How Malwarebytes stops the ransomware attack that most security software can’t see

Imagine this scenario: Your protection software is running perfectly. Systems are protected, definitions are up to date, behavioral analysis is active. Then, suddenly, files across your network start getting encrypted. Backups are being deleted. Ransom notes appear across your machines. Your...

Gmail breach panic? It’s a misunderstanding, not a hack

After a misinterpretation of an interview with a security researcher, several media outlets hinted at a major Gmail breach. Reporters claimed the incident took place in April. In reality, the researcher had said there was an enormous amount of Gmail usernames and passwords circulating on the dark...

School’s AI system mistakes a bag of chips for a gun

An artificial intelligence AI detection system at Kenwood High School mistakenly flagged a student’s bag of potato chips as a gun, triggering a police response. The 16-year-old had finished eating a bag of Doritos and crumpled it up in his pocket when he was done. But the school’s AI-based gun...

Around 70 countries sign new UN Cybercrime Convention—but not everyone’s on board

Around 70 countries have signed the new United Nations UN Convention against Cybercrime—the first global treaty designed to combat cybercrime through unified international rules and cooperation. The treaty needs at least 40 UN member states to ratify it before it becomes international law. Once t...

A week in security (October 20 – October 26)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Is AI moving faster than its safety net? Thousands of online stores at risk as SessionReaper attacks spread Apple may have to open its walled garden to outside app stores Meta boosts scam protection on WhatsApp and Messenger Home Depot Halloween phish gives users a...

What does Google know about me? (Lock and Code S06E21)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast … Google is everywhere in our lives. It's reach into our data extends just as far. After investigating how much data Facebook had collected about him in his nearly 20 years with the platform, Lock and Code host David Ruiz had similar questions about the othe...

AI-driven scams are preying on Gen Z’s digital lives​

Gone are the days when extortion was only the plot line of crime dramas—today, these threatening tactics target anyone with a smartphone. As AI makes fake voices and videos sound and look real, high-pressure plays like sextortion, deepfakes, and virtual kidnapping feel more believable than ever...

California just put people back in control of their data

California's 2025 legislative session closed with 14 new privacy and AI-related bills. We’d like to highlight a few of the most relevant signed bills and encourage other states and countries to follow California’s example. Let’s go over some of the bills that were signed by the governor and how...

Modeling scams see mature models as attractive new prospects

The BBC reported on modeling scams targeting older models. Modeling scams aren't new, but it’s worth looking at how they spread today, how to spot them, and—most importantly—how to avoid falling victim to them. The classic pitch goes like this: Someone walks up to you in the street and says, "You...

Is your computer mouse eavesdropping on you?

The short answer is: probably not, but theoretically it’s possible. Researchers at the University of California found a method they called Mic-E-Mouse, which turns your computer mouse into a spy that can listen in on your conversations. The method uses high-performance optical sensors in optical...

Your Meta AI conversations may come back as ads in your feed

Meta has announced that conversations with its AI assistant will soon be used for targeted advertising. If you’re the kind of person that notices ads for products just after you spoke about them, you won't be happy about this update. Meta AI is the company’s generative AI assistant, built into...

Sendit tricked kids, harvested their data, and faked messages, FTC claims

The Federal Trade Commission FTC has sued Sendit’s parent company, saying it signed up children under 13, collected their personal data, and misled them with fake messages and recurring bills. The lawsuit, filed against the app's owner Iconic Hearts Holdings Inc and CEO Hunter Rice, alleges the...

Tile trackers plagued by weak security, researchers warn

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology scrutinized the security of the popular Tile tracker and came out disappointed. Bluetooth trackers are a steadily growing market, and Life360 is one of the major players. In 2021, Amazon expanded its Sidewalk network to include Tile. That means...

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...

A week in security (September 22 – September 28)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Hackers threaten parents: Get nursery to pay ransom or we leak your child’s data Google and Flo to pay $56 million after misusing users’ health data Neon App pays users to record their phone calls, sells data for AI training updated New SVG-based phishing campaign ...

Hackers threaten parents: Get nursery to pay ransom or we leak your child’s data

Just when you think extortionists can’t sink any lower, along comes a lowlife that manages to surprise you. The BBC reported that a group calling itself "Radiant" claims to have stolen sensitive data related to around 8,000 children from nursery chain Kido, which operates in the UK, US, China, an...

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...

