Some Android users can disable 2G now and why that is a good thing

The Electronic Frontier Foundation EFF has happily informed people that Google has quietly pushed a new feature to its Android operating system allowing users to optionally disable 2G at the modem level in their phones. This is beneficial because 2G uses weak encryption between the tower and devi...

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...

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...

Most people aren’t upgrading to Windows 11: Not the end of the world

Windows 11 is experiencing an apparent lack of uptake among Windows users. If this survey is accurate, less than 1% of 10 million PCs surveyed are running the new operating system. In fact, more machines are using Windows XP. That may surprise you. It might even seem like a bit of an embarrassing...

Massive faceprint scraping company Clearview AI hauled over the coals

Life must be hard for companies that try to make a living by invading people’s privacy. You almost feel sorry for them. Except I dont. The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office ICO—an independent body set up to uphold information rights—has announced its provisional intent to impose a potential...

Zuckerberg’s Metaverse, and the possible privacy and security concerns

The news is currently jam-packed with tales of Facebooks Meta project. Of particular interest to me is Facebook’s long-stated desire to introduce adverts into the VR space, and what this may mean for Meta too. I’ve talked about the privacy and legal aspects of adverts in gaming and other tech...

Panic attack: Apple scams apply pressure

We've seen a number of Apple-related phishes in circulation over the last few days. While most of them already lead to deactivated phishing sites, we thought it was worth highlighting some of the tricks being used to bait people into handing over payment details at the moment. Fake receipt emails...

Update Chrome: 108 security fixes for desktop, new release for Android

Over the last few days, Google issued several different Chrome updates. On September 22, Google released a Stable Channel Update for Desktop. This is the most important one for desktop users. It brings Chrome to version 154.0.8037.57 for Linux and versions 154.0.8037.57/.58 for Windows and Mac. T...

BlueMoon exploit kit turns Chrome and Windows flaws into attacks

BlueMoon, a shared Chrome and Windows exploit kit, shows why “patch later” is becoming a dangerous gamble. Security updates are easy to put off. The browser still opens, Windows still works, and choosing to relaunch your browser or restart your computer later can feel harmless. But a newly...

Update Chrome now to protect against an actively exploited vulnerability

Chrome is rolling out an update for its desktop browser. The update includes 230 security fixes, one of which is known to be actively exploited. The stable channel has been updated to 153.0.8010.36/.37 for Windows and Mac, and 153.0.8010.36 for Linux. How to update Chrome If you don’t want to wai...

The hidden work of modernizing Malwarebytes

Most of the work that keeps a security product trustworthy is invisible. Users see a scan complete, a threat blocked, an update applied overnight. They don’t see the platform underneath. Runtimes, managed libraries, native drivers, and Windows requirements must all stay current and work together...

New Instagram and Facebook rules set a default two-hour limit for teens

Meta decided that discretion was the better part of valor on Wednesday, agreeing to settle a landmark child safety case for up to $17 billion. The agreement would introduce a default two-hour daily limit for teens on Instagram and Facebook, overnight restrictions, and a range of other protections...

Apple now uses iPhone alerts for targets of mercenary spyware

Apple has expanded its threat-notification system for targets of mercenary spyware. Apple now shows a warning directly on an iPhone’s Lock Screen and in Settings when it believes the device owner has been targeted by mercenary spyware. The new on-device alert is meant to make a high-risk warning...

We found 120 fake Walmart stores trying to steal your credit card

Shoppers browsing on their phones are landing on convincing Walmart lookalike sites offering name-brand liquor at 40% to 70% off, only to be led straight to a checkout page asking for a full credit card number, expiry date, and CVV. The sites have no connection to Walmart. They're part of a netwo...

AI nudify apps spark legal scrutiny of Apple and Google’s profits

You expect all kinds of apps on Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store, from weather monitors to home automation apps and games. What you might not expect are apps that can create non-consensual nude imagery from ordinary photos. But they exist, and the City of San Francisco has had enough. On...

