Job scam uses fake Google Forms site to harvest Google logins

As part of our investigation into a job-themed phishing campaign, we came across several suspicious URLs that all looked like this: https://forms.google.ss-o.com/forms/d/e/uniqueid/viewform?form=opportunitysec&promo= The subdomain forms.google.ss-o.com is a clear attempt to impersonate the...

Fake shops target Winter Olympics 2026 fans

If you've seen the two stoat siblings serving as official mascots of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, you already know Tina and Milo are irresistible. Designed by Italian schoolchildren and chosen from more than 1,600 entries in a public poll, the duo has already captured hearts worldwide...

An AI plush toy exposed thousands of private chats with children

Bondu’s AI plush toy exposed a web console that let anyone with a Gmail account read about 50,000 private chats between children and their cuddly toys. Bondu's toy is marketed as: “A soft, cuddly toy powered by AI that can chat, teach, and play with your child.” What it doesn’t say is that anyone...

Match, Hinge, OkCupid, and Panera Bread breached by ransomware group

The ShinyHunters ransomware group has claimed the theft of data containing 10 million records belonging to the Match Group and 14 million records from bakery-café chain Panera Bread. Claims posted by ShinyHunters The Match Group, that runs multiple popular online dating services like Tinder,...

Disney fined $10m for mislabeling kids’ YouTube videos and violating privacy law

Disney will pay a $10m settlement over allegations that it violated kids' privacy rights, the Federal Trade Commission FTC said this week. The agreement, first proposed in September 2025, resolves a dispute over Disney's labeling of child-targeted content on YouTube. The thousands of YouTube vide...

Google is discontinuing its dark web report: why it matters

Google has announced that early next year they are discontinuing the dark web report, which was meant to monitor breach data that’s circulating on the dark web. The news raised some eyebrows, but Google says it’s ending the feature because feedback showed the reports didn’t provide “helpful next...

Air fryer app caught asking for voice data (re-air) (Lock and Code S06E24)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast … It's often said online that if a product is free, you're the product, but what if that bargain was no longer true? What if, depending on the device you paid hard-earned money for, you still became a product yourself, to be measured, anonymized, collated,...

The hidden costs of illegal streaming and modded Amazon Fire TV Sticks

Ahead of the holiday season, people who have bought cheap Amazon Fire TV Sticks or similar devices online should be aware that some of them could let cybercriminals access personal data, bank accounts, and even steal money. BeStreamWise, a UK initiative established to counter illegal streaming,...

What the Flock is happening with license plate readers?

You’re driving home after another marathon day of work and kid-shuttling, nursing a lukewarm coffee in a mug that's trying too hard. As you turn onto your street, something new catches your eye. It's a tall pole with a small, boxy device perched on top. But it's not a bird-house and there's no...

Mac users warned about new DigitStealer information stealer

A new infostealer called DigitStealer is going after Mac users. It avoids detection, skips older devices, and steals files, passwords, and browser data. We break down what it does and how to protect your Mac. Researchers have described a new malware called DigitStealer that steals sensitive...

Your passport, now on your iPhone. Helpful or risky?

Apple has launched Digital ID, a way for users in the US to create and present a government-issued ID in Apple Wallet using their passport information. For now, it works only for identity verification at Transportation Security Administration TSA checkpoints in more than 250 airports. Apple says...

How Malwarebytes stops the ransomware attack that most security software can’t see

Imagine this scenario: Your protection software is running perfectly. Systems are protected, definitions are up to date, behavioral analysis is active. Then, suddenly, files across your network start getting encrypted. Backups are being deleted. Ransom notes appear across your machines. Your...

Apple may have to open its walled garden to outside app stores

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority CMA ruled that both Google and Apple have a "strategic market status." Basically, they have a monopoly over their respective mobile platforms. As a result, Apple may soon be required to allow rival app stores on iPhones—a major shift for the smartphone...

You can poison AI with just 250 dodgy documents

Researchers have shown how you can corrupt an AI and make it talk gibberish by tampering with just 250 documents. The attack, which involves poisoning the data that an AI trains on, is the latest in a long line of research that has uncovered vulnerabilities in AI models. Anthropic which produces...

What does Google know about me? (Lock and Code S06E21)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast … Google is everywhere in our lives. It's reach into our data extends just as far. After investigating how much data Facebook had collected about him in his nearly 20 years with the platform, Lock and Code host David Ruiz had similar questions about the othe...

Prosper data breach puts 17 million people at risk of identity theft

Peer-to-peer lending marketplace Prosper detected unauthorized activity on their systems on September 2, 2025. It published an FAQ page later that month to address the incident. During the incident, the attacker stole personal information belonging to Prosper customers and loan applicants. As...

