Scammers are impersonating cryptocurrency exchanges, FBI warns

The Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI issued a public service announcement warning the public about scammers impersonating cryptocurrency exchange employees to steal funds. There are many types of crypto related scams, but in this case, the FBI provided an advisory about scammers that contact t...

SIEM is not storage, with Jess Dodson (Lock and Code S05E16)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast… In the world of business cybersecurity, the powerful technology known as "Security Information and Event Management" is sometimes thwarted by the most unexpected actors—the very people setting it up. Security Information and Event Management—or SIEM—is a te...

Meta takes down 63,000 sextortion-related accounts on Instagram

Meta announced the take-down of 63,000 sextortion-related Instagram accounts in Nigeria alone. The action was directed against a group known as Yahoo Boys, a loosely organized set of cybercriminals that largely operate out of Nigeria and specialize in different types of scams. Meta took down a ho...

Heritage Foundation data breach containing personal data is available online

The Heritage Foundation this month denied that it had suffered an earlier system breach and the subsequent leaking of internal data. But the organization had to admit that cybercriminals gained access to an archive of Heritages affiliated media site, The Daily Signal, dating back to 2022. That...

How an AI “artist” stole a woman’s face, with Ali Diamond (Lock and Code S05E15)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast… Full-time software engineer and part-time Twitch streamer Ali Diamond is used to seeing herself on screen, probably because she’s the one who turns the camera on. But when Diamond received a Direct Message DM on Twitter earlier this year, she learned that h...

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...

Personal data stolen from unsuspecting airport visitors and plane passengers in “evil twin” attacks, man charged

The Australian Federal Police AFP have charged a man for setting up fake free WiFi access points in order to steal personal data from people. The crime was discovered when an airline reported a suspicious WiFi network identified by its employees during a domestic flight. When the alleged...

Ticketmaster confirms customer data breach

Live Nation Entertainment has confirmed what everyone has been speculating on for the last week: Ticketmaster has suffered a data breach. In a filing with the SEC, Live Nation said on May 20th it identified "unauthorized activity within a third-party cloud database environment containing Company...

How to remove a user from a shared Windows device

There will be times when you need to remove a user from a device. In this article well show you how to remove a user from Windows 10 or 11. On Windows you can create a local user account an offline account for anyone who will frequently use your PC. But the best option in most cases, is for...

Scammers can easily phish your multi-factor authentication codes. Here’s how to avoid it

More and more websites and services are making multi-factor-authentication MFA mandatory, which makes it much harder for cybercriminals to access your accounts. Thats a great thing. But as security evolves, so do cybercriminals who are always looking for new ways to scam us. A type of phishing we...

Notorious data leak site BreachForums seized by law enforcement

BreachForums—probably the largest dark web marketplace for stolen data to be leaked and sold—has been seized by law enforcement. Now, both the regular and the TOR domain of BreachForums are plastered with a message telling visitors the site is now under control of the FBI. The FBI said BreachForu...

A week in security (April 22 – April 28)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Ring agrees to pay $5.6 million after cameras were used to spy on customers TikTok comes one step closer to a US ban Google ad for Facebook redirects to scam "Substantial proportion" of Americans may have had health and personal data stolen in Change Healthcare...

How to tell if your toothbrush is being used in a DDoS attack

Its not...

Google failing to scrub abortion access in location history, study claims

Nearly 16 months after Google announced a policy change to remove location data that could reveal users’ physical trips to abortion clinics and other potentially sensitive medical centers, a nonprofit has alleged in a new report that the company is failing to do just that. The findings, which wer...

Cybersecurity spend to soar in 2024: How companies can maximize their investment

"Spend smarter, not harder" is the mantra for 2024, as Gartner forecasts a 14.3% jump in global security and risk management spending—an uptick which brings a renewed focus on the need for cost-effective cybersecurity investments. Inefficient cybersecurity spending, a known problem, becomes even...

MongoDB warns customers about data breach after cyberattack

Database provider MongoDB has posted a security notice about a security incident in which attackers obtained unauthorized access to some of its corporate systems. The targeted system contained customer names, phone numbers, and email addresses among other customer account metadata, including syst...