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...

Timeshare owners warned to watch out for cartel-linked scams

If you own a timeshare and have been searching for a way out, you need to know who may be targeting you. In February, the US Treasury Department announced sanctions against a timeshare fraud network linked to a major Mexican drug cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel CJNG. These aren’t your...

WhatsApp on Windows users targeted in new campaign, warns Microsoft

Microsoft researchers found a campaign that abuses WhatsApp attachments to sneak a script onto Windows machines which will lead to the attacker gaining remote control. WhatsApp offers a desktop application for Windows and macOS, which users can synchronize with their mobile devices. Desktop...

Asking AI for personal advice is a bad idea, Stanford study shows

Stanford computer scientists just proved what therapists already suspected: AI chatbots will agree with almost anything you say to keep you happy. The researchers caught these systems validating dangerous decisions just to maintain user engagement. That's a worrying development, especially given...

Pentagon ditches Anthropic AI over “security risk” and OpenAI takes over

On Friday the US Pentagon cut ties with Anthropic, the company behind Claude AI. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth designated the San Francisco-based company a "supply-chain risk to national security." The supply-chain risk designation means that no contractor, supplier, or partner doing business wi...

OpenClaw: What is it and can you use it safely?

An AI tool with a funny name has caused quite a commotion as of late—including some allegations of machine consciousness—so here is a breakdown on OpenClaw. Launched in November 2025, OpenClaw is an open-source, autonomous artificial intelligence AI agent that was made to run locally on your own...

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...

One privacy change I made for 2026 (Lock and Code S07E02)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast … When you hear the words "data privacy," what do you first imagine? Maybe you picture going into your social media apps and setting your profile and posts to private. Maybe you think about who you've shared your location with and deciding to revoke some of...

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...

A week in security (December 15 – December 21)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: CISA warns ASUS Live Update backdoor is still exploitable, seven years on The ghosts of WhatsApp: How GhostPairing hijacks accounts Chrome extension slurps up AI chats after users installed it for privacy Two Chrome flaws could be triggered by simply browsing the...

Android mobile adware surges in second half of 2025

Android users spent 2025 walking a tighter rope than ever, with malware, data‑stealing apps, and SMS‑borne scams all climbing sharply while attackers refined their business models around mobile data and access. Looking back, we may view 2025 as the year when one-off scams were replaced on the sco...

The US digital doxxing of H-1B applicants is a massive privacy misstep

Technology professionals hoping to come and work in the US face a new privacy concern. Starting December 15, skilled workers on H-1B visas and their families must flip their social media profiles to public before their consular interviews. It’s a deeply risky move from a security and privacy...

Malwarebytes for Mac now has smarter, deeper scans

Say hello to the upgraded Malwarebytes for Mac —now with more robust protection, more control, and the same trusted defense you count on every day. We’ve given our Mac scan engine a serious intelligence boost, so it thinks faster and digs deeper. The new enhanced scan searches across more of your...

Deepfakes, AI resumes, and the growing threat of fake applicants

Recruiters expect the odd exaggerated resume, but many companies, including us here at Malwarebytes, are now dealing with something far more serious: job applicants who aren't real people at all. From fabricated identities to AI-generated resumes and outsourced impostor interviews, hiring pipelin...

Canadian police trialing facial recognition bodycams

A municipal police force in Canada is now using facial recognition bodycams, it was revealed this week. The police service in the prairie city of Edmonton is trialing technology from US-based Axon, which makes products for the military and law enforcement. Up to 50 officers are taking part in the...

How attackers use real IT tools to take over your computer

A new wave of attacks is exploiting legitimate Remote Monitoring and Management RMM tools like LogMeIn Resolve formerly GoToResolve and PDQ Connect to remotely control victims’ systems. Instead of dropping traditional malware, attackers trick people into installing these trusted IT support progra...

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...

