Dutch Data Privacy Stichting DPS, a foundation that acts on behalf of victims of privacy violations in the Netherlands. According to the ruling, Facebook used personal data for advertising purposes ...

National Cybersecurity Strategy Document: What you need to know

The US Government has been working on the National Cybersecurity Strategy Document 2023 for some time now, and its finally been released. The strategy document, which replaces the last such piece of work from 2018, attempts to indicate the general direction of the US approach to cybercrime and...

iPhone calendar spam: What it is, and how to remove it

If you open up your iPhone and see a variety of messages claiming that youve been hacked, your phone is not protected, that viruses have damaged your phone, or, my personal favourite, "Click to get rid of annoying ads", fear not. Its quite possible youve accidentally wandered into a common form o...

French law to report cyberincidents within 3 days to become effective soon

The pressure on victims of cybercrime to notify authorities in a timely manner is increasing from many sides and for multiple reasons. On January 24, 2023 France passed a law Article L12-10-1 of the Insurance Code that victims of cybercrime are required to report the incident within 72 hours afte...

Malwarebytes recognized as endpoint security leader by G2

G2 has released their Winter 2023 reports, ranking Malwarebytes as the leader across a number of endpoint protection categories. Based on verified customer reviews, Malwarebytes has been ranked 1 over top EDR vendors for endpoint malware and antivirus protection, detection and remediation of...

Cybersecurity and privacy tips you can teach your 5+-year-old

Everything we teach our kids starts at home--we parents are their first teachers, after all. So, why wait for them to start going to school to start learning about cybersecurity and online privacy? Though it's hardly news that more and more children are being introduced to mobile computing device...

A week in security (January 23—29)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: T-Mobile reports data theft of 37 million customers in the US Ransomware revenue significantly down over 2022 Microsoft to end direct sale of Windows 10 licenses at the end of January TikTok CEO told to "step up efforts to comply" with digital laws 4 ways to protec...

Video game playing FISH live streams credit card 'theft'

A fish is in hot water metaphorically speaking after having performed some incredible antics on a video game live stream. The fish, known for playing popular video game titles to completion on live streams, decided to take that whole gamer lifestyle thing a little too far and went on a rip-roarin...

Accountant ordered to pay ex-employer after bossware shows "time theft"

The case of Karlee Besse, an accountant in British Colombia, was recently dismissed by the Civil Resolution Tribunal CRT in Canada, with a judge ordering her to pay back her former employer, Reach CPA, for "engaging in time theft"--a revelation that wouldn't have been possible if not for software...

Cyberattack halts Royal Mail's overseas post

If youre looking to send letters or parcels outside of the UK using Royal Mail, youll want to hold off for a little while. Royal Mail is suffering from "severe disruption" after an unnamed cyber incident. While no specifics are currently available, Royal Mail has disclosed enough to let us know...

New streaming ad technology plays hide-and-seek with gamers

A new form of digital advertising is looking to make its way to you courtesy of video gaming. However, theres a rather peculiar twist involved. These ads wont appear in front of you while playing; in fact, theyre designed to trigger when someone else is in-game. The most baffling twist of all?...

New PHP-based Ducktail infostealer is now after crypto wallets

A phishing campaign known to specifically target employees with access to their company's Facebook Business and Ads accounts has significantly widened its net and begun using a first-of-its-kind information-stealing malware to go after crypto wallets. The Ducktail Woo-ooh! campaign was first made...

FBI, CISA warn of disinformation ahead of midterms

In less than four weeks, the balance of power in the US House of Representatives and Senate will be up for grabs, along with a host of gubernatorial seats, and positions at the state and municipal levels. With everyone preparing to cast their ballots, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and...

Security awareness campaign highlights things your bank will never say

If you like anti-phishing efforts, hashtags, and confusing but colourful video games, youll be interested to know that a security initiative involving all three is now live. The American Bankers Association and other banks in the US are involved in an awareness campaign tied in with National...

