Child safety app riddled with vulnerabilities: Update now!

An app designed to restrict screen time and add a "kids' mode" for children on smart devices has been found to have a broad range of security issues. The app, "Parental Control - Kids Place" is an Android app which is incredibly popular, sporting 5M+ downloads on its Google Play page. In terms of...

YouTube is testing ad blocker detection

YouTube is dipping a toe into the muddy waters of ad-blocker blocking, with ad-blocker using Redditors complaining about a popup that warns "Ad blockers are not allowed on YouTube," when they visit the site. Image source: Reddit user Sazk100 The popup message explains that "Ads allow YouTube to...

Google Passkeys: How to create one and when you shouldn't

Google has just brought users closer to a passwordless future. In a recent blog post, the tech giant introduced the option to create and use a safer, more convenient alternative to passwords: Passkeys, a form of digital credential. So, how do they work? Passkeys are generated using public-key...

Upcoming webinar: Is EDR or MDR better for your business?

Don't miss our upcoming webinar on EDR vs. MDR! In the webinar, Marcin Kleczynski, CEO and co-founder of Malwarebytes, and guest speaker Joseph Blankenship, Vice President and research director at Forrester, discuss topic such as: The difference between EDR and MDR, how EDR solutions can be...

Instagram scam promises money in exchange for your image

Were seeing a number of complaints on Reddit and elsewhere regarding a scam which flares up every so often. Its called the "Muse scam", and targets users of Instagram. Let's hear from one of the Reddit posters impacted: An artist approached me on Instagram asking if they could use one of my photo...

Living Off the Land (LOTL) attacks: Detecting ransomware gangs hiding in plain sight

Regular readers of our monthly ransomware review read our April edition here know that Ransomware-as-a-Service RaaS gangs have been making headlines globally with their disruptive attacks on organizations. Sometimes, though, its not enough to merely know about of the problem. In order to truly...

Ransomware in France, April 2022–March 2023

This article is based on research by Marcelo Rivero, Malwarebytes' ransomware specialist, who monitors information published by ransomware gangs on their dark web sites. In this report, "known attacks" are attacks where the victim opted not to pay a ransom. This provides the best overall picture ...

Visitors of tax return e-file service may have downloaded malware

The IRS-authorized electronic filing service for tax returns, eFile.com, has been caught serving a couple of malicious JavaScript JS files these past few weeks, according to several security researchers and corroborated by BleepingComputer. Note this security incident only concerns eFile.com, not...

Steer clear of this EE phish that wants your card details

Watch out for this piece of spam lurking in mail boxes and claiming to be from the EE mobile network. The mail, titled "We were unable to renew your monthly plan" with a likely random reference number alongside it, reads as follows: Due to a problem with your card, we were unable to charge your...

Bogus Chat GPT extension takes over Facebook accounts

If youre particularly intrigued by the current wave of interest in AI, take care. Theres some bad things lurking in search engine results waiting to compromise your Facebook account. A rogue Chrome extension deployed in a campaign targeting Facebook users is "hitting thousands a day" according to...

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...

BlackCat ransomware targets another healthcare facility

In a statement issued Monday morning, Lehigh Valley Health Network said it had been the target of a cyberattack attributed to a ransomware gang known as BlackCat. The Network is made up of 13 hospital campuses, as well as other health facilities, and is based in Pennsylvania. BlackCat The...

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...

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...

What happened in privacy in 2022

Annual reviews of any years developments in privacy rarely lend themselves to pithy wrap-ups, but 2022 was different, providing the clearest example yet for so many people--American women in particular--that their privacy was not theirs to determine, and that the often-repeated refrain that priva...

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...

What privacy can get you

The fight for data privacy must be won in the middle. No declaration, no call to arms, will sway the worst offenders. No public swell, no great big hack, has changed how money gets made. Corporations will continue to reap our data, package it into ad-friendly profiles, and, for a price, deliver t...

LA housing authority is latest LockBit ransomware victim

The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles HACLA, established in 1938 to provide affordable housing in Los Angeles, confirmed in a statement that it was a victim of a ransomware cyberattack. This is the second major attack against an agency in LA after the Los Angeles United School District...

Epic Games introduces safer accounts for kids

Epic have made some alterations to how accounts for kids work, with multiple features disabled for what are now known as "Cabined Accounts". If your children are big fans of Epic games like Fortnite and Rocket League, you may well have worried about their gaming interactions with other players at...

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...

How to spot a scam

Unfortunately, scams are a fact of life online. The virtual ties that bind us are international now: Our public telephone numbers, social media accounts, email addresses, messaging apps, dating profiles, and even our physical mailboxes, can all be reached by any criminal and con artist from...

Credential stuffers take aim at Final Fantasy XIV players

Square Enix, the company behind video games like Final Fantasy XIV, reports that a third party is attempting to gain access to its Account Management System. How is this happening, and what are the risks? More importantly, what do you need to do to ensure your accounts are safe from harm?...

Data Access Agreement offers a new path for UK - US data requests

Requesting data for the purposes of law enforcement may be about to become a little easier for the British Government. The Data Access Agreement DAA went live on Monday this week. The DAA is authorised by something called the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data CLOUD Act, which itself has come...

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...

Ransomware-affected school district refuses to pay, gets stolen data released

Data stolen from Los Angeles Unified School District has been leaked online, after staff refused to pay the ransom related to a ransomware attack. The attackers threatened to release the data if the ransom wasn't paid, and so release it they did. The double extortion tactic Threatening to release...

