How to remove a user from a shared Android device

Some of our loyal readers may remember my little mishap when I was able to track my wife by accident after inadvertently adding myself to her phone as a user. For exactly that reason we want to warn against sharing devices and at least show you how to remove other people’s accounts from your...

How to remove a user from a shared Mac

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 a Mac. For a better understanding its good to understand the difference between an actual user of the device and a "sharing only user." On a Mac, you can use Sharing Only User...

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...

Your vacation, reservations, and online dates, now chosen by AI: Lock and Code S05E11

This week on the Lock and Code podcast… The irrigation of the internet is coming. For decades, we’ve accessed the internet much like how we, so long ago, accessed water—by traveling to it. We connected quite literally, we logged on, and we zipped to addresses and sites to read, learn, shop, and...

What is real-time protection and why do you need it?

The constant barrage of cyber threats can be overwhelming for all of us. And, as those threats evolve and attackers find new ways to compromise us, we need a way to keep on top of everything nasty that’s thrown our way. Malwarebytes’ free version tackles and reactively resolves threats already on...

Financial institutions ordered to notify customers after a breach, have an incident response plan

The Securities and Exchange Commission SEC has announced rules around breaches for certain financial institutions—registered broker-dealers, investment companies, investment advisers, and transfer agents— that require them to have written incident response policies and procedures that can be used...

A week in security (May 13 – May 19)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Deleted iPhone photos show up again after iOS update Scammers can easily phish your multi-factor authentication codes. Here’s how to avoid it Notorious data leak site BreachForums seized by law enforcement Apple and Google join forces to stop unwanted tracking Upda...

[updated] Deleted iPhone photos show up again after iOS update

iPhone owners are reporting that photos theyd deleted are now back on their phones, after updating to iOS 17.5. With so many users reporting similar oddities, it would seem something went wrong, or at least different than to be expected. Here are some examples from Reddit: “When in conversation...

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...

Apple and Google join forces to stop unwanted tracking

Apple and Google have announced an industry specification for Bluetooth tracking devices which help alert users to unwanted tracking. The specification, called Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers, will make it possible to alert users across both iOS and Android if a device is unknowingly being...

Update Chrome now! Google releases emergency security patch

Google has released an emergency security update for its Chrome browser. The update includes a patch released four days earlier for a vulnerability which Google say is already being exploited. The easiest way to update Chrome is to allow it to update automatically, but you can end up lagging behi...

Why car location tracking needs an overhaul

Across America, survivors of domestic abuse and stalking are facing a unique location tracking crisis born out of policy failure, unclear corporate responsibility, and potentially risky behaviors around digital sharing that are now common in relationships. No, we’re not talking about stalkerware...

A week in security (May 6 – May 12)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Dell notifies customers about data breach DocGo patient health data stolen in cyberattack Desperate Taylor Swift fans defrauded by ticket scams Tracing what went wrong in 2012 for today’s teens, with Dr. Jean Twenge: Lock and Code S04E10 Last week on ThreatDown:...

Dell notifies customers about data breach

Dell is warning its customers about a data breach after a cybercriminal offered a 49 million-record database of information about Dell customers on a cybercrime forum. A cybercriminal called Menelik posted the following message on the “Breach Forums” site: “The data includes 49 million customer a...

DocGo patient health data stolen in cyberattack

Medical health care provider DocGo has disclosed in a form 8-K that it experienced a cybersecurity incident involving some of the company’s systems. As part of the investigation of the incident, the company says it has determined that the attacker accessed and acquired data, including certain...

Desperate Taylor Swift fans defrauded by ticket scams

Ticket scams are very common and apparently hard to stop. When there are not nearly enough tickets for some concerts to accommodate all the fans that desperately want to be there, it makes for ideal hunting grounds for scammers. With a ticket scam, you pay for a ticket and you either don’t receiv...

“No social media ’til 16,” and other fixes for a teen mental health crisis, with Dr. Jean Twenge: Lock and Code S04E10

This week on the Lock and Code podcast… You’ve likely felt it: The dull pull downwards of a smartphone scroll. The “five more minutes” just before bed. The sleep still there after waking. The edges of your calm slowly fraying. After more than a decade of our most recent technological experiment, ...

A week in security (April 29 – May 5)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: You get a passkey, you get a passkey, everyone should get a passkey Dropbox Sign customer data accessed in breach Watch out for tech support scams lurking in sponsored search results Psychotherapy practice hacker gets jail time after extorting patients, publishing...