Kim Kardashian gets huge fine for crypto ad

The Securities and Exchange Commission SEC announced in a recent press release that it's charging celebrity influencer Kim Kardashian for violating Section 17b of the Securities Act of 1933, or the anti-touting provision. Kardashian was paid to promote EthereumMax or EMAX, a crypto asset security...

Huge increase in smishing scams, warns IRS

The Internal Revenue Service IRS has issued a warning for taxpayers about a recent increase in IRS-themed smishing scams aimed at stealing personal and financial information. Smishing is short for SMS phishing, where the phishes are sent via text message. The IRS has identified and reported...

YouTube transparency report shows battle against misinformation

Statistics for YouTube community guidelines enforcement are now available for the period April to June 2022, via Googles Transparency Report. YouTube channels are terminated if they accrue three community guideline strikes in 90 days, have a case of severe abuse predatory behaviour, for example, ...

Controversial Kids' Code aims to keep children safe online

California has passed a bill designed to make the internet a safer place for children. The bill, commonly referred to as the "Kids Code", has been passed by the State Senate. If signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, it will spring into life. What is it, and how is it designed to help children be safe...

Now it's BlenderBot's turn to make shocking, inappropriate, and untrue remarks

Last Friday, Meta unveiled its new BlenderBot 3 AI chatbot, a conversational AI prototype. The company said its chatbot is designed to learn by having natural conversations with people online. It also improves its skills via human feedback. Meta also asserts with confidence that the more the AI...

How to protect yourself and your kids against device theft

In no time at all, kids will be going back to school or starting college. And while gearing up for this, its very important to be aware of the threat from device loss in the school environment. Maybe you are away at university for the first time and have a new place to live, or maybe your kids ha...

The ransomware landscape changes as fewer victims decide to pay

Fewer victims are choosing to pay their ransomware extorters, especially among large enterprises, according to a recent investigation from Coveware. As a result of this, and other circumstances, we can see some shifts in the way that ransomware groups and their affiliates work. Large organization...

Facebook gets round tracking privacy measure by encrypting links

A form of individual tracking specific to your web browser is at the heart of a currently contested privacy battle, and one which Facebook has just got the upper hand to. This type of tracking involves adding additional parameters to the URLs that you click on a daily basis. When you click one of...

Fake job offer leads to $600 million theft

Back in March, popular NFT battler Axie Infinity lay at the heart of a huge cryptocurrency theft inflicted on the Ronin network. From the Ronin newsletter: There has been a security breach on the Ronin Network. Earlier today, we discovered that on March 23rd, Sky Mavis’s Ronin validator nodes and...

Apple Lockdown Mode helps protect users from spyware

Apple has announced a new feature of iOS 16 called Lockdown Mode. This new feature is designed to provide a safer environment on iOS for people at high risk of what Apple refers to as "mercenary spyware." This includes people like journalists and human rights advocates, who are often targeted by...

Google to delete location data of trips to abortion clinics

The historical overturning of Roe v. Wade in June prompted lawmakers and technology companies to respond with deep concern over the future of data. Google is one of those companies. In a post to "The Keyword" blog last week, Google said it will act further in protecting its users privacy by...

City worker loses USB stick containing data on every resident after day of drinking

A person working in the city of Amagasaki, in Western Japan, has mislaid a USB stick which contained data on the citys 460,000 residents. The USB drive was in a bag that went missing during a reported day of drinking and dining at a restaurant last Tuesday. The person reported it to the police th...

FBI warns of scammers soliciting donations for Ukraine

The FBI recently issued an announcement about a fraudulent scheme that proves there is no low thats too low for scammers. "Criminal actors are taking advantage of the crisis in Ukraine by posing as Ukrainian entities needing humanitarian aid or developing fundraising efforts, including monetary a...

If you get an email saying “Item stopped due to unpaid customs fee”, it’s a fake

Our spam traps recently caught a phishing scam that neatly illustrates some of the tactics scammers use routinely to avoid both human intuition, and automatic detection. The scam starts with an unsolicited email, of course… The scam email is ostensibly from the Post Office, an instantly...