InterContinental Hotels' booking systems disrupted by cyberattack

In a statement filed at the London Stock Exchange, InterContinental Hotels Group PLC reports that parts of the company's technology systems have been subject to unauthorized activity. The activity significantly disrupted IHG's booking channels and other applications. The InterContinental Hotels...

Vulnerability response for SMBs: The Malwarebytes approach

The intel you need to secure your business--delivered straight to your inbox From industry tips and best practices to the latest Malwarebytes product releases and how-tos, our Business newsletter is chock-full with the best of our business blog. Subscribe to our Business newsletter today. At...

Warning issued about Vice Society ransomware targeting the education sector

The Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA, and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center MS-ISAC have released a joint Cybersecurity Advisory CSA after observing Vice Society threat actors disproportionately targeting the...

Explained: Steganography

Steganography is the prime example of effectively hiding something in plain sight. The word steganography comes from the Greek words "stegos" meaning "cover" and "grafia" meaning "writing." Steganography, then, is defined as "covered writing." In essence, we use the name steganography for every...

Anti-tracking tool tells you if you're being followed

If there is one thing we know about the people around us, even the perfect strangers, it's that they almost all have smartphones. And those smartphones aren't merely passive receivers, they're broadcasting constantly, looking for things you might want to connect to. Advertisers have exploited the...

Wrestling star Mick Foley's Twitter compromised, selling PS5 consoles

One of the biggest wrestling stars around, Mick Foley, had his Twitter account hijacked in an attempt to legitimize a very popular scam. When a well known individual has their social media accounts compromised, disaster looms, as everything from phishing to malware distribution waits in the wings...

Another ransomware payment recovered by the Justice Department

The Justice Department today announced a complaint filed in the District of Kansas to forfeit cryptocurrency paid as ransom to North Korean hackers or otherwise used to launder such ransom payments. The seized funds amounting to half a million US dollars, include ransoms paid by health care...

YouTube AI wrongfully flags horror short “Show for Children” as suitable for children

When content creators flag one of their own videos as inappropriate for children, we expect YouTubes AI moderator to accept this and move on. But the video streaming bot doesnt seem to get it. Not only can it prevent creators from correcting a miscategorization, its synthetic will is also final—n...

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...

Instagram scam steals your selfies to trick your friends

What would you do if a friend of yours set up a NSFW account, and then used it to follow you on Instagram? Would you check it out? We recently learned of a group of friends who had to ask themselves exactly that. Fortunately, they realised that something was off. The account wasnt the real owners...

Double-whammy attack follows fake Covid alert with a bogus bank call

The BBC has revealed details of how a food bank in the UK was conned out of about $63,000 £50,000 by scammers who used two separate attacks to fleece their victims. A food bank is a way for people to ensure they dont starve. They are a backstop during times of economic uncertainty, and have been...

Craft fair vendors targeted by fake event scammers on Facebook

A real world scam which sucks the fun out of craft fairs has caused nothing but stress for victims. It may sound bizarre, but it’s actually a fairly popular attack focused on small/self-run business owners selling their own creations. Are you ready for a trip to the craft fair? You’re a small...

Google Play’s Data safety section empowers Android users to make informed app choices

Google has launched its new "nutrition labels" for apps, a feature it promised in the spring of 2021. This release came days after the Chrome team released badges for the Chrome Web Store for browser extensions. The company said in a blog post that its rolling out the labels—which it calls the...

Why you should be taking security advice from your grandmother

We tend to accept that younger folks are supposed to be more tech savvy, given they’ve grown up with computers and the Internet pretty much their whole lives. If you go back about 15 or so years, a lot of security advice focused on the “warning your grandmother away from scams” routine. The defau...

Watch out for Ukraine donation scammers in Twitter replies

The invasion of Ukraine has been a money making opportunity for scammers since the moment it began: Fake donation sites, bogus Red Cross portals, phishing pages, the works. These scams can also be found on social media. Faking donations on Twitter Some users of social media have become very...

Azure AutoWarp brings automation headaches

Azure is Microsoft’s cloud computing service providing a wide range of features for businesses worldwide. It’s particularly popular for its virtual machines and IaaS infrastructure as a service. One useful Azure feature is Automation, which has been around for some years now. Management tasks can...

Don’t fall for the “Donate to help children in Ukraine” scam

Earlier this week, we spotted a Microsoft sign-in phish that appeared to be taking advantage of the Ukraine crisis in order to scam people. The email warned of unauthorized log in attempts to the recipients account, and the location of those attempts was listed as "Russia/Moscow". We probably won...

Four key cybersecurity practices during geopolitical upheaval

Russia’s continued invasion of Ukraine has altered the landscape of cybersecurity threats facing organizations both near and far from the physical threat of war. Disinformation is spreading and being actively fought. The old hacker group Anonymous promised “cyber war” against Russia. One ransomwa...

Dark Souls servers taken offline over hacking fears

There’s been trouble brewing over the weekend for players of the smash-hit Dark Souls series. PvP player vs player servers were temporarily shut down by the developers after a hack. Dark Souls says that PvP servers for console versions PlayStation, Xbox were not affected, and that it is a...

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...

Click “OK” to defeat MFA

Researchers have discovered that Nobelium—the threat actor behind the infamous SolarWinds supply-chain attack, the Sunburst backdoor, TEARDROP malware, GoldMax malware, and other malicious activities—has found a way to use stolen credentials even when they require multi-factor authentication that...

Boomerang spam bombs Malwarebytes forum—not a smart move

Tech support scammers are generally not the best and brightest. As such, they will occasionally post ads for their fake companies in the comment sections here or on the Malwarebytes forums. Last week, however, scammers struggled with configuring their spambots, resulting in spam bombs on the foru...

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...