Fake Malwarebytes, LastPass, and others on GitHub serve malware

Fake versions of legitimate software are currently circulating on GitHub pages, in a large-scale campaign targeting Mac users. Unfortunately, Malwarebytes for Mac is one of them. Impersonating brands is sadly commonplace, as scammers take advantage of established brand names to target their...

A week in security (September 15 – September 21)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: ChatGPT Deep Research zero-click vulnerability fixed by OpenAI Disrupted phishing service was after Microsoft 365 credentials Update your Chrome today: Google patches 4 vulnerabilities including one zero-day Age verification and parental controls coming to ChatGPT ...

Update your Chrome today: Google patches 4 vulnerabilities including one zero-day

Google has released an update for its Chrome browser to patch four security vulnerabilities, including one zero-day. A zero-day vulnerability refers to a bug that has been found and exploited by cybercriminals before the vendor even knew about it they have "zero days" to fix it. This update is...

Ransomware attack at blood center: Org tells users their data’s been stolen

A blood center has begun sending data breach notifications to its users after suffering a ransomware attack and theft of personal data. The New York Blood Center’s NYBC suffered the ransomware attack in January, in which an unauthorized party gained access to its network and acquired copies of a...

Plex users: Reset your password!

Media streaming platform Plex has warned customers about a data breach, advising them to reset their password. Plex said an attacker broke into one of its databases, allowing them to access a "limited subset" of customer data. This included email addresses, usernames, hashed passwords, and...

Update your Android! Google patches 111 vulnerabilities, 2 are critical

Google has patched 111 vulnerabilities in Android, including two critical flaws, in its September 2025 Android Security Bulletin. While the last few months have been quite calm regarding the number of vulnerabilities, this month is a real whopper with 111, compared to 6 in August and none in July...

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...

A week in security (August 4 – August 10)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Adult sites trick users into Liking Facebook posts using a clickjack Trojan Facebook users targeted in ‘login’ phish TeaOnHer, the male version of Tea, is leaking personal information on its users too How Google, Adidas, and more were breached in a Salesforce scam...

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...

Steam games abused to deliver malware once again

A cybercriminal known as EncryptHub aka Larva-208 has reportedly abused the online game platform Steam to distribute information stealers. EncryptHub managed to sneak malicious files into the Chemia game files hosted on Steam. Chemia is an adventurous survival type of game that puts the player in...

Deepfake criminals impersonate Marco Rubio to uncover government secrets

Deepfake attacks aren't just for recruitment and banking fraud; they've now reached the highest levels of government. News emerged this week of an AI-powered attack that impersonated US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Authorities don't know who was behind the incident. A US State Department cable...

Catwatchful “child monitoring” app exposes victims’ data

If an app markets itself as being for “child monitoring”, a customer might expect that their data and those of the person you’re monitoring is handled with the utmost care and respect. However, as we've seen many times before, stalkerware which is what monitoring software is known as apps have a...

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...

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...

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...

Healthcare security lapses keep piling up

Healthcare is one of the sectors that has the most sensitive information about us. At the same time it's one of the worst at keeping them secret. Because of its access and storage of our personal health information PHI and other personally identifiable information PII, the healthcare sector shoul...

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...

Apple ordered to grant access to users’ encrypted data

Last week, an article in the Washington Post revealed the UK had secretly ordered Apple to provide blanket access to protected cloud backups around the world. Since then, privacy focused groups have uttered their objections. The UK government has demanded to be able to access encrypted data store...

A week in security (January 27 – February 2)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: ClickFix vs. traditional download in new DarkGate campaign Cybercrime gets a few punches on the nose Microsoft advertisers phished via malicious Google ads The DeepSeek controversy: Authorities ask where does the data come from and how safe is it? These are the 10...

These are the 10 worst PIN codes

Australian news outlet ABC NEWS analyzed a data set of 29 million 4-digit PIN numbers that people actually used to secure their devices, ATM withdrawals, building access, and more. What the outlet discovered is both expected and disappointing: Too many people use insecure PIN codes to protect...

A week in security (January 20 – January 26)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Your location or browsing habits could lead to price increases when buying online AI tool GeoSpy analyzes images and identifies locations in seconds 7-Zip bug could allow a bypass of a Windows security feature. Update now Warning: Don’t sell or buy a second hand...

Three privacy rules for 2025 (Lock and Code S06E02)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast… It’s Data Privacy Week right now, and that means, for the most part, that you’re going to see a lot of well-intentioned but clumsy information online about how to protect your data privacy. You’ll see articles about iPhone settings. You’ll hear acronyms for...

A week in security (December 9 – December 15)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Encrypted messaging service intercepted, 2.3 million messages read by law enforcement TikTok ban in US: Company seeks emergency injunction to prevent it Data brokers should stop trading health and location data, new bill proposes Update now! Apple releases new...

Printer problems? Beware the bogus help

Anyone who has ever used a printer likely has had a frustrating experience at some point. There always seems to be some kind of issue with the software not responding, paper getting jammed or one of many other possible failures. When people need help, they often turn to Google and now AI to look...

AI Granny Daisy takes up scammers’ time so they can’t bother you

A mobile network operator has called in the help of Artificial Intelligence AI in the battle against phone scammers. Virgin Media O2 in the UK has built an AI persona called Daisy with the sole purpose of keeping scammers occupied for as long as possible. Basically, until the scammers give up,...

City of Columbus breach affects around half a million citizens

A ransomware attack against the City of Columbus, Ohio—which drew public scrutiny following the city government's attempt to silence a researcher who told the public about the attack—has received a little more detail from an unexpected source: The Attorney General for the state of Maine. In a dat...