A special browser designed for online banking. Good idea, or not so much?

The German Sparkasse bank has launched a browser that is especially designed to do your online banking. The browser called S-Protect is available for macOS and Windows users. The idea is interesting, since having a separate browser for banking can certainly add an extra layer of security. Separat...

Steer clear of these Instagram “Get rich with Bitcoin” scams

I don’t know about you, but I open Instagram to look at cool photos of pets, not to make a fortune via suspicious claims of riches by strangers. Despite this, following someone whose photos I liked resulted in a very peculiar message. It’s possible I waved goodbye to a path to untold riches. Mayb...

Pegasus spyware found on UK government office phone

“When we found the No. 10 case, my jaw dropped." John Scott-Railton recalled after finding out on July 7, 2020 that Pegasus, the highly sophisticated flagship spyware of Israels NSO Group, was used to infect a phone linked to the network at 10 Downing Street, the UK Prime Ministers home and offic...

Cash App breached by a former employee could affect millions

In December last year, the customer information of Cash App users was accessed by a former employee of Block, the company behind the popular mobile payment service app. This was revealed in a very recent filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission SEC, which shows that the former employee...

Hive ransomware impacts California non-profit health organisation

Ransomware authors are once again targeting health services, holding important files to ransom and impacting potentially vital services. On this occasion, the victims are a non-profit organisation assisting people with their healthcare needs in California. When Hive ransomware strikes The victim,...

MITRE ATT&CK® Evaluation results: Malwarebytes’ efficiency, delivered simply, earns high marks

Cybersecurity can be complex work, as security teams need to regularly decipher and prioritize alerts, protect against daily threats, and possibly implement product configuration changes, all while staying abreast of the latest intelligence on new and evolving threats. For organizations that lack...

“A little gift for you” SMS spam appears to come from your own phone number

If youve received a spam SMS message sent from your own phone number, dont panic. No, you werent hacked. And youre not the only one who has received such a message, which looks a bit like this: A colleague received this same spam SMS message that has been going around more frequently these past f...

Deepfake Zelenskyy video surfaces on compromised websites

It’s been a long time coming. The worry over deepfake technology being used during times of major upheaval has been alluded to frequently over the last couple of years. The buildup to the US election was peppered by “any moment now…” style warnings of dramatic and plausible deepfake deployment. I...

Ransomware: February 2022 review

The Malwarebytes Threat Intelligence team continuously monitors the threat landscape to stay on top of existing and emerging attacks. In this February 2022 ransomware review, we go over some the most successful ransomware incidents based on both open source and dark web intelligence. BlackByte...

Twitter makes the leap to Tor

Tor is getting another visibility boost for people who may not otherwise come into contact with it. The reason: an attempt to navigate increasing amounts of censorship. What is Tor? The Tor network is something designed to keep communications anonymous. A variety of tools exist to make use of it,...

When fake dating profiles try the military approach

I’ve run into many romance scams over the years. You’ll find them lurking on social media, instant messaging, chatrooms/forums, and many more besides. They’re particularly popular during times of war or natural disaster, as they often dovetail into donation and charity scams. The icing on the cak...

How to update your drivers and when you need to

Many software vendors have a driver updater in their arsenal. But is it really that important to have the latest computer drivers? Where do you get them? And how do you go about updating? Driver updates fix security and compatibility problems, errors, broken code, and sometimes even add features ...

Ransomware author releases decryption keys, says goodbye forever

Update 12th February: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that the decryption tool used to unlock files existed prior to the keys being released - this has now been corrected. If you’re unfortunate enough to be caught out by ransomware, the consequences can be devastating. You may ...

Meta blows safety bubble around users after reports of sexual harassment

There’s trouble brewing in the Metaverse, but the trouble isnt a particularly new problem. In fact, it’s been an issue for years - and so have many of the solutions. Strangely, Meta is having to play catch-up where some basic security and safety settings are concerned in the virtual realm. At...