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...

Child health data stolen in registry breach

Canadian healthcare organization Better Outcomes Registry & Network BORN has disclosed a data breach affecting client data. BORN--an Ontario perinatal and child registry that collects, interprets, shares, and protects critical data about pregnancy, birth, and childhood--says it was attacked on Ma...

Involved in a data breach? Here’s what you need to know

If you've received a message from a company saying your data has been caught up in a breach, you might be unsure what to do next. We've put together some tips which should help you when the more or less inevitable happens. 1. Check the companys advice Every breach is different, so check the...

DoppelPaymer ransomware group suspects identified

The German police in cooperation with the US Secret Service have executed search warrants against suspected members of the DoppelPaymer ransomware group in Germany and Ukraine. In March of 2023, we reported how the German Regional Police and the Ukrainian National Police, with support from Europo...

Victim records deleted after spyware vendor compromised

Anonymous hackers have breached the servers of spyware app "WebDetetive", accessing the user database. However, this doesnt appear to be a typical compromise along the lines of stealing the data, according to Tech Crunch. Instead, its part of a slow move toward "spying" apps being attacked and...

Woman tracks down and turns table on Airbnb scammer

The internet is full of Airbnb scams and accounts told by victims. But there is a twist in this latest story-gone-viral that is usually lacking in most narratives: The victim evens the score. Airbnb host and scammer "Mr. Tyler" met his match when his would-be guest, TikTok user Olivia @livvoogus,...

How the CISA catalog of vulnerabilities can help your organization

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA maintains a "known exploited vulnerabilities catalog" which can be useful if you need help prioritizing the patching of vulnerabilities. In essence it is a long list of vulnerabilities that are actually being used by criminals to do harm,...

Vehicle Identification Numbers reveal driver data via telematics

There are many ways that data collection, and data availability, make less sense as the years pass by. This is frequently accompanied by a resistance to change, to improve these processes, because "thats how weve always done it". Sadly this is often the case even when those data collectors have...

Romance scammer given 25 years of alone time

Romance scams are often low risk, high reward strategies for ciminals, who use them to steal large sums of money from vulnerable people in the cruellest ways possible. Once the victim wires the cash, theres a good chance that its never coming back. The perpetrator has almost certainly covered the...

The ransomware landscape changes as fewer victims decide to pay

Fewer victims are choosing to pay their ransomware extorters, especially among large enterprises, according to a recent investigation from Coveware. As a result of this, and other circumstances, we can see some shifts in the way that ransomware groups and their affiliates work. Large organization...

“Threatening and coercive” cold-callers who targeted the elderly hit with big fines

Every so often, fines hit the news as a result of phone/communication spam. Much of it targets older members of society. Sometimes folks say these calls are “just” irritants and nothing to particularly worry about. But it can be really serious, resulting in big chunks of people’s savings being...

Nintendo warns of imitation websites and suspicious hardware

Brave indeed is the soul who decides to take on Nintendo with scam-filled behaviour online. The console legends have a long history of crunching down on fraud, as well as gaming past-times some would consider to be harmless. Whether you create fan-made games, offer up plundered ROMs for use in...

A week in security (Dec 20 – 26)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: When a deepfake “empire” continues to grow Everything you always wanted to know about NFTs but were too afraid to ask: Lock and Code S02E24 Police forces pipe 225 million pwned passwords into ‘Have I Been Pwned?’ Logistics giant warns of scams following ransomware...

Hidden prompt can make Microsoft Copilot spread itself through your Word docs

A security researcher has demonstrated how Microsoft Copilot for Word can be tricked into spreading a self‑propagating prompt‑injection “AI worm.” The attack silently alters documents and embeds its own hidden instructions into newly created files, allowing it to spread through normal...

We rebuilt Malwarebytes Mobile Security for the scams of today

Nearly half of people encounter a scam on their phone every single day. Malwarebytes is doing something about it. That figure comes from a 2025 Malwarebytes survey of 1,300 respondents across the US and Europe. The results paint a troubling picture. A quarter of the victims surveyed reported bein...

Shared Claude chats were searchable on Google

Reddit users found that by using a specific Google search query, it was possible to find Claude conversations that users had shared. This exposed sensitive material, including crypto wallet keys, names, addresses, work notes, and even erotic or otherwise policy-violating chats. Fortune says...