Update your iPhones! Apple fixes two zero-days in iOS

Apple has released emergency security updates for iOS 17.1.2 and iPadOS 17.1.2 to patch for two zero-day vulnerabilities that may have been actively exploited. Apple said both vulnerabilities were in the WebKit component, which is the engine that powers Safari browser on Macs as well as all...

Will ChatGPT write ransomware? Yes.

This morning I decided to write some ransomware, and I asked ChatGPT to help. Not because I wanted to turn to a life of crime, but because I wanted to see if anything had changed since March, when I last tried the same exact thing. In short: ChatGPT has helped me, worryingly so. But more on that...

Ransomware gang files SEC complaint about victim

In what seems to be a new twist on the ransomware theme, the notorious ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware group has filed a complaint with the US Securities and Exchange Commission SEC about the software company MeridianLink. ALPHV is one of the most active ransomware-as-a-service RaaS operators and...

Face search engine PimEyes stops searches of children’s faces

In what may come as a surprise, subscription-based face search engine PimEyes seems to have realized that their service can be used for nefarious purposes. PimEyes’ CEO Giorgi Gobronidze told the New York Times that it has taken technical measures to block such searches as part of a “no harm...

Hong Kong residents targeted in malvertising campaigns for WhatsApp, Telegram

Malvertising is a powerful malware or scam delivery mechanism that makes it easy to target specific geographies or even users. A recent article from the South China Morning Post discussed an increase in malicious webpages for the popular WhatsApp communication tool, driven via malicious Google ad...

Stalkerware activity drops as glaring spying problem is revealed

North America has a spying problem. Its perpetrators are everyday people. According to recent research from Malwarebytes, 62 percent of people in the United States and Canada admitted to monitoring their romantic partners online in one form or another, from looking through a spouses or significan...

FBI warns of multiple ransomware attacks on same victim

The Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI has released a notification that highlights two trends emerging across the ransomware environment. The trends the FBI says it's noticed since July 2023 are: Multiple ransomware attacks on the same victim in close date proximity. New data destruction tactics...

Malicious ad served inside Bing's AI chatbot

In February 2023, Microsoft disclosed its new AI-assisted search engine, Bing Chat, powered by OpenAI's GPT-4. Even though Google has been dominating the search industry for years, this event was significant enough to generate not only interest but also plant the seed for a possible change in 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...

A week in security (September 4 - September 10)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Supply chain related security risks, and how to protect against them Password-stealing Chrome extension smuggled on to Web Store Smart chastity device exposes sensitive user data X wants your biometric data Mac users targeted in new malvertising campaign delivering...

Qakbot botnet infrastructure suffers major takedown

The Qakbot botnet has suffered a major setback after its infrastructure was heavily disrupted by US and European law enforcement agencies. Operation DuckHunt, as it was codenamed, is possibly the largest US-led financial and technical disruption of a botnet infrastructure. Not only did the agenci...

Cisco VPNs without MFA are under attack by ransomware operator

The Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team PSIRT has posted a blog about Akira ransomware targeting VPNs without Multi-Factor Authentication MFA. The Cisco team states that it is aware of reports of the Akira ransomware group going specifically after Cisco VPNs that are not configured for...

Meal delivery service PurFoods announces major data breach

An organisation that provides home delivery meals has revealed that around 1.2 million people's personal data may be at risk, after the company suffered a ransomware attack earlier in the year. PurFoods, which offers up a service called Moms Meals, helps to provide meals for folks in a variety of...

Smart lightbulb and app vulnerability puts your Wi-Fi password at risk

New research highlights another potential danger from IoT devices, with a popular make of smart light bulbs placing your Wi-Fi network password at risk. Researchers from the University of London and Universita di Catania produced a paper explaining the dangers of common IoT products. In this case...

A week in security (August 14 - August 20)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Attackers demand ransoms for stolen LinkedIn accounts Patch now! Citrix Sharefile joins the list of actively exploited file sharing software Exchange Server security updates updated Catching up with WoofLocker, the most elaborate traffic redirection scheme to tech...

60,000 Androids have stalkerware-type app Spyhide installed

Stalkerware-type app Spyhide is coded so badly that its possible to gain access to the back-end databases and retrieve data about everyone that has the app on their device. And it's not a small number. Hacktivist maia arson crimew told TechCrunch she'd found 60,000 compromised Android devices,...

