Red Cross begs attackers to “Do the right thing” after family reunion service compromised

Restoring Family Links is a program most commonly associated with The Red Cross. It’s been around since 1870, and aims to reunite lost family members, repatriate individuals, prevent folks from disappearing, and much more. You may have seen them in the news during times of disaster, war, and othe...

Open Subtitles breach: The dangers of password reuse

Popular website Open Subtitles has been breached. The impact so far: almost seven million accounts “breached and ransomed” back in August. New breach: Open Subtitles had almost 7M accounts breached and ransomed in Aug. Data included email and IP addresses, usernames and unsalted MD5 password...

Browsers on iOS, iPadOS and Mac leak your browsing activity and personal identifiers

Researchers at FingerprintJS, a Chicago-based firm that specializes in online fraud prevention, have published a software bug introduced in Safari 15’s implementation of the IndexedDB API that lets any website track your internet activity and may even reveal your identity. They found that in Safa...

REvil ransomware gang busted by Russian Federal Security Service

Eight members of the REvil ransomware group have been arrested in Russia and will be pressed with criminal charges. Russias intelligence bureau, the FSB, announced on Friday that it had conducted an operation together with the Interior Ministry in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the regions of Moscow...

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...

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...

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...

Good news: Stalkerware survey results show majority of people aren’t creepy

Back in July, we sent out a survey to Malwarebytes Labs readers on the subject of stalkerware—the term used to describe apps that can potentially invade someone’s privacy. We asked one question: “Have you ever used an app to monitor your partner’s phone?” The results were reassuring. We received...

SamSam ransomware: what you need to know

SamSam ransomware is a custom infection used in targeted attacks, often deployed using a wide range of exploits or brute-force tactics. Based on our own run-ins with the infection, we've observed that attacks were made on targets via vulnerable JBoss host servers during a previous wave of SamSam...

Security updates available for Adobe, Chrome, Firefox, VMWare, and Zoom

Security updates are not just for enterprises with a dedicated security team and a change-management calendar. For consumers and small businesses, they are one of the simplest ways to shut down known attack paths before criminals get a chance to use them. That matters because attackers love these...

Verified X ad spreads Mac malware, while ConsentFix steals Microsoft accounts

Cybercriminals are finding new ways to trick people into compromising their own devices and accounts. One campaign used a sponsored ad on X to target Mac users, while another technique, dubbed ConsentFix, steals Microsoft 365 accounts without installing malware. Verified X account used in Mac...

Apple’s Hide My Email doesn’t hide it very well

404 Media reports that a researcher has found a vulnerability in Apple’s Hide My Email feature that could allow someone to discover a person’s real email address. That's especially concerning because protecting your real email address is exactly what the feature is designed to do. 404 Media did n...

Hackers steal passport and driver’s license data of 3 million Texans

You can change a password and cancel a card. But replacing a passport or driver's license number every time someone leaves yours unsecured in a vendor database isn't so easy. More than three million Texans are facing that problem after a data breach involving a vendor used by the Texas Parks and...

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...

These convincing copyright notices are designed to steal Google logins

A new scam is targeting people who publish Chrome extensions. The scam arrives as an official-looking "copyright removal request" claiming your extension is about to be removed from the Chrome Web Store and that you have 48 hours to appeal. It even looks personalized. After you enter your...

A week in security (May 4 – May 10)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Microsoft says Edge’s plaintext password behavior is "by design" ShinyHunters escalates Canvas attacks with school login defacements Massive AI investment scam network spans 15,500 domains If a fake moustache can fool age checks, is the Online Safety Act working?...

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...

How cyberattacks on companies affect everyone

If you use the internet, you’ve likely been affected by cybercrime in some way. Even when an attack is aimed at a company, the fallout usually lands on ordinary people. The most obvious harm is stolen data. When attackers break into a business, it is usually customer information that ends up in...

Roblox clamps down on chats and age checks as legal pressure builds

Roblox has long faced criticism over child safety on its platform. Now it has started settling with state attorneys over the issue, and the total is climbing fast. On April 21, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced a $12.2 million settlement with the child-focused online gaming...

