Malwarebytes Personal Data Remover: A new way to help scrub personal data online

There’s an awful lot about you online that some awful groups want to exploit. The right combination of personal data points could help an identity thief fool a bank into opening a new, fraudulent line of credit in your name. Your alma mater, salary, and email address could help an online scammer...

100 million+ US citizens have records leaked by background check service

A background check left a huge database unprotected online containing 2.2TB of people's data, according to research by Cybernews. The database was left passwordless and easily accessible to anyone on the internet by background check firm MC2 Data. MC2 Data gathers publicly available data to provi...

San Francisco’s fight against deepfake porn, with City Attorney David Chiu (Lock and Code S05E20)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast … On August 15, the city of San Francisco launched an entirely new fight against the world of deepfake porn—it sued the websites that make the abusive material so easy to create. “Deepfakes,” as they’re often called, are fake images and videos that utilize...

Relationship broken up? Here’s how to separate your online accounts

Breaking up is hard to do. The internet has made it harder. With couples today regularly sharing access to one another’s email accounts, streaming services, social media platforms, online photo albums, and more, the risk of a bad breakup isn’t just heartache. Equipped with unfettered access into...

SpaceX, CNN, and The White House internal data allegedly published online. Is it real?

A cybercriminal has released internal data online that they say has come from leaks at several high-profile sources, including SpaceX, CNN, and the White House. However, there are some questions around the reliability and usefulness of the released data, so we took a closer look. When it comes to...

A week in security (September 16 – September 22)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: "Simply staggering" surveillance conducted by social media and streaming services, FTC finds Tor anonymity compromised by law enforcement. Is it still safe to use? Walmart customers scammed via fake shopping lists, threatened with arrest Snapchat wants to put your...

“Simply staggering” surveillance conducted by social media and streaming services, FTC finds

The US Federal Trade Commission FTC released a report that examines the data collection and use practices of major social media and video streaming services, finding that—and this will not come as a surprise to our regular readers—the companies engaged in vast surveillance of consumers in order t...

Tor anonymity compromised by law enforcement. Is it still safe to use?

Despite people generally considering the Tor network as an essential tool for anonymous browsing, german law enforcement agencies have managed to de-anonymize Tor users after putting surveillance on Tor servers for months. Before we go into the what the agencies did, let's take a look at some...

Walmart customers scammed via fake shopping lists, threatened with arrest

Shopping online or attempting to get in touch with a store is a little bit like walking on a minefield: you might get lucky or take a wrong step and get scammed. Case in point, a malicious ad campaign is abusing Walmart Lists, a kind of virtual shopping list customers can share with family and...

Snapchat wants to put your AI-generated face in its ads

Snapchat is reserving the right to use your selfie images to power Cameos, Generative AI, and other experiences on Snapchat, including ads, according to our friends at 404 Media, The Snapchat Support page about its My Selfie feature says: “You’ll take selfies with your Snap camera or select image...

iOS 18 is out. Here are the new privacy and security features

On September 16, 2024, Apple released iOS 18. Besides a lot of exciting new features, iOS 18 comes with some privacy and security enhancements. One of the most promising new features is the new Passwords app. Built on the foundation of Apple's password management system Keychain, Passwords makes ...

23andMe to pay $30 million in settlement over 2023 data breach

Genetic testing company 23andMe will pay $30 million to settle a class action lawsuit over a 2023 data breach which ended in some customers having information like names, birth years, and ancestry information exposed. In October 2023, we reported on how information belonging to as many as seven...

A week in security (September 9 – September 15)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Ford seeks patent for conversation-based advertising Scammers advertise fake AppleCare+ service via GitHub repos Facebook scrapes photos of kids from Australian user profiles to train its AI PartnerLeak scam site promises victims full access to "cheating" partner’s...

Ford wants to eavesdrop on passenger conversations to help target ads

Car manufacturer Ford Motor Company has filed a patent application for an in-vehicle advertisement presentation system based on information derived from several trip and driver characteristics. Among those characteristics—human conversations. In the abstract of the patent application publication...

Scammers advertise fake AppleCare+ service via GitHub repos

Weve uncovered a malicious campaign going after Mac users looking for support or extended warranty from Apple via the AppleCare+ support plans. The perpetrators are buying Google ads to lure in their victims and redirect them to bogus pages hosted on GitHub, the developer and code repository...

Facebook scrapes photos of kids from Australian user profiles to train its AI

Facebook has admitted that it scrapes the public photos, posts and other data from the accounts of Australian adult users to train its AI models. Unlike citizens of the European Union EU, Australians are not offered an opt-out option to refuse consent. At an inquiry as to whether the social media...

PartnerLeak scam site promises victims full access to “cheating” partner’s stolen data

Earlier this week, we reported on a new type of scam that tells you your partner is cheating on you. However, we hit a dead end because we were unable to get hold of an original copy of the email. That was until the scammers were “kind enough” to send one to one of our co-workers. your partner is...

