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...

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...

Sex offenders, terrorists, drug dealers, exposed in spyware breach

We've covered spyware and stalkerware leaks many times before, but we don't often see such exposure in software used by law enforcement. According to a report by Straight Arrow News SAN, the hacker “wikkid” said the intrusion against RemoteCOM was “one of the easiest” they’d ever carried out...

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...

Google and Flo to pay $56 million after misusing users’ health data

Popular period-tracking app Flo Health shared users’ intimate health data—such as menstrual cycles and fertility information—with Google and Meta, allegedly for targeted advertising purposes, according to multiple class-action lawsuits filed in the US and Canada. Between 2016 and 2019, the...

Neon App pays users to record their phone calls, sells data for AI training [updated]

TechCrunch reports about a “bizarre app” inviting you to record and share your audio calls so that it can sell the data to AI companies. And if that’s not weird enough on its own, it’s ranking No. 2 in Apple's US app store at the time of writing. The name of the app is Neon Mobile and it promises...

Grok, ChatGPT, other AIs happy to help phish senior citizens

If you are under the impression that cybercriminals need to get their hands on compromised AI chatbots to help them do their dirty work, think again. Some AI chatbots are just so user friendly that they can help the user craft phishing text, and even malicious HTML and Javascript code. A few week...

Roblox introduces age checks to use communication features

Roblox is an online platform that allows users to build, play and share online worlds and 3D games. Unfortunately, it’s also a popular platform among predators reaching out to kids and seducing them using game features such as messaging, avatar customization, and role-play. Over the years, the...

No we didn’t warn all Gmail users about imminent digital doom, says Google

Cybersecurity publications are rife with headlines about breaches and threats, but sometimes things aren't always what they seem. In fact sometimes they're plain wrong remember toothbrushgate? This week, Google highlighted another story that it said was fake - and this one was about its own...

Tax refund scam targets Californians

The State of California Franchise Tax Board FTB recently issued a warning to taxpayers to protect themselves from tax scams. In their warning the FTB states: “Recently, the FTB received reports of a scam targeting taxpayers through text messages that appear to be from FTB. These text messages...

How to set up two-step verification on your WhatsApp account

Two step verification is the name Meta uses for what is generally referred to as Two-factor authentication 2FA. 2FA is not fool-proof, but it is one of the best ways to protect your accounts from hackers. It adds an extra step when logging in, which is a small extra effort for you, but it...

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...

Adult sites trick users into Liking Facebook posts using a clickjack Trojan

As the use of age verification to access adult websites increases in various countries around the world, shady websites with adult content have started a timely malware-fueled campaign to promote links to their own websites. During our daily rounds on Facebook, looking for the latest scams, we...

How Google, Adidas, and more were breached in a Salesforce scam

At the heart of multiple data breaches against sophisticated and robust companies, including Google, Adidas, Louis Vuitton, and Chanel, was a rudimentary attack method that required little technical finesse—making a phone call. By disguising themselves as IT support personnel on the phone, hacker...

Watch out: Instagram users targeted in novel phishing campaign

A phishing campaign targeting Instagram users is doing the rounds. There are plenty of those around, but when we took a look at this particular email, it seemed a bit different to the normal phishing emails that point to scammy websites. The email looked like this, which is very similar to the on...

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...

Meta execs pay the pain away with $8 billion privacy settlement

Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg and several other members of the social media giant's top brass agreed to settle increasingly heated privacy violation claims for the price of $8 billion. It is far from the first time that the company, its subsidiary Facebook, or its executives have responded to allege...

Dating app scammer cons former US army colonel into leaking national secrets

Even hard-headed military types can fall victim to romance scams, it seems. A former US army colonel faces up to ten years in prison after revealing national secrets on a foreign dating app. David Slater was a retired colonel in the US army who took up work as a civilian at US Strategic Command,...

Gamers hacked playing Call of Duty: WWII—PC version temporarily taken offline

On Saturday, the Call of Duty team announced that the PC version of Call of Duty: WWII has been taken offline following "reports of an issue." That issue seems to be a serious security problem, after reports surfaced about a remote code execution RCE vulnerability in the game. After Microsoft’s...

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...

A week in security (June 15 – June 21)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: The data on denying social media for kids re-air Lock and Code S06E12 Reddit’s new AI-powered tools scan your posts to serve you better ads Smart air fryers ordered to stop invading our digital privacy WhatsApp to start targeting you with ads Scammers hijack websit...

The data on denying social media for kids (re-air) (Lock and Code S06E12)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast … Complex problems often assume complex solutions, but recent observations about increased levels of anxiety and depression, increased reports of loneliness, and lower rates of in-person friendships for teens and children in America today have led some schoo...

Google bug allowed phone number of almost any user to be discovered

Google has fixed vulnerabilities that made it possible to retrieve the phone numbers of almost any Google user. The flaw was found in the flow that allows users to recover their Google account using a phone number. A cybersecurity researcher called Brutecat was able to figure out the phone number...

Juice jacking warnings are back, with a new twist

Remember juice jacking? It's a term that crops up every couple of years to worry travelers. This spring has seen another spate of stories, including a new, more sophisticated form of attack. But how much of a threat is it, really? Juice jacking is where an attacker uses a malicious public USB...

A week in security (May 26 – June 1)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Porn sites probed for allegedly failing to prevent minors from accessing content Take back control of your browser—Malwarebytes Browser Guard now blocks search hijacking attempts Deepfake-posting man faces huge $450,000 fine Fake AI video generator tools lure in...