April Patch Tuesday fixes two zero-days, including one under active attack

This month’s patch Tuesday looks to remediate 167 security vulnerabilities including two zero-day vulnerabilities, one of which is known to be actively exploited in the wild. This makes April one of those months where “Patch Tuesday” looks more like “patch the entire stack,” from servers and...

FBI, CISA warn of Russian hackers hijacking Signal and WhatsApp accounts

In a Public Service Announcement PSA the Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA warn the public about ongoing Russian-linked phishing campaigns that aim to gain access to messaging accounts. Earlier this month we wrote about a large‑scale...

March 2026 Patch Tuesday fixes two zero-day vulnerabilities

Microsoft releases important security updates on the second Tuesday of every month, known as Patch Tuesday. This month’s update fixes 79 Microsoft CVEs including two zero-day vulnerabilities. Microsoft defines a zero-day as “a flaw in software for which no official patch or security update is...

Signal and WhatsApp accounts targeted in phishing campaign

Dutch intelligence services AIVD and MIVD warn that Russian state‑backed hackers are running a large‑scale campaign to break into Signal and WhatsApp accounts of high‑value targets. The targets are said to be senior officials, military personnel, civil servants, and journalists. The attackers are...

What can’t you say on TikTok?

This week on the Lock and Code podcast … A funny thing happened on TikTok last month, and it has brought allegations of censorship, manipulation, and control. It was the week of January 22, and after a long legal battle, TikTok had finally—for the first time in its company history—moved its...

Update Chrome now: Zero-day bug allows code execution via malicious webpages

Google has issued a patch for a high‑severity Chrome zero‑day, tracked as CVE‑2026‑2441, a memory bug in how the browser handles certain font features that attackers are already exploiting. CVE-2026-2441 has the questionable honor of being the first Chrome zero-day of 2026. Google considered it...

ClickFix added nslookup commands to its arsenal for downloading RATs

ClickFix malware campaigns are all about tricking the victim into infecting their own machine. Apparently, the criminals behind these campaigns have figured out that mshta and Powershell commands are increasingly being blocked by security software, so they have developed a new method using...

Apple patches zero-day flaw that could let attackers take control of devices

Apple has released security updates for iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple Watches, Apple TVs, and Safari, fixing, in particular, a zero-day flaw that is actively exploited in targeted attacks. Exploiting this zero-day flaw would allow cybercriminals to run any code they want on the affected device,...

Criminals are using AI website builders to clone major brands

AI tool Vercel was abused by cybercriminals to create a Malwarebytes lookalike website. Cybercriminals no longer need design or coding skills to create a convincing fake brand site. All they need is a domain name and an AI website builder. In minutes, they can clone a site's look and feel, plug i...

Get paid to scroll TikTok? The data trade behind Freecash ads

Loyal readers and other privacy-conscious people will be familiar with the expression, “If it’s too good to be true, it’s probably false.” Getting paid handsomely to scroll social media definitely falls into that category. It sounds like an easy side hustle, which usually means there’s a catch. I...

Can you use too many LOLBins to drop some RATs?

Recently, our team came across an infection attempt that stood out—not for its sophistication, but for how determined the attacker was to take a “living off the land” approach to the extreme. The end goal was to deploy Remcos , a Remote Access Trojan RAT, and NetSupport Manager , a legitimate...

Fake extension crashes browsers to trick users into infecting themselves

Researchers have found another method used in the spirit of ClickFix: CrashFix. ClickFix campaigns use convincing lures—historically “Human Verification” screens—to trick the user into pasting a command from the clipboard. After fake Windows update screens, video tutorials for Mac users, and many...

WhisperPair exposes Bluetooth earbuds and headphones to tracking and eavesdropping

WhisperPair is a set of attacks that lets an attacker hijack many popular Bluetooth audio accessories that use Google Fast Pair and, in some cases, even track their location via Google’s Find Hub network—all without requiring any user interaction. Researchers at the Belgian University of Leuven...

Received an Instagram password reset email? Here’s what you need to know

Last week, many Instagram users began receiving unsolicited emails from the platform that warned about a password reset request. The message said: “Hi username, We got a request to reset your Instagram password. If you ignore this message, your password will not be changed. If you didn’t request ...

