Russian hacking group targets home and small office routers to spy on users

British security officials found that a group linked to the Russian military is spying on users of compromised Small Office/Home Office SOHO routers in a broad cyber espionage campaign. A Microsoft blog goes into the technical details of these attacks. The group, which we’ll refer to as APT28, bu...

Traffic violation scams swap links for QR codes to steal your card details

As soon as people start to get to grips with a certain type of scam, criminals deploy new tactics to keep stealing money. Now people have learned to distrust links in text messages, scammers have changed the bait, and in 2026 the “new link” is often a QR code tucked inside a fake notice. The late...

Killer robots are here. Now what? (Lock and Code S07E07)

Big news : Lock and Code is nominated for a Webby Award! You can help us win the People's Voice Award by voting here. Vote now! This week on the Lock and Code podcast … We have to talk about killer robots. No, not the Terminator, and not some Boston Dynamics robot run amok. We have to talk instea...

Scam compounds hiring “AI models” to seal the deal in deepfake video calls

Scam compounds in Southeast Asia have already become modern slave farms, trapping victims and forcing many of them to become scammers for them. Now they've added another type of worker to the mix: so-called AI models. These professional scammers conduct video calls with their targets, charming th...

FriendlyDealer mimics official app stores to push unvetted gambling apps

We’ve identified a huge social-engineering campaign designed to steer people into online gambling sites under the impression they’re installing a legitimate app. We’re calling it FriendlyDealer. It’s been observed across at least 1,500 domains, each hosting a website that impersonates the Google...

Does the UK really want to ban VPNs? And can it be done?

The idea of a "Great British Firewall" makes for a catchy headline, but it would be riddled with holes and cause huge problems. The Guardian reports that the GCHQ Government Communications Headquarters, a UK intelligence, security, and cyber agency, is exploring the idea of a British firewall...

How to understand and avoid Advanced Persistent Threats

By definition, an advanced persistent threat APT is a prolonged, targeted attack on a specific victim with the intention to compromise their system and gain information from or about that target. About a decade ago, the term was mostly used for state-sponsored threat actors. I used threat actors...

Instagram flagged explicit messages to minors in 2018. Image-blurring arrived six years later

Meta took six years to blur explicit images on Instagram, even though internal emails show executives were aware in 2018 that minors were receiving them, according to newly unsealed court documents. In a deposition given last year, Adam Mosseri now the head of Instagram discusses an email thread...

Intimate products maker Tenga spilled customer data

Tenga confirmed reports published by several outlets that the company notified customers of a data breach. The Japanese manufacturer of adult products appears to have fallen victim to a phishing attack targeting one of its employees. Tenga reportedly wrote in the data breach notification: “An...

Chrome “preloading” could be leaking your data and causing problems in Browser Guard

This article explains why Chrome’s “preloading” feature can cause scary-looking blocks in Malwarebytes Browser Guard and how to turn it off. Modern browsers want to provide content instantly. To do that, Chrome includes a feature called page preloading. When this is enabled, Chrome doesn’t just...

Google will pay $8.25m to settle child data-tracking allegations

Google has settled yet another class-action lawsuit accusing it of collecting children’s data and using it to target them with advertising. The tech giant will pay $8.25 million to address allegations that it tracked data on apps specifically designated for kids. AdMob's mobile data collection Th...

Dutch police sell fake tickets to show how easily scams work

If you can’t beat them, copy them. That seems to be the thinking behind an unusual campaign by the Dutch police, who set up a fake ticket website selling tickets that don’t exist. The website, TicketBewust.nl, invites people to order tickets for events like football matches and concerns. But the...

Enshittification is ruining everything online (Lock and Code S07E01)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast … There's a bizarre thing happening online right now where everything is getting worse. Your Google results have become so bad that you’ve likely typed what you’re looking for, plus the word “Reddit,” so you can find discussion from actual humans. If you...

Photo booth flaw exposes people’s private pictures online

Photo booths are great. You press a button and get instant results. The same can’t be said, allegedly, for the security practices of at least one company operating them. A security researcher spent weeks trying to warn a photo booth operator about a vulnerability in its system. The flaw reportedl...

Fileless protection explained: Blocking the invisible threat others miss

Most antivirus software for personal users scans your computer for malware hiding in files. This is, after all, how most malware is traditionally spread. But what about attacks that never create files? Fileless malware is a fast-growing threat that evades traditional antivirus software, because...

A week in security (November 24 – November 30)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: How CVSS v4.0 works: characterizing and scoring vulnerabilities Millions at risk after nationwide CodeRED alert system outage and data breach Holiday shoppers targeted as Amazon and FBI warn of surge in account takeover attacks Fake LinkedIn jobs trick Mac users in...