You get a passkey, you get a passkey, everyone should get a passkey

Microsoft is rolling out passkey support for all consumer accounts. Passkeys are a very secure replacement for passwords that cant be cracked, guessed or phished, and let you log in easily, without having to type a password every time. After enabling them in Windows 11 last year, Microsoft accoun...

Dropbox Sign customer data accessed in breach

Dropbox is reporting a recent "security incident" in which an attacker gained unauthorized access to the Dropbox Sign formerly HelloSign production environment. During this access, the attacker had access to Dropbox Sign customer information. Dropbox Sign is a platform that allows customers to...

Watch out for tech support scams lurking in sponsored search results

This blog post was written based on research carried out by Jérôme Segura. A campaign using sponsored search results is targeting home users and taking them to tech support scams. Sponsored search results are the ones that are listed at the top of search results and are labelled "Sponsored". They...

Psychotherapy practice hacker gets jail time after extorting patients, publishing personal therapy notes online

On October 30, 2020, I started a article with the words: “Hell is too nice a place for these people.” The subject of this outrage focused on the cybercriminals behind an attack on Finnish psychotherapy practice Vastaamo. Because it was a psychotherapy practice, the records contained extremely...

Wireless carriers fined $200 million after illegally sharing customer location data

After four years of investigation, the Federal Communications Commission FCC has concluded that four of the major wireless carriers in the US violated the law in sharing access to customers’ location data. The FCC fined AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon a total of almost $200 million for...

Malwarebytes Premium Security earns “Product of the Year” from AVLab

After blocking 100% of “in-the-wild” malware samples that were deployed in multiple, consecutive third-party tests conducted by the AVLab Cybersecurity Foundation, Malwarebytes Premium Security has earned “Product of the Year.” The recognition cements Malwarebytes Premium Security’s perfect recor...

FBI warns online daters to avoid “free” online verification schemes that prove costly

The FBI has warned of fraudsters targeting users of dating websites and apps with “free” online verification service schemes that turn out to be very costly. Instead of being free, as advertised, the verification schemes involve steep monthly subscription fees, and will steal personal information...

Kaiser health insurance leaked patient data to advertisers

Health insurance giant Kaiser has announced it will notify millions of patients about a data breach after sharing patients’ data with advertisers. Kaiser said that an investigation led to the discovery that “certain online technologies, previously installed on its websites and mobile applications...

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...

Ring agrees to pay $5.6 million after cameras were used to spy on customers

Amazons Ring has settled with the Federal Trade Commission FTC over charges that the company allowed employees and contractors to access customers private videos, and failed to implement security protections which enabled hackers to take control of customers’ accounts, cameras, and videos. The FT...

TikTok comes one step closer to a US ban

The US Senate has approved a bill that would effectively ban TikTok from the US unless Chinese owner ByteDance gives up its share of the immensely popular app. Social video platform TikTok has experienced explosive growth since it first appeared in 2017, and is now said to have well over 1.5...

Google ad for Facebook redirects to scam

Today, we are looking at a malicious ad campaign targeting Facebook users via Google search. It is well-known that tech support scammers attract new victims by buying ads for certain keywords related to their audience. What is perhaps less known is how it is even possible to impersonate top brand...

“Substantial proportion” of Americans may have had health and personal data stolen in Change Healthcare breach

UnitedHealth Group has given an update on the February cyberattack on Change Healthcare, one of its subsidiaries. In the update, the company revealed the scale of the breach, saying: “Based on initial targeted data sampling to date, the company has found files containing protected health...

Picking fights and gaining rights, with Justin Brookman: Lock and Code S05E09

This week on the Lock and Code podcast… Our Lock and Code host, David Ruiz, has a bit of an apology to make: “Sorry for all the depressing episodes.” When the Lock and Code podcast explored online harassment and abuse this year, our guest provided several guidelines and tips for individuals to lo...

Billions of scraped Discord messages up for sale

Four billions public Discord messages are for sale on an internet scraping service called Spy.pet. At first sight there doesn’t seem to be much that is illegal about it. The messages were publicly accessible and there are no laws against scraping data. However, it turns out the site did disregard...

A week in security (April 15 – April 21)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Law enforcement reels in phishing-as-a-service whopper Mental health company Cerebral failed to protect sensitive personal data, must pay $7 million Cannabis investment scam JuicyFields ends in 9 arrests Should you share your location with your partner? Giant Tiger...