Can you disappear online? (Lock and Code S06E19)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast There's more about you online than you know. The company Acxiom, for example, has probably determined whether you’re a heavy drinker, or if you're overweight, or if you smoke or all three. The same company has also probably estimated—to the exact dollar—the...

AI browsers or agentic browsers: a look at the future of web surfing

Browsers like Chrome, Edge, and Firefox are our traditional gateway to the internet. But lately, we have seen a new generation of browsers emerge. These are AI-powered browsers or "agentic browsers"—which are not to be confused with your regular browsers that have just AI-powered plugins bolted o...

Fake Bureau of Motor Vehicles texts are after your personal and banking details

Scammers are sending out texts that claim to be from the Bureau of Motor Vehicles BMV, saying that you have outstanding traffic tickets. Here's an example, which was sent to one of our employees. “Ohio BMV Final Notice: Enforcement Begins September 10nd. Our records indicate that as of today, you...

Google misled users about their privacy and now owes them $425m, says court

A court has ordered Google to pay $425m in a class action lawsuit after it was found to have misled users about their online privacy. In July 2020, Google user Anibal Rodriguez filed a lawsuit against the search giant, arguing that it misled users with its "Web & App Activity" setting. The settin...

Grok chats show up in Google searches

I’m starting to feel like a broken record, but I feel you should know that yet another AI has been found sharing private conversations so that Google was able to index them, and now they can be found in search results. It’s déjà vu in the world of AI: another day, another exposé about chatbot...

How to spot the latest fake Gmail security alerts

Security alerts from tech companies are supposed to warn us when something might be amiss—but what if the alerts themselves are the risk? Scammers have long impersonated tech companies' security and support staff as a way to sniff out users' login credentials, and reports suggest that they're doi...

Trump Administration and Big Tech want you to share your health data

US President Donald Trump announced a loose plan Wednesday to allow Americans to voluntarily upload and port their medical records across hospitals, clinics, technology companies, and health apps, with broad participation from Google, Apple, OpenAI, Amazon, and more. While the system could help...

Meta AI chatbot bug could have allowed anyone to see private conversations

A researcher has disclosed to TechCrunch that he received a $10,000 bounty for reporting a bug that let anyone access private prompts and responses with the Meta AI chatbot. On June 13, we reported that the Meta AI app publicly exposes user conversations, often without users realizing it. In thes...

Corpse-eating selfies, and other ways to trick scammers (Lock and Code S06E14)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast … There’s a unique counter response to romance scammers. Her name is Becky Holmes. Holmes, an expert and author on romance scams, has spent years responding to nearly every romance scammer who lands a message in her inbox. She told one scammer pretending to ...

Why the Do Not Call Registry doesn’t work

The “Do Not Call Registry” receives a lot of hate online for failing to do its job: Stop calls. “What’s the point of being on the Do Not Call list?” wrote one user on Reddit who shared a screenshot of ten declined phone calls received across one week. Though already registered with the Do Not Cal...

A week in security (May 19 – May 25)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Lumma information stealer infrastructure disrupted Stalkerware apps go dark after data breach Scammers are using AI to impersonate senior officials, warns FBI 23andMe and its customers’ genetic data bought by a pharmaceutical org Malware-infected printer delivered...

Apple patches security vulnerabilities in iOS and iPadOS. Update now!

Apple has released a security update for iOS and iPadOS to patch two zero-day vulnerabilities which are reported to already have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals on iOS. Both vulnerabilities allowed an attacker to bypass the memory...

Meta slurps up EU user data for AI training

European Facebook users have so far avoided having their public posts used to train parent company Meta's AI model. That's about to change, the company has warned. In a blog post today, it said that EU residents' data was fair game and it would be slurping up public posts for training soon...

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...

Is your phone listening to you? (Lock and Code S06E07)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast … It has probably happened to you before. You and a friend are talking —not texting, not DMing, not FaceTiming—but talking , physically face-to-face, about, say, an upcoming vacation, a new music festival, or a job offer you just got. And then, that same wee...

I spoke to a task scammer. Here’s how it went

Tasks scam are surging, with a year over year increase of 400%. So I guess it should have been no surprise when I was contacted by a task scammer on X recently. Task scammers prey on people looking for remote jobs by offering them simple repetitive tasks such as liking videos, optimizing apps,...