Fake LinkedIn jobs trick Mac users into downloading Flexible Ferret malware

Researchers have discovered a new attack targeting Mac users. It lures them to a fake job website, then tricks them into downloading malware via a bogus software update. The attackers pose as recruiters and contact people via LinkedIn, encouraging them to apply for a role. As part of the...

Why it matters when your online order is drop-shipped

Online shopping has never been easier. A few clicks can get almost anything delivered straight to your door, sometimes at a surprisingly low price. But behind some of those deals lies a fulfillment model called drop-shipping. It's not inherently fraudulent, but it can leave you disappointed,...

Are you paying more than other people? NY cracks down on surveillance pricing

When you search for a product online, you might think you're getting the same price as everyone else. Think again. Your price might be different based on everything from your location to what you've looked at online. Companies often use algorithms to set their prices that rely heavily on customer...

Fake CAPTCHA sites now have tutorial videos to help victims install malware

Early on in 2025, I described how criminals used fake CAPTCHA sites and a clipboard hijacker to provide instructions for website visitors that would effectively infect their own machines with an information stealer known as the Lumma Stealer. ClickFix is the name researchers have since given to...

School’s AI system mistakes a bag of chips for a gun

An artificial intelligence AI detection system at Kenwood High School mistakenly flagged a student’s bag of potato chips as a gun, triggering a police response. The 16-year-old had finished eating a bag of Doritos and crumpled it up in his pocket when he was done. But the school’s AI-based gun...

Over 100 Chrome extensions break WhatsApp’s anti-spam rules

Recent research by Socket’s Threat Research Team uncovered a massive, coordinated campaign flooding the Chrome Web Store with 131 spamware extensions. These add-ons hijack WhatsApp Web—the browser version of WhatsApp—to automate bulk messages and skirt anti-spam controls. Spamware is software tha...

Zero-click Dolby audio bug lets attackers run code on Android and Windows devices

Researchers from Google’s Project Zero discovered a medium-severity remote code execution RCE vulnerability that affects multiple platforms, including Android Samsung and Pixel devices and Windows. Remote code execution means an attacker could run programs on your device without your permission...

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...

A week in security (September 29 – October 5)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: From threats to apology, hackers pull child data offline after public backlash Your Meta AI conversations may come back as ads in your feed Scam Facebook groups send malicious Android malware to seniors Sendit tricked kids, harvested their data, and faked messages,...

Your Meta AI conversations may come back as ads in your feed

Meta has announced that conversations with its AI assistant will soon be used for targeted advertising. If you’re the kind of person that notices ads for products just after you spoke about them, you won't be happy about this update. Meta AI is the company’s generative AI assistant, built into...

Gemini AI flaws could have exposed your data

Security researchers discovered three vulnerabilities in Google's Gemini artificial intelligence AI assistant. Although now patched, this "Trifecta", as the researchers called it, raises important questions about how safe AI tools really are, especially as they become a part of services many of u...

TikTok is misusing kids’ data, says privacy watchdog

A group of privacy commissioners in Canada have accused TikTok of scooping up information about hundreds of thousands of children who shouldn't have been on the platform. The Chinese social media giant is also accused of collecting data on Canadian users without properly explaining what it does...

Police using drones to read your license plates, warns EFF

Police are using drones as flying automated license plate readers ALPRs, according to a report by the Electronic Frontier Foundation EFF. And where there is a market, a provider will jump in. Or was it the other way around this time? Flock Safety, for example, recently told a group of potential l...

When AI chatbots leak and how it happens

In a recent article on Cybernews there were two clear signs of how fast the world of AI chatbots is growing. A company I had never even heard of had over 150 million app downloads across its portfolio, and it also had an exposed unprotected Elasticsearch instance. This needs a bit of an...

Pre-approved GLP-1 prescription scam could be bad for your health

A co-worker received a text which is, unfortunately, becoming more common. The text pretends to come from a doctor and states a weight-loss medication prescription has been approved. “Good morning. This is Dr. Santos. I pre-approved your GLP1 prescription. You may start treatment as of 09/04...

“No place in our networks”: FCC hangs up on thousands of voice operators in robocall war

Everyone hates robocalls. However, it's difficult to track down all the scammers and spammers that make them, so the Federal Communications Commission FCC has taken another approach: it just disconnected over a thousand voice operators from the public telephone network for not doing their part to...

Clickjack attack steals password managers’ secrets

Sometimes it can seem as though everything's toxic online, and the latest good thing turned bad is here: Browser pop-ups that look like they're trying to help or authenticate you could be programmed to steal data from your password manager. To make matters worse, most browser extension-based...

