A week in security (March 2 – March 8)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: One click on this fake Google Meet update can give attackers control of your PC Beware of fake OpenClaw installers, even if Bing points you to GitHub Fake CleanMyMac site installs SHub Stealer and backdoors crypto wallets Windows File Shredder: When deleting a file...

Ring doorbells: Won’t you see my neighbor? (Lock and Code S07E05)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast … On February 8, during the Super Bowl in the United States, countless owners of one of the most popular smart products today got a bit of a wakeup call: Their Ring doorbells could be used to see a whole lot more than they knew. In a commercial that was...

One click on this fake Google Meet update can give attackers control of your PC

A phishing page disguised as a Google Meet update notice is silently handing victims’ Windows computers to an