Police using drones to read your license plates, warns EFF

Police are using drones as flying automated license plate readers ALPRs, according to a report by the Electronic Frontier Foundation EFF. And where there is a market, a provider will jump in. Or was it the other way around this time? Flock Safety, for example, recently told a group of potential l...

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...

Pre-approved GLP-1 prescription scam could be bad for your health

A co-worker received a text which is, unfortunately, becoming more common. The text pretends to come from a doctor and states a weight-loss medication prescription has been approved. “Good morning. This is Dr. Santos. I pre-approved your GLP1 prescription. You may start treatment as of 09/04...

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...

Why you should upgrade to Windows 11 now, and how to do it

I know many of us loved Windows XP and Windows 7 almost as much as we dislike Windows 10 and 11, but if you want to stay secure on Windows, the time to bite the bullet is closing in fast. Support for Windows 10 will end on October 14, 2025, which means the only Windows version that will continue ...

PayPal users targeted in account profile scam

A co-worker forwarded this rather convincing PayPal scam to me. Thanks Elena. A highly sophisticated email scam is targeting PayPal users with the subject line of "Set up your account profile." We decided to see what the scammers are after. First thing to do is to look at the headers: The sender...

National Public Data returns after massive Social Security Number leak

Remember that data broker nobody had ever heard of, but managed to leak a database which contained the data of some 2.9 billion people? It's back, and this time with a search function. National Public Data suffered an alleged breach in 2024 against a data base that, it turned out, carried 272...

Romance scammers in Ghana charged with more than $100 million in theft

The Department of Justice DOJ extradited and indicted 4 Ghanaian nationals for allegedly stealing more than $100 million, mainly through romance scams and business email compromises. According to a report from Comparitech, nearly 59,000 Americans fell victim to romance scams in 2024, losing an...

“The worst thing” for online rights: An age-restricted grey web (Lock and Code S06E16)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast … The internet is cracking apart. It’s exactly what some politicians want. In June, a Texas law that requires age verification on certain websites withstood a legal challenge brought all the way to the US Supreme Court. It could be a blueprint for how the...

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...

OpenAI kills “short-lived experiment” where ChatGPT chats could be found on Google

A little-known ChatGPT "feature" is now gone. It could be a good thing. On X, OpenAI Chief Information Security Officer Dane Stuckey announced that OpenAI "removed a feature from ChatGPT that allowed users to make their conversations discoverable by search engines, such as Google." Stuckey called...

How the FBI got everything it wanted (re-air) (Lock and Code S06E15)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast… For decades, digital rights activists, technologists, and cybersecurity experts have worried about what would happen if the US government secretly broke into people’s encrypted communications. The weird thing, though, is that, in 2018, it already happened...

A week in security (July 21 – July 27)

A list of topics we covered in the week of July 21 to July 27 of 2025 Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Steam games abused to deliver malware once again Watch out: Instagram users targeted in novel phishing campaign Age verification: Child protection or privacy risk? iPhone vs. Android: iPhone user...

A week in security (July 14 – July 20)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Meta execs pay the pain away with $8 billion privacy settlement Adoption agency leaks over a million records Meta AI chatbot bug could have allowed anyone to see private conversations WeTransfer walks back clause that said it would train AI on your files Chrome fix...

WeTransfer walks back clause that said it would train AI on your files

File sharing site WeTransfer has rolled back language that allowed it to train machine learning models on any files that its users uploaded. The change was made after criticisms from its users. The company had quietly inserted the new language in the terms and conditions on its website. Sometime...

Chrome fixes 6 security vulnerabilities. Get the update now!

Google has released an update for its Chrome browser to patch six security vulnerabilities, including one zero-day. This update is crucial since it addresses one actively exploited vulnerability which can be abused when the user visits a malicious website. It doesn’t require any further user...

Ransomware negotiator investigated over criminal gang kickbacks

If someone is going to negotiate with criminals for you, that person should at least be on your side. That might not have been the case at Digital Mint, a ransomware negotiation company where one worker allegedly went rogue. According to Bloomberg, Digital Mint is cooperating with the US Departme...

Free certificates for IP addresses: security problem or solution?

Let’s Encrypt has announced its issued its first certificate for an IP address. Why that’s significant deserves a little explanation. You may have run into Let’s Encrypt certificates many times without realizing it. When you see a padlock icon in your browser’s address bar, it means the site is...