Online portal exposed car and personal data, allowed anyone to remotely unlock cars

A carmaker’s online dealership portal has been found leaking the private information and vehicle data of its customers. This also meant that anyone with access could remotely break into a car. Researcher Eaton Zveare shared his discovery with TechCrunch. Although he said he has chosen not to...

TeaOnHer, the male version of Tea, is leaking personal information on its users too

Last week we reported about some serious leaks in Tea Dating Advice, an app that provides a space for women to exchange information about men they know, have met, or have dated in the past. The app aims to provide a platform where people can share relevant information about, say, potentially...

VPN use rises following Online Safety Act’s age verification controls

As the UK's Online Safety Act came into effect on Friday—along with its age verification controls—the use of virtual private network VPN services has skyrocketed by up to 20-fold across the region. Top10VPN, which monitors VPN traffic around the world, spotted UK VPN traffic spiking 1,327% on Jul...

Tea Dating Advice app has users’ private messages disclosed

A few days after Tea Dating Advice discovered unauthorized access to one of its systems that leaked 72,000 user images, the popular mobile app faced a second issue involving a separate database, as a researcher reported to 404Media that they were able to access private conversations. Tea Dating...

Is AI “healthy” to use? (Lock and Code S06E14)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast … “Health” isn’t the first feature that most anyone thinks about when trying out a new technology, but a recent spate of news is forcing the issue when it comes to artificial intelligence AI. In June, The New York Times reported on a group of ChatGPT users w...

Ransomware negotiator investigated over criminal gang kickbacks

If someone is going to negotiate with criminals for you, that person should at least be on your side. That might not have been the case at Digital Mint, a ransomware negotiation company where one worker allegedly went rogue. According to Bloomberg, Digital Mint is cooperating with the US Departme...

Mattel’s going to make AI-powered toys, kids’ rights advocates are worried

Toy company Mattel has announced a deal with OpenAI to create AI-powered toys, but digital rights advocates have urged caution. In a press release last week, the owner of the Barbie brand signed a "strategic collaboration" with the AI company, which owns ChatGPT. "By using OpenAI's technology,...

GirlsDoPorn owner faces life in jail after pleading guilty to sex trafficking

Michael James Pratt, the owner of pornographic websites GirlsDoPorn and GirlsDoToys, has pleaded guilty to sex trafficking in a US court. Pratt ran the websites, which lured and coerced young women into filming pornographic videos, from 2013 to 2019. Pratt and his accomplices lured women from...

Been scammed online? Here’s what to do

Unfortunately, people getting scammed online is a frequent event. Scammers are getting better at social engineering and are using Artificial Intelligence AI to sound more authentic and eliminate any spelling errors. It really can happen to anyone, so there's no need to feel embarrassed if you hav...

OpenAI forced to preserve ChatGPT chats

OpenAI has protested a court order that forces it to retain its users' conversations. The creator of the ChatGPT AI model objected to the order, which is part of a copyright infringement case against it by The New York Times and other publishers. The news organizations argued that ChatGPT was...

Porn sites probed for allegedly failing to prevent minors from accessing content

Four porn sites are being investigated by the European Commission under its Digital Services Act DSA for allegedly failing to verify its users' ages properly. The Commission, which drafts and enforces the European Union's laws, is focusing the lens on Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX, and XVideos with th...

Take back control of your browser—Malwarebytes Browser Guard now blocks search hijacking attempts

Search hijacking, often referred to as browser hijacking, occurs when cybercriminals modify users’ browser settings without their consent. This often results in users being redirected to potentially malicious websites, such as fake customer service offerings. Search hijacking commonly happens...

Scammers are using AI to impersonate senior officials, warns FBI

The FBI has issued a warning about an ongoing malicious text and voice messaging campaign that impersonates senior US officials. The targets are predominantly current or former US federal or state government officials and their contacts. In the course of this campaign, the cybercriminals have use...

FBI issues warning as scammers target victims of crime

The FBI has issued a warning about an ongoing fraud scheme where criminal scammers are impersonating FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center IC3 employees in order to scam people. Between December 2023 and February 2025, the FBI received over 100 reports of scams involving people posing as IC3...

Toll fee scams are back and heading your way

Back in August 2024, we warned about a relatively new type of SMS phishing or smishing scam that was doing the rounds. Now a new wave of toll fee scams are working their way round the US. These attempts come as an unexpected text message linking to a website pretending to belong to one of the US...

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...

Countries and companies are fighting at the expense of our data privacy

Data privacy issues are a hot topic in a world where we apparently don’t know who to trust anymore. A few weeks ago, we reported how the UK had secretly ordered Apple to provide blanket access to protected cloud backups around the world. This week, Apple decided to pull the plug on Advanced Data...