Sextortion scammers are exploiting ShinyHunters data leaks

Sextortion scammers are using email addresses from data leaked by the ShinyHunters hacking group to add some credibility to their feeble attempts to convince people they have embarrassing information about them. Sextortion emails are messages claiming that the scammer recorded you through your...

Millions of cars could be tracked and unlocked by a hidden security flaw

A car alarm vendor's coding mistake has left millions of vehicles vulnerable to theft and location tracking. Thanks to the way dealers sell car alarms, many affected drivers don't even know they have one installed. The device is the KARR Security System, a Bluetooth-enabled aftermarket alarm buil...

July 2026 Patch Tuesday fixes 622 Microsoft CVEs, including three zero-days

Just one month ago, June 2026 Patch Tuesday broke Microsoft’s previous record with 206 CVEs and three zero‑days. July now triples that count, reinforcing that the era of “small” Patch Tuesdays may be over as AI‑driven vulnerability discovery ramps up. The update includes 59 critical...

Millions of students’ personal data stolen in major education breach

Instructure, the company behind the Canvas learning management system LMS, confirmed a cyber incident and subsequent data breach affecting its cloud‑hosted environment. The ShinyHunters ransomware group claims it is behind the attack and says it stole roughly 275 million records tied to students,...

Cyberattacks are raising your prices (Lock and Code S07E09)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast… Your prices could be going up because of a little something that one group has started calling the “cyber tax.” Not a “tax” in any regulatory sense of the word, this newly named “cyber tax” is instead a consequence of the growing number of cyberattacks on...

Researchers built a chatbot that only knows the world before 1931

The internet's chatbots have read every forum rant, leaked Slack log, and confident blog post your uncle ever wrote about chemtrails. The results are predictable: they reflect the state of the internet, and it isn't pretty. That, along with some questionable design decisions, is partly why Elon...

A week in security (April 20 – April 26)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Medical data of 500,000 UK volunteers listed for sale on Alibaba How cyberattacks on companies affect everyone Apple fixes iOS bug that kept deleted notifications, including chat previews Roblox clamps down on chats and age checks as legal pressure builds Malicious...

Researcher claims Claude Desktop installs “spyware” on macOS

Security researcher Alexander Hanff wrote an article titled Anthropic secretly installs spyware when you install Claude Desktop. Claims like that are bound to create two sides, so we searched for an official rebuttal by Anthropic. But we couldn’t find one. It would surprise me very much if they’d...

Real Apple notifications are being used to drive tech support scams

Scammers have found a way to abuse legitimate Apple account notification emails to trick targets into calling fake tech support numbers. According to a report from BleepingComputer, scammers create an Apple account and insert a phishing message into the personal information fields, then modify th...

“Your shipment has arrived” email hides remote access software

An attachment in an email impersonating DHL about a shipment contains a link to a preconfigured SimpleHelp remote access tool—an ideal starting point for attackers to explore a network, steal data, and drop additional malware. A German industrial spare parts and equipment supplier received an ema...

“iCloud storage is full” scam is back, and now it wants your payment details

A few months ago, we reported on a fake cloud storage alert that triggered a redirect chain to an app that has since been delisted from the Apple Store. The threat of losing your photos is a powerful lure, so scammers are now using it to steal personal and financial details. The Guardian warns...

Credit Resources Vault: Why this credit email set off our scam alarms

If there is anything that annoys me more than a scammer, it's companies that behave like one, while staying just on the right side of the law. They manage to linger and disappoint customers for years. It's also why sometimes people think that Malwarebytes Scam Guard can be overly cautious when...

30,000 private Facebook images allegedly downloaded by Meta employee

Every tech company tells you your data is safe. They've hopefully got encryption, access controls, and zero-trust architectures—the whole glossy security brochure. And then someone on the inside writes a script to steal your private photos anyway. That's what a former Meta employee based in Londo...

Infiniti Stealer: a new macOS infostealer using ClickFix and Python/Nuitka

A previously undocumented macOS infostealer has surfaced during our routine threat hunting. We initially tracked it as NukeChain , but shortly before publication, the malware’s operator panel became publicly visible, revealing its real name: Infiniti Stealer. This malware is designed to steal...

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...