Law enforcement reels in phishing-as-a-service whopper

A major international law enforcement effort involving agencies from 19 countries has disrupted the notorious LabHost phishing-as-a-service platform. Europol reports that the organizations infrastructure has been compromised, its website shut down, and 37 suspects arrested, including four people ...

Mental health company Cerebral failed to protect sensitive personal data, must pay $7 million

The Federal Trade Commission FTC has reached a settlement with online mental health services company Cerebral after the company was charged with failing to secure and protect sensitive health data. Cerebral has agreed to an order that will restrict how the company can use or disclose sensitive...

Cannabis investment scam JuicyFields ends in 9 arrests

Europol and its associates have arrested 9 people in conjunction with a cannabis investment scam known as "JuicyFields". The suspects used social media to lure investors to their website. There they found information about a “golden opportunity” to invest in the cultivation, harvesting and...

Should you share your location with your partner?

Every relationship has its disagreements. Who takes out the trash and washes the dishes? Who plans the meals and writes out the grocery list? And when is it okay to start tracking one another’s location? Location sharing is becoming the norm between romantic partners—50% of people valued location...

Giant Tiger breach sees 2.8 million records leaked

Someone has posted a database of over 2.8 million records to a hacker forum, claiming they originated from a March 2024 hack at Canadian retail chain Giant Tiger. When asked, they posted a small snippet as proof. The download of the full database is practically free for other active members of th...

A week in security (April 8 – April 14)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: How to change your Social Security Number Apple warns people of mercenary attacks via threat notification system How to check if your data was exposed in the AT&T breach Microsoft’s April 2024 Patch Tuesday includes two actively exploited zero-day vulnerabilities H...

How to change your Social Security Number

After seeing their Social Security Number SSN leaked in the AT&T breach, some US citizens are wondering if and how they can change their SSN. The good news is that even though it’s a challenging process, it is possible. But if youve ever had to abandon an email address that you used for years,...

Apple warns people of mercenary attacks via threat notification system

Apple has reportedly sent alerts to individuals in 92 nations on Wednesday, April 10, to say its detected that they may have been a victim of a mercenary attack. The company says it has sent out these types of threat notifications to over 150 countries since the start in 2021. Mercenary spyware i...

How to check if your data was exposed in the AT&T breach

AT&T has notified US state authorities and regulators about its recent or not data breach, saying 51,226,382 people were affected. For those that have missed the story so far: Back in 2021, a hacker named Shiny Hunters claimed to have breached AT&T. On March 20, 2024, we reported how the data of...

Microsoft’s April 2024 Patch Tuesday includes two actively exploited zero-day vulnerabilities

The April 2024 Patch Tuesday update includes patches for 149 Microsoft vulnerabilities and republishes 6 non-Microsoft CVEs. Three of those 149 vulnerabilities are listed as critical, and one is listed as actively exploited by Microsoft. Another vulnerability is claimed to be a zero-day by...

How to protect yourself from online harassment

It takes a little to receive a lot of online hate today, from simply working as a school administrator to playing a role in a popular movie or video game. But these moments of personal crisis have few, immediate solutions, as the current proposals to curb and stem online harassment zero in on the...

Introducing the Digital Footprint Portal

Digital security is about so much more than malware. That wasn’t always the case. When I started Malwarebytes more than 16 years ago, malware was the primary security concern—the annoying pop-ups, the fast-spreading viruses, the catastrophic worms—and throughout our company’s history, Malwarebyte...

New ransomware group demands Change Healthcare ransom

The Change Healthcare ransomware attack has taken a third cruel twist. A new ransomware group, RansomHub, has listed the organisation as a victim on its dark web leak site, saying it has 4 TB of "highly selective data," which relates to "all Change Health clients that have sensitive data being...

New ransomware group demands Change Healthcare ransom

The Change Healthcare ransomware attack has taken a third cruel twist. A new ransomware group, RansomHub, has listed the organisation as a victim on its dark web leak site, saying it has 4 TB of "highly selective data," which relates to "all Change Health clients that have sensitive data being...

Active Nitrogen campaign delivered via malicious ads for PuTTY, FileZilla

In the past couple of weeks, we have observed an ongoing campaign targeting system administrators with fraudulent ads for popular system utilities. The malicious ads are displayed as sponsored results on Googles search engine page and localized to North America. Victims are tricked into downloadi...