Deepfake-posting man faces huge $450,000 fine

A man is facing a $450,000 AU fine after he published deepfake images of prominent Australian women on the now-defunct MrDeepfakes web site. That's if Australia's online safety regulator gets its way. Anthony Rotondo faces charges of posting these and other explicit deepfake images to the...

Zoom attack tricks victims into allowing remote access to install malware and steal money

Be careful when talking to people you've not met with before over the Zoom video conferencing system; you might get more than you bargained for. Two CEOs were recently targeted by a Zoom-based attack. One spotted it in time - and sadly, one did not. The attack is by a crime group that the Securit...

Text scams grow to steal hundreds of millions of dollars

Text scams alone cost US citizens at least $470 million in 2024, according to new data from the US Federal Trade Commission FTC. Because many scams go unreported, though, this dollar amount might be considerably more. The FTC illustrated this with a graph comparing the reported losses to the numb...

Your 23andMe genetic data could be bought by China, senator warns

Senator Cassidy, the chair of the US Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee has expressed concerns about foreign adversaries, including the Chinese Communist Party, acquiring the sensitive genetic data of millions of Americans through 23andMe. The risk is considered real because ...

Location, name, and photos of random kids shown to parents in child tracker mix up

Not one but several worried parents that tracked their children by using T-Mobile tracking devices suddenly found that they were looking at the location of random other children. And could not locate their own. T-Mobile sells a small GPS tracker called SyncUP, which can be used to track, among...

A week in security (March 10 – March 16)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Research on iOS apps shows widespread exposure of secrets Don’t let your kids on Roblox if you’re not comfortable, says Roblox CEO Update your iPhone now: Apple patches vulnerability used in "extremely sophisticated attacks" The dark side of sports betting: How...

The dark side of sports betting: How mirror sites help gambling scams thrive

Sports betting is a multi-billion-dollar industry, but behind the flashing lights and promises of easy money lies a hidden underworld of deception. In recent years, shady betting companies have found a clever way to bypass regulations and continue their operations through mirror sites —duplicate...

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...

Your location or browsing habits could lead to price increases when buying online

Companies are showing customers different prices for the same goods and services based what data they have on them, including details like their precise location or browser history. The name for this method is surveillance pricing, and the FTC has just released initial findings of a report lookin...

Connected contraptions cause conniption for 2024

The holidays are upon us, which means now is the perfect time for gratitude, warmth, and—because modern society has thrust it upon us—gift buying. It’s Bluey and dig kits and LEGOs for kids, Fortnite and AirPods and backpacks for tweens, and, for an adult you particularly love, it’s televisions,...

Data breaches in 2024: Could it get any worse?

It may sound weird when I say that I would like to remember 2024 as the year of the biggest breaches. That’s mainly because that would mean we’ll never see another year like it. To support this nomination, I will remind you of several high-profile breaches, some of a size almost beyond imaginatio...

Is nowhere safe from AI slop? (Lock and Code S05E27)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast … You can see it on X. You can see on Instagram. It's flooding community pages on Facebook and filling up channels on YouTube. It's called "AI slop" and it's the fastest, laziest way to drive engagement. Like "click bait" before it "You won't believe what...

Pallet liquidation scams and how to recognize them

Pallet liquidation scams target people looking to purchase pallets of supposedly discounted merchandise, often from major retailers like Amazon. Groups that engage in pallet liquidation sales are rampant on social media and it’s hard to discern the scammers from the legitimate ones to be honest,...

AI-generated malvertising “white pages” are fooling detection engines

This is no secret, online criminals are leveraging artificial intelligence AI and large language models LLMs in their malicious schemes. While AI tends to be abused to trick people i.e. deepfakes in order to gain something, sometimes, it is meant to defeat computer security programs. With AI, thi...

A day in the life of a privacy pro, with Ron de Jesus (Lock and Code S05E26)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast… Privacy is many things for many people. For the teenager suffering from a bad breakup, privacy is the ability to stop sharing her location and to block her ex on social media. For the political dissident advocating against an oppressive government, privacy ...

Repeat offenders drive bulk of tech support scams via Google Ads

Of all the different kinds of malicious search ads we track, those related to customer service are by far the most common. Brands such as PayPal, eBay, Apple or Netflix are among the most coveted ones as they tend to drive a lot of online searches. Tech support scammers are leveraging Google ads ...

A week in security (November 18 – November 24)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Meta takes down more than 2 million accounts in fight against pig butchering "Sad announcement" email implies your friend has died Update now! Apple confirms vulnerabilities are already being exploited AI Granny Daisy takes up scammers’ time so they can’t bother yo...

Advertisers are pushing ad and pop-up blockers using old tricks

Despite the countermeasures some services are taking against well-known ad blockers, lots of people now use one. This is no doubt due to increased privacy concerns around online tracking, along with the growing number of ads per site. And where there is money to be made, you’ll find social...

Scammer robs homebuyers of life savings in $20 million theft spree

A 33-year-old Nigerian man living in the UK and his co-conspirators defrauded over 400 would-be home buyers in the US. In the initial phase, Babatunde Francis Ayeni and his criminal gang targeted US title companies, real estate agents, and real estate attorneys. Employees of these companies were...

Warning: Online shopping threats to avoid this Black Friday and Cyber Monday

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DNA testing company vanishes along with its customers’ genetic data

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Warning: Hackers could take over your email account by stealing cookies, even if you have MFA

The Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI has issued a warning that cybercriminals are taking over email accounts via stolen session cookies, allowing them to bypass the multi-factor authentication MFA a user has set up. Here's how it works. Most of us don’t think twice about checking the “Remember...