Pornhub tells users to expect sextortion emails after data exposure

After a recent data breach that affected Pornhub Premium members, Pornhub has updated its online statement to warn users about potential direct contact from cybercriminals. “We are aware that the individuals responsible for this incident have threatened to contact impacted Pornhub Premium users...

How attackers use real IT tools to take over your computer

A new wave of attacks is exploiting legitimate Remote Monitoring and Management RMM tools like LogMeIn Resolve formerly GoToResolve and PDQ Connect to remotely control victims’ systems. Instead of dropping traditional malware, attackers trick people into installing these trusted IT support progra...

Google patches 107 Android flaws, including two being actively exploited

Google has patched 107 vulnerabilities in Android in its December 2025 Android Security Bulletin, including two high-severity flaws that are being actively exploited. The December updates are available for Android 13, 14, 15, and 16. Android vendors are notified of all issues at least a month...

Samsung zero-day lets attackers take over your phone

A critical vulnerability has put Samsung mobile device owners at risk of sophisticated cyberattacks. On November 10, 2025, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA added a vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-21042, to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities KEV catalog. The KEV...

Fake PayPal invoice from Geek Squad is a tech support scam

One of our employees received this suspicious email and showed it to me. Although it's a pretty straightforward attempt to lure targets into calling the scammers, it's worth writing up because it looks like it was sent out in bulk. Let's look at the red flags. Firstly, the sender address : PayPal...

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...

Phishers target 1Password users with convincing fake breach alert

In a very recent and well-targeted phishing attempt, scammers tried to get hold of the 1Password credentials belonging to a Malwarebytes’ employee. Stealing someone’s 1Password login would be like hitting the jackpot for cybercriminals, because they potentially export all the saved logins the...

Malwarebytes for Teams now includes VPN

Running a small business today can hardly be done from a single device, a single location, or a single network. Staying cybersecure is quite the same. To extend the security and privacy of small business owners, no matter where you are, Malwarebytes for Teams now includes personal VPN access, for...

How a scam hunter got scammed (Lock and Code S06E17)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast… If there’s one thing that scam hunter Julie-Anne Kearns wants everyone to know, it is that no one is immune from a scam. And she would know—she fell for one last year. For years now, Kearns has made a name for herself on TikTok as a scam awareness and...

Microsoft patches some very important vulnerabilities in August’s patch Tuesday

In the August 2025 patch Tuesday round Microsoft fixed a total of 111 Microsoft vulnerabilities. A few of them are very important for people to apply. Even if you’re not a tech expert, keeping your Windows system up to date is one of the simplest and most effective ways to protect yourself from...

23andMe raked by Congress on privacy, sale of genetic data

In a Senate hearing adequately titled “23 and You: The Privacy and National Security Implications of the 23andMe Bankruptcy,” 23andMe executives addressed concerns about the privacy implications of the company’s sale and the handling of associated genetic data. For those who missed the latest...

Pornhub, RedTube, and YouPorn block access in France, VPN use set to soar

VPNs Virtual Private Networks are suddenly popular in France. Not because France has suddenly become super privacy conscious, but because Pornhub, RedTube, and YouPorn, have blocked access in France. But why? Last year, France enacted a law mandating that pornographic sites implement stricter...

Juice jacking warnings are back, with a new twist

Remember juice jacking? It's a term that crops up every couple of years to worry travelers. This spring has seen another spate of stories, including a new, more sophisticated form of attack. But how much of a threat is it, really? Juice jacking is where an attacker uses a malicious public USB...

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...

Google AI taken for a ride by April Fools’ Day joke

Cwmbran in Wales, a town with a population of just under 50,000, holds the Guinness World Record for the most roundabouts—at least according to Google AI Overviews. Except that's not actually true… Ben Black has been publishing lighthearted fake stories on April Fools’ Day for his community news...

PayPal’s “no-code checkout” abused by scammers

We recently identified a new scam targeting PayPal customers with very convincing ads and pages. Crooks are abusing both Google and PayPal's infrastructure in order to trick victims calling for assistance to speak with fraudsters instead. Combining official-looking Google search ads with...