How to set up computer security for your parents

Last Sunday July 23, 2023 was National Parents Day. And maybe you are wondering how you can repay your parents for turning you into the person you are today. And we have an idea that shouldn't cost you much more than some of your time. Help them to shore up their cybersecurity, if they need it. I...

A week in security (July 10 - 16)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Tax preparation firms shared sensitive information with Meta Ransomware making big money through "big game hunting" Malwarebytes stops 100% of Advanced Threats in latest AV-Test assessment From Malvertising to Ransomware: A ThreatDown webinar recap Ransomware revie...

Fake reviewers face big fines

The FTC is cracking down on fake reviews. Under the new proposed rules, organisations involved in the buying, selling, and manipulation of reviews could be very much out of pocket. Every time a consumer sees a fake review, it will carry a fine of "up to $50,000" per viewing. From the FTC release:...

Understanding ransomware reinfection: An MDR case study

Ransomware is like that stubborn cold that you thought you kicked, but creeps back up determined to run amok again. The question is what medicine is available to kick this nasty infection for good. In this post, we'll break down the idea of ransomware reinfection and share a real-life episode whe...

Company finds lost SSD—and confidential data—for sale on eBay

Major software company SAP is putting the pieces of a story involving missing SSD disks back together. Four SSD disks are alleged to have gone on an adventure last November, making their way out of a Walldorf, Germany, datacenter with one of them ending up on eBay. An investigation revealed that...

UPS warns customers of phishing attempts after data accessed

UPS Canada is warning customers in Canada of potential data exposure and the risk of phishing. People have started to receive letters like the one below from UPS, which some have assumed were "just" regular phishing alerts. As it turns out, the letter is specifically about the potential exposure ...

Microsoft illegally collected and retained children's data, says FTC

Microsoft is counting the cost of privacy violations, with $20m in fines related to illegal data collection from childrens Xbox accounts. The Xbox manufacturer has reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commision FTC, a result which promises to have other console developers looking closely a...

5 unusual cybersecurity tips that actually work

So, youre on top of your software updates, you use a password manager, youve enabled two-factor authentication wherever you can, youve got BrowserGuard installed, and youre running Malwarebytes Premium. If you're doing all of that you're already winning at security. But you want more, because you...

A week in security (May 29 - June 4)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Barracuda Networks patches zero-day vulnerability in Email Security Gateway CISA issues warning to US businesses: Beware of China's state-sponsored cyber actor Microsoft gives Apple a migraine Financial services company OneMain fined $4.25 million for security laps...

A week in security (May 22-28)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Update now: 9 vulnerabilities impact Cisco Small Business Series ChatGPT: Cybersecurity friend or foe? Webinar recap: EDR vs MDR for business success Identity crisis: How an anti-porn crusade could jam the Internet, featuring Alec Muffett: Lock and Code S04E11...

ChatGPT: Cybersecurity friend or foe?

If you havent heard about ChatGPT yet, perhaps youve just been thawed from cryogenic slumber or returned from six months off the grid. ChatGPT--the much-hyped, artificial intelligence AI chatbot that provides human-like responses from an enormous knowledge base--has been embraced practically...

Windows 11 is showing its first signs of Rust

Some important changes are heading to Windows which should make the operating system quite a bit more secure than it is now. At the end of April, Microsofts VP of OS Security and Enterprise referenced upcoming changes to Windows involving the programming language Rust. Rust matches the performanc...

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...

Don't plug your phone into a free charging station, warns FBI

In a recent tweet, the FBI office in Denver warned consumers against using free public charging stations, stating that criminals have managed to hijack public chargers with the objective of infecting devices with malware or other software that can give hackers access to your phone, tablet or...

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...

A week in security (March 13 - 19)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: "Brad Pitt," a still body, ketchup, and a knife, or the best trick ever played on a romance scammer, with Becky Holmes: Lock and Code S04E06 Breast cancer photos published by ransomware gang WhatsApp refuses to weaken encryption, would rather leave UK "Just awful"...

How to work from home securely, the NSA way

People working remotely is no longer unusual, so the National Security Agency NSA has produced a short Best Practices PDF document detailing how remote workers can keep themselves safe from harm. In fact, the guide can also be applied to people using computers at home generally and is written in ...