Your tax forms sell for $20 on the dark web

Tax season is also peak season for identity theft. Criminals use stolen personal data to file fake tax returns and claim refunds before the real taxpayer does. Here’s how the fraud works, and how to protect yourself. What is Stolen Identity Refund Fraud SIRF? Stolen Identity Refund Fraud SIRF is ...

Google cracks down on Android apps abusing accessibility

Google just dropped a bombshell for app developers with the latest version of its Android mobile operating system. The company can now prevent apps from installing if they try to use the system's accessibility features. The new development, live in version 17.2 of Android, is all about security,...

Sextortion “I recorded you” emails reuse passwords found in disposable inboxes

Our malware removal support team recently flagged a new wave of sextortion emails, with the subject line: “You pervert, I recorded you!” If the message sounds familiar, that's because it's a variation of the long-running "Hello pervert" scam. The email claims the target’s device has been infected...

Hackers may have breached FBI wiretap network via supply chain

Investigators are worried that a recent attack on a critical FBI system was more than just a random hit, and that another nation-state might have been involved. On February 17, the FBI flagged irregular network activity that led straight to its Digital Collection System Network. That system...

Fake Claude Code install pages hit Windows and Mac users with infostealers

Attackers are cloning install pages for popular tools like Claude Code and swapping the “one‑liner” install commands with malware, mainly to steal passwords, cookies, sessions, and access to developer environments. Modern install guides often tell you to copy a single command like curl...

Public Google API keys can be used to expose Gemini AI data

Google Maps/Cloud API Application Programming Interface keys that used to be safe to publish can now, in many cases, be used as real Gemini AI credentials. This means that any key sitting in public JavaScript or application code may now let attackers connect to Gemini through its API, access data...

The Conduent breach; from 10 million to 25 million (and counting)

The Conduent breach has quietly grown into one of the biggest third‑party data incidents in US history, and the real story now is how many different programs and employers are swept up in it, even for people who have never heard of Conduent. When we first covered this incident, public filings...

Refund scam impersonates Avast to harvest credit card details

A fraudulent website dressed in Avast’s brand is tricking French-speaking users into handing over their full credit card details—card number, expiry date, and three-digit security code—under the cover story of processing a €499.99 refund that was never owed to them. The operation combines live ch...

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...

How to find and remove credential-stealing Chrome extensions

Researchers have found yet another family of malicious extensions in the Chrome Web Store. This time, 30 different Chrome extensions were found stealing credentials from more than 260,000 users. The extensions rendered a full-screen iframe pointing to a remote domain. This iframe overlaid the...

Child exploitation, grooming, and social media addiction claims put Meta on trial

Meta is facing two trials over child safety allegations in California and New Mexico. The lawsuits are landmark cases, marking the first time that any such accusations have reached a jury. Although over 40 state attorneys general have filed suits about child safety issues with social media, none...

Discord will limit profiles to teen-appropriate mode until you verify your age

Discord announced it will put all existing and new profiles in teen-appropriate mode by default in early March. The teen-appropriate profile mode will remain in place until users prove they are adults. To change a profile to “full access” will require verification by Discord’s age inference model...

How safe are kids using social media? We did the groundwork

When researchers created an account for a child under 13 on Roblox, they expected heavy guardrails. Instead, they found that the platform’s search features still allowed kids to discover communities linked to fraud and other illicit activity. The discoveries spotlight the question that lawmakers...

Is your phone listening to you? (re-air) (Lock and Code S07E03)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast … In January, Google settled a lawsuit that pricked up a few ears: It agreed to pay $68 million to a wide array of people who sued the company together, alleging that Google's voice-activated smart assistant had secretly recorded their conversations, which...

A week in security (February 2 – February 8)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Apple Pay phish uses fake support calls to steal payment details Open the wrong "PDF" and attackers gain remote access to your PC Flock cameras shared license plate data without permission Grok continues producing sexualized images after promised fixes Firefox is...

Open the wrong “PDF” and attackers gain remote access to your PC

Cybercriminals behind a campaign dubbed DEADVAX are taking phishing one step further by delivering malware inside virtual hard disks that pretend to be ordinary PDF documents. Open the wrong “invoice” or “purchase order” and you won't see a document at all. Instead, Windows mounts a virtual drive...

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...