Black Friday scammers offer fake gifts from big-name brands to empty bank accounts

Black Friday is supposed to be chaotic, sure, but not this chaotic. While monitoring malvertising patterns ahead of the holiday rush, I uncovered one of the most widespread and polished Black Friday scam campaigns circulating online right now. It’s not a niche problem. Our own research shows that...

Thieves order a tasty takeout of names and addresses from DoorDash

DoorDash is known for delivering takeout food, but last month the company accidentally served up a tasty plate of personal data, too. It disclosed a breach on October 25, 2025, where an employee fell for a social engineering attack that allowed attackers to gain account access. Breaches like thes...

Be careful responding to unexpected job interviews

One of our customers was contacted on LinkedIn about a job offer. The initial message was followed up by an email: “Thank you for your interest in the Senior Construction Manager position at company. After reviewing your background, we were impressed with your experience and would like to invite...

Malwarebytes aces PCMag Readers’ Choice Awards and AVLab Cybersecurity Foundation tests

Malwarebytes proudly topped three categories in PCMag’s 2025 Readers’ Choice Awards, recognized for exceptional protection and user satisfaction. We also earned the latest badge from AVLab Cybersecurity Foundation’s September “Advanced In-The-Wild Malware Test” by blocking 100% of malware samples...

A week in security (October 27 – November 2)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Update Chrome now: 20 security fixes just landed How scammers use your data to create personalized tricks that work Ransomware gang claims Conduent breach: what you should watch for next Fake PayPal invoice from Geek Squad is a tech support scam Atlas browser’s...

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...

A week in security (October 13 – October 19)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Prosper data breach puts 17 million people at risk of identity theft Under the engineering hood: Why Malwarebytes chose WordPress as its CMS Video call app Huddle01 exposed 600K+ user logs Mango discloses data breach at third-party provider Roku accused of selling...

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...

Apple fixes critical font processing bug. Update now!

Apple has released important security updates to address a critical vulnerability in FontParser —the part of MacOS/iOS/iPadOS that processes fonts. Identified as CVE-2025-43400, the flaw was discovered internally by Apple and allows an attacker to craft a malicious font that can cause apps to cra...

Amazon pays $2.5B settlement over deceptive Prime subscriptions

Another day, another settlement. Amazon has settled a lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission FTC over misleading customers who signed up for Amazon Prime—though it claims it did nothing wrong. The FTC alleged that Amazon used deceptive methods to sign up consumers for Prime subscriptions—a...

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...

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...

From Fitbit to financial despair: How one woman lost her life savings and more to a scammer

We hear so often about people falling for scams and losing money. But we often don’t find out the real details of what happened, and how one "like" can turn into a nightmare that controls someone’s life for many years. This is that story. Not too long ago, a scam victim named Karen reached out to...

‘Astronaut-in-distress’ romance scammer steals money from elderly woman

A Japanese octogenarian from Hokkaido Island lost thousands of dollars after being scammed by someone who described himself as a desperate astronaut in need of help. According to Hokkaidō Broadcasting, police in Sapporo say the fraudster contacted the woman on social media in July. After several...

Claude AI chatbot abused to launch “cybercrime spree”

Anthropic—the company behind the widely renowned coding chatbot, Claude—says it uncovered a large-scale extortion operation in which cybercriminals abused Claude to automate and orchestrate sophisticated attacks. The company issued a Threat Intelligence report in which it describes several...

Meta accessed women’s health data from Flo app without consent, says court

A jury has ruled that Meta accessed sensitive information from a woman's reproductive health tracking app without consent. The app in question is called Flo Health. Developed in 2015 in Belarus to track menstrual cycles, it has evolved over the years as a tracking app for highly detailed, intimat...

Perplexity AI ignores no-crawling rules on websites, crawls them anyway

Imagine putting up a no-trespassing sign for people walking their dogs, and then finding out that one person dresses up their Great Dane as a calf and walks it on your grounds. Well that's sort of what AI answer engine Perplexity has been doing, by evading the no-crawl directives of websites,...