Payment provider data breach exposes credit card information of 1.7 million customers

Payment provider Slim CD has disclosed a security incident that may have exposed the full credit card information of anyone paying at a merchant that uses Slim CD’s services. The Florida-based gateway system, which allows merchants to take any kind of electronic payment, said on June 15 it notice...

Your partner “is cheating on you” scam asks you to pay to see proof

As if they weren’t annoying enough already, scammers have recently introduced new pressure tactics to their sextortion and scam emails. Last week we reported how cybercriminals are using photographs of targets homes in order to scare them into paying money. Now theyre throwing in the name of...

What the arrest of Telegram’s CEO means, with Eva Galperin (Lock and Code S05E19)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast… On August 24, at an airport just outside of Paris, a man named Pavel Durov was detained for questioning by French investigators. Just days later, the same man was charged in crimes related to the distribution of child pornography and illicit transactions,...

A week in security (September 2 – September 8)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Lowe’s employees phished via Google ads Planned Parenthood partly offline after ransomware attack "Hello pervert" sextortion scam includes new threat of Pegasus—and a picture of your home How to avoid election related scams London’s city transport hit by...

Lowe’s employees phished via Google ads

In mid-August, we identified a malvertising campaign targeting Lowes employees via Google ads. Like many large corporations, Lowes has their own employe portal called MyLowesLife, for all matters related to schedule, pay stubs, or benefits. Lowes employees who searched for "myloweslife" during th...

Planned Parenthood partly offline after ransomware attack

In late August, Intermountain Planned Parenthood of Montana suffered a cyberattack which is still under investigation. The attack has been claimed by a ransomware group. Intermountain Planned Parenthood Inc., doing business as Planned Parenthood Of Montana, is a nonprofit organization that provid...

“Hello pervert” sextortion scam includes new threat of Pegasus—and a picture of your home

After using passwords obtained from one of the countless breaches as a lure to trick victims into paying, the “Hello pervert” sextortion scammers have recently introduced two new pressure tactics: Name-dropping the infamous Pegasus spyware and adding pictures of your home environment. They do thi...

How to avoid election related scams

With the US election campaigns at full throttle, scammers have taken a renewed interest in the ways this can be used to defraud people, often using the same tactics legitimate campaigns leverage for support emails, text messages, phone calls, and social media pleas. The lure that we have seen the...

London’s city transport hit by cybersecurity incident [updated]

Transport for London TfL, the citys transport authority, is fighting through an ongoing cyberattack. TfL runs three separate units that arrange transports on Londons surface, underground, and Crossrail transportation systems. It serves some 8 million inhabitants of the London metropolitan area. I...

City of Columbus tries to silence security researcher

The City of Columbus, Ohio is suing a security researcher for sharing stolen data. All the complaint will accomplish, we imagine, is spotlight the ignorance of certain city officials in handling a common security matter. What happened is that the City of Columbus was attacked by a ransomware grou...

A week in security (August 26 – September 1)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Iranian cybercriminals are targeting WhatsApp users in spear phishing campaign Fake Canva home page leads to browser lock Telegram CEO Pavel Durov charged with allowing criminal activity CODAC Behavioral Healthcare, US Marshalls are latest ransomware targets SMS...

Iranian cybercriminals are targeting WhatsApp users in spear phishing campaign

An Iranian state-sponsored group often referred to as Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps IRGC is making headlines again this season as Meta disclosed that the cybercriminals targeted WhatsApp users in Israel, Palestine, Iran, the UK, and the US. Other names for this group—depending on the...

Fake Canva home page leads to browser lock

In a previous blog post, we showed how fraudsters were leveraging features from the very company Microsoft they were impersonating. We continue this series with another clever trick abusing Canva, a popular online tool for graphic design. This time, the scammers registered an account on Canva to...

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov charged with allowing criminal activity

France has indicted the CEO of the popular messaging app Telegram on charges of complicity in the distribution of child sex abuse images, aiding organized crime, drug trafficking, fraud, and refusing lawful orders to give information to law enforcement. The arrest warrants for Pavel Durov and his...

CODAC Behavioral Healthcare, US Marshalls are latest ransomware targets

The Qilin ransomware group listed CODAC Behavioral Healthcare, a nonprofit health care treatment organization, as one of their latest victims. Qilin seems to have a preference for healthcare and support organizations. One of their most well-known victims was the pathology lab services provider...

SMS scammers use toll fees as a lure

In April 2024, the FBI warned about a new type of smishing scam. Smishing is the term we use for phishing attacks sent via text message. This particular smishing scam tries to trick users into clicking a link by telling them they owe a “small amount” in toll fees. The scammers send a text claimin...