Microsoft, PayPal, DocuSign, and Geek Squad faked in callback phishing scams

Microsoft, DocuSign, Adobe, McAfee, NortonLifeLock, PayPal, and Best Buy’s Geek Squad are being impersonated online through malicious emails that contain fake telephone support numbers and dangerous QR codes that can ensnare victims into phishing scams. The brands and their products are frequentl...

A week in security (June 23 – June 29)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Gmail’s multi-factor authentication bypassed by hackers to pull off targeted attacks Thousands of private camera feeds found online. Make sure yours isn’t one of them Sextortion email scammers increase their "Hello pervert" money demands Many data brokers are faili...

Facial recognition: Where and how you can opt out

Our remote team recently took a trip to our Estonian office. When we arrived from our various destinations, we started chatting about how our travel had been. Our senior privacy advocate, David Ruiz, mentioned that he'd opted out of facial recognition while at San Francisco International Airport...

Gmail’s multi-factor authentication bypassed by hackers to pull off targeted attacks

Russian hackers have bypassed Google's multi-factor authentication MFA in Gmail to pull off targeted attacks, according to security researchers at Google Threat Intelligence Group GTIG. The hackers pulled this off by posing as US Department of State officials in advanced social engineering attack...

Lumma information stealer infrastructure disrupted

The US Department of Justice DOJ and Microsoft have disrupted the infrastructure of the Lumma information stealer infostealer. Lumma Stealer, also known as LummaC or LummaC2, first emerged in late 2022 and quickly established itself as one of the most prolific infostealers. Infostealers is the na...

Scammers are using AI to impersonate senior officials, warns FBI

The FBI has issued a warning about an ongoing malicious text and voice messaging campaign that impersonates senior US officials. The targets are predominantly current or former US federal or state government officials and their contacts. In the course of this campaign, the cybercriminals have use...

Google Chrome will use AI to block tech support scam websites

Google has expressed plans to use Artificial Intelligence AI to stop tech support scams in Chrome. With the launch of Chrome version 137, Google plans to use the on-device Gemini Nano large language model LLM to recognize and block tech support scams. Users already have the ability to chose...

Digital rampage saw ex-Disney employee remove nut allergy info from menus, dox co-workers, and more

A former Disney employee, Michael Scheuer, will serve three years in prison for computer fraud and aggravated identity theft after a digital sabotage campaign against his ex-employer. In addition to his sentence, he must pay nearly US$688,000 in restitution. Scheuer, a former menu production...

Personal data revealed in released JFK files

Over 60,000 pages related to the 1963 assassination of US President John F. Kennedy were released as part of President Donald Trump’s directive on March 17, 2025, and while readers will not find a conclusive answer to the main question—nor will the files put an end to surrounding conspiracy...

PayPal scam abuses Docusign API to spread phishy emails

PayPal scammers are using an old Docusign trick to enhance the trustworthiness of their phishing emails. We've received several reports of this recently, so we dug into how the scam works. The Docusign Application Programming Interface API allows “customers” to send emails that come from genuine...

How AI was used in an advanced phishing campaign targeting Gmail users

In May, 2024, the FBI warned about the increasing threat of cybercriminals using Artificial Intelligence AI in their scams. At the time, FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert Tripp said: “Attackers are leveraging AI to craft highly convincing voice or video messages and emails to enable fraud scheme...

Small business owners, secure your web shop

An online shop is more than just another way to sell your products. It comes with a responsibility to keep the web shop secure. Cybercriminals are looking to steal your customers’ credit card details, their personal data, and even your revenue. And it’s not as if using a platform that is used by...

The great Google Ads heist: criminals ransack advertiser accounts via fake Google ads

Table of contents Overview Criminals impersonate Google Ads Lures hosted on Google Sites Phishing for Google account credentials Victimology Who is behind these campaigns? Fuel for other malware and scam campaigns Indicators of Compromise Overview Online criminals are targeting individuals and...

A week in security (November 25 – December 1)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Printer problems? Beware the bogus help Data broker exposes 600,000 sensitive files including background checks Medical testing company LifeLabs failed to protect customer data, report finds Explained: the Microsoft connected experiences controversy Spotify, Audibl...

Medical testing company LifeLabs failed to protect customer data, report finds

In 2019, a ransomware attack hit LifeLabs, a Canadian medical testing company. The ransomware encrypted the lab results of 15 million Canadians, and personally identifiable information PII of 8.6 million people was stolen. After noticing the attack, LifeLabs informed its customers and the Canadia...