A week in security (October 28 – November 3)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: 1,000+ web shops infected by "Phish ‘n Ships" criminals who create fake product listings for in-demand products Android malware FakeCall intercepts your calls to the bank Patch now! New Chrome update for two critical vulnerabilities Update your iPhone, Mac, Watch:...

Europol warns about counterfeit goods and the criminals behind them

With the holidays around the bend, many are looking for gifts for their family and friends. And since we somehow decided we want to give more each time, we’re also looking for good deals. But European law enforcement agency Europol issued a warning about buying fake goods. Sure, they are cheaper,...

A week in security (October 21 – October 27)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: 100 million US citizens officially impacted by Change Healthcare data breach Pinterest tracks users without consent, alleges complaint After concerns of handing Facebook taxpayer info, four companies found to have improperly shared data LinkedIn bots and spear...

Large scale Google Ads campaign targets utility software

After what seemed like a long hiatus, we've observed threat actors returning to malvertising to drop malware disguised as software downloads. The campaign we identified is high-impact, going after utility software such as Slack, Notion, Calendly, Odoo, Basecamp, and others. For this blog, we...

Fake Canva home page leads to browser lock

In a previous blog post, we showed how fraudsters were leveraging features from the very company Microsoft they were impersonating. We continue this series with another clever trick abusing Canva, a popular online tool for graphic design. This time, the scammers registered an account on Canva to...

Move over malware: Why one teen is more worried about AI (re-air) (Lock and Code S05E18)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast… Every age group uses the internet a little bit differently, and it turns out for at least one Gen Z teen in the Bay Area, the classic approach to cyberecurity—defending against viruses, ransomware, worms, and more—is the least of her concerns. Of far more...

A week in security (August 19 – August 25)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Millennials’ sense of privacy uniquely tested in romantic relationships Hacked GPS tracker reveals location data of customers "We will hold them accountable": General Motors sued for selling customer driving data to third parties Why you need to know about ransomwa...

Fraudulent Slack ad shows malvertiser’s patience and skills

In the past year alone, we have reported almost five hundred unique malvertising incidents related to Google search ads. While it can be difficult to attribute each incident to a specific threat actor, we usually notice similarities between campaigns. Some malvertisers go to great lengths to bypa...

My child had her data stolen—here’s how to protect your kids from identity theft

Recently, I received a letter in the mail from a company about a data breach. The letter said that the company had been a victim of a cyberattack back in March in which files were scrambled what we know as ransomware. The attacker had also accessed sensitive files and customer health data. Sadly,...

Man certifies his own (fake) death after hacking into registry system using stolen identity

A 39-year-old man has been sentenced to 81 months in jail after hacking governments systems to fake his own death to dodge paying child support. Yes, you read that right. The press release by the US Attorneys Office, Eastern District of Kentucky, paints a detailed picture of what went down. In...

“We will hold them accountable”: General Motors sued for selling customer driving data to third parties

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued General Motors GM for the unlawful collection and sale of over 1.5 million Texans’ private driving data to insurance companies without their knowledge or consent. In June, the Attorney General AG announced he had opened an investigation into several car...

US senators ask FTC to investigate car makers’ privacy practices

An ongoing US Senate investigation indicated that connected car makers violate consumer privacy by sharing and selling drivers’ data, including their location, on a vast scale, and that the same car makers often obtain consumer consent through deception. Based on this investigation, senators have...

Google admits it can’t quite quit third-party cookies

For more than a year, Google has said it would phase out the third-party tracking cookies that power much of its advertising business online, proposing new ideas that would allegedly preserve user privacy while still providing businesses with steady revenue streams. This week, Google tossed much ...

Gen Z breakups tainted by login abuse for spying and stalking, research shows

Breaking up is hard to do, but for younger Americans today, ending a romantic relationship requires more than a heart-to-heart conversation—it could also require protection against follow-on invasions of online privacy and security. According to a new analysis of research released earlier this...

A week in security (July 1 – July 7)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Ticketmaster hackers release stolen ticket barcodes for Taylor Swift Eras Tour Authy phone numbers accessed by cybercriminals, warns Twilio Affirm says Evolve Bank data breach also compromised some of its customers Prudential Financial data breach impacts 2.5 milli...

Many major websites allow users to have weak passwords

A new study that examines the current state of password policies across the internet shows that many of the most popular websites allow users to create weak passwords. For the Georgia Tech study, the researchers designed an algorithm that automatically determined a website’s password policy. With...

A week in security (November 13 – November 19)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Signal is testing usernames so you don’t have to share your phone number State of Maine data breach impacts 1.3 million people Credit card skimming on the rise for the holiday shopping season Update now! Microsoft patches 3 actively exploited zero-days Ransomware...

A week in security (October 23 – October 29)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Malvertising via Dynamic Search Ads delivers malware bonanza Octo Tempest cybercriminal group is "a growing concern"—Microsoft Update now! Apple patches a raft of vulnerabilities Patch…later? Safari iLeakage bug not fixed Update vCenter Server now! VMWare fixes...

A week in security (October 9 - October 15)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Explained: Quishing Update now! Atlassian Confluence vulnerability is being actively exploited Giant health insurer struck by ransomware didn't have antivirus protection Ransomware review: October 2023 Stalkerware activity drops as glaring spying problem is reveale...

Supply chain related security risks, and how to protect against them

By definition, a supply chain is the network of all the individuals, organizations, resources, activities and technology involved in the creation and sale of a product. In only a few rare cases does one organization have full control over every step in the entire process. The links in such a supp...

Social Security Numbers leaked in ransomware attack on Ohio History Connection

The Ohio History Connection OHC has posted a breach notification in which it discloses that a ransomware attack successfully encrypted internal data servers. During the attack, the cybercriminals may have had access to names, addresses, and Social Security Numbers SSNs of current and former OHC...