TDECU data breach affects half a million people

The Texas Dow Employees Credit Union TDECU has filed a data breach notification, reporting that the data of 500,474 people has been accessed in an external system breach. TDECU is the largest Houston-area credit union, and the fourth largest in the state of Texas. The credit union was founded by...

PSA: These ‘Microsoft Support’ ploys may just fool you

Many people turn to their favorite search engine when they are facing an issue with their computer. One common search query is to look for the telephone number or contact form for Microsoft, Apple or one of many other brands. Scammers have long been interested in pretending to be Microsoft...

Move over malware: Why one teen is more worried about AI (re-air) (Lock and Code S05E18)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast… Every age group uses the internet a little bit differently, and it turns out for at least one Gen Z teen in the Bay Area, the classic approach to cyberecurity—defending against viruses, ransomware, worms, and more—is the least of her concerns. Of far more...

A week in security (August 19 – August 25)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Millennials’ sense of privacy uniquely tested in romantic relationships Hacked GPS tracker reveals location data of customers "We will hold them accountable": General Motors sued for selling customer driving data to third parties Why you need to know about ransomwa...

Fake funeral “live stream” scams target grieving users on Facebook

Some scammers have the morals of an alley cat. But some sink even lower. Over the last few months, Malwarebytes Labs has discovered scammers active on Facebook that prey on bereaved people by using stolen images and phony funeral live stream links to steal money and/or credit card details. These...

Hundreds of online stores hacked in new campaign

Whenever you shop online and enter your payment details, you could be at risk of being a victim of fraud. Digital skimmers are snippets of code that have been injected into online stores and they can steal your credit card number, expiration date and CVV/CVC as you type it in. We recently detecte...

Google patches actively exploited zero-day in Chrome. Update now!

Google has released an update for its Chrome browser which includes a patch for a vulnerability that Google says is already being exploited, known as a zero-day vulnerability. Google has fixed that zero-day with the release of versions 128.0.6613.84/.85 for Windows/macOS and 128.0.6613.84 for Lin...

Fraudulent Slack ad shows malvertiser’s patience and skills

In the past year alone, we have reported almost five hundred unique malvertising incidents related to Google search ads. While it can be difficult to attribute each incident to a specific threat actor, we usually notice similarities between campaigns. Some malvertisers go to great lengths to bypa...

My child had her data stolen—here’s how to protect your kids from identity theft

Recently, I received a letter in the mail from a company about a data breach. The letter said that the company had been a victim of a cyberattack back in March in which files were scrambled what we know as ransomware. The attacker had also accessed sensitive files and customer health data. Sadly,...

Man certifies his own (fake) death after hacking into registry system using stolen identity

A 39-year-old man has been sentenced to 81 months in jail after hacking governments systems to fake his own death to dodge paying child support. Yes, you read that right. The press release by the US Attorneys Office, Eastern District of Kentucky, paints a detailed picture of what went down. In...

National Public Data leaked passwords online

Earlier this month, a huge trove of data from scraping service National Public Data was posted online. The dump made international headlines because it included data on hundreds of millions of people, and included Social Security Numbers. As if that wasnt bad enough, KrebsOnSecurity is now...

Toyota confirms customer and employee data stolen, says breach at third party to blame

Last week, a cybercriminal using the handle ZeroSevenGroup dumped 240GB of data on the infamous stolen data site BreachForums, that they said came from a hack on the US branch of car manufacturer Toyota. ZeroSevenGroup claims the dump includes customer and employee data. ZeroSevenGroup posted the...

Why you need to know about ransomware

Last month, a strange thing happened in cybersecurity: a type of cyberthreat typically reserved for large businesses and critical services appeared on the computers of everyday people. Starting on July 20, hundreds of individuals across the globe began reporting problems with ransomware. Ransomwa...

“We will hold them accountable”: General Motors sued for selling customer driving data to third parties

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued General Motors GM for the unlawful collection and sale of over 1.5 million Texans’ private driving data to insurance companies without their knowledge or consent. In June, the Attorney General AG announced he had opened an investigation into several car...

Hacked GPS tracker reveals location data of customers

Stalkerware researcher maia arson crimew strikes again. Big time. We know maia as a researcher that loves to go after stalkerware peddlers, which Malwarebytes—as one of the founding members of the Coalition Against Stalkerware—loves to see. This time the target company, Tracki, is one selling GPS...

Millennials’ sense of privacy uniquely tested in romantic relationships

Millennials are in a bind. According to a new analysis of research released earlier this year by Malwarebytes, Millennials are significantly more likely than every other generation to feel that there is no need to share their online account logins with boyfriends, girlfriends, spouses, or...

A week in security (August 12 – August 18)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Dozens of Google products targeted by scammers via malicious search ads Microsoft patches bug that could have allowed an attacker to revert your computer back to an older, vulnerable version We’re making it easier for you to protect your identity X accused of...