Malwarebytes introduces native ARM support for Windows devices

For the last four years, Malwarebytes has been protecting ARM-based machines running on Apple’s M-series processors. Now, we’ve expanded our protection range to include ARM-based Windows machines such as Copilot+ PCs, including Microsoft Surface Pro, Lenovo Yoga Slim and ThinkPad, and Dell...

Gambling firms are secretly sharing your data with Facebook

While you might think you’re hitting the jackpot, whether you’ve consented to it or not, online gambling sites are playing with your data. Users’ data, including details of webpages they visited and buttons they clicked, are being shared with Meta, Facebook’s parent company. The Observer reports...

New scams could abuse brief USPS suspension of inbound packages from China, Hong Kong

I would be the last one to provide scammers with good ideas, but as a security provider, sometimes we need to think like criminals to stay ahead in the race. Recently, the US Postal Service USPS announced that it would suspend inbound packages from China and Hong Kong until further notice. That...

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...

US Cyber Trust Mark logo for smart devices is coming

The White House announced the launch of the US Cyber Trust Mark which aims to help buyers make an informed choice about the purchase of wireless internet-connected devices, such as baby monitors, doorbells, thermostats, and more. The cybersecurity labeling program for wireless consumer Internet o...

Task scams surge by 400%, but what are they?

An unfamiliar type of scam has surged against everyday people, with a year-over-year increase of some 400%, putting job seekers at risk of losing their time and money. The emerging threat is delivered in "task scams" or "gamified job scams." While these scams were virtually non-existent in 2020,...

AI chatbot provider exposes 346,000 customer files, including ID documents, resumes, and medical records

Researchers have discovered a huge Google Cloud Storage bucket, found freely accessible on the internet and containing a treasure trove of personal information. AI startup WotNot provides companies with the ability to create their own customized chatbot. The company reportedly has 3,000 customers...

Election season raises fears for nearly a third of people who worry their vote could be leaked

As the United States enters full swing into its next presidential election, people are feeling worried, unsafe, and afraid. And none of that has to do with who wins. According to new research from Malwarebytes, people see this election season as a particularly risky time for their online privacy...

MoneyGram confirms customer data breach

Money transfer company MoneyGram has notified its customers of a data breach in which it says certain customers had their personal information taken between September 20 and 22, 2024. The investigation into the incident that was discovered on September 27 is still ongoing, and the number of...

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...

Lowe’s employees phished via Google ads

In mid-August, we identified a malvertising campaign targeting Lowes employees via Google ads. Like many large corporations, Lowes has their own employe portal called MyLowesLife, for all matters related to schedule, pay stubs, or benefits. Lowes employees who searched for "myloweslife" during th...

“Hello pervert” sextortion scam includes new threat of Pegasus—and a picture of your home

After using passwords obtained from one of the countless breaches as a lure to trick victims into paying, the “Hello pervert” sextortion scammers have recently introduced two new pressure tactics: Name-dropping the infamous Pegasus spyware and adding pictures of your home environment. They do thi...

London’s city transport hit by cybersecurity incident [updated]

Transport for London TfL, the citys transport authority, is fighting through an ongoing cyberattack. TfL runs three separate units that arrange transports on Londons surface, underground, and Crossrail transportation systems. It serves some 8 million inhabitants of the London metropolitan area. I...

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov charged with allowing criminal activity

France has indicted the CEO of the popular messaging app Telegram on charges of complicity in the distribution of child sex abuse images, aiding organized crime, drug trafficking, fraud, and refusing lawful orders to give information to law enforcement. The arrest warrants for Pavel Durov and his...

Why you need to know about ransomware

Last month, a strange thing happened in cybersecurity: a type of cyberthreat typically reserved for large businesses and critical services appeared on the computers of everyday people. Starting on July 20, hundreds of individuals across the globe began reporting problems with ransomware. Ransomwa...

Millennials’ sense of privacy uniquely tested in romantic relationships

Millennials are in a bind. According to a new analysis of research released earlier this year by Malwarebytes, Millennials are significantly more likely than every other generation to feel that there is no need to share their online account logins with boyfriends, girlfriends, spouses, or...

Dozens of Google products targeted by scammers via malicious search ads

In a previous blog, we saw criminals distribute malware via malicious ads for Google Authenticator. This time, brazen malvertisers went as far as impersonating Googles entire product line and redirecting victims to a fake Google home page. Clearly not afraid of poking the bear, they even used and...

Windows update may present users with a BitLocker recovery screen

Some Windows users may see a BitLocker Recovery screen after applying the Microsoft patch Tuesday updates. BitLocker is a Windows security feature that encrypts entire drives. It prevents someone that has obtained a stolen or lost device from reading the files stored on that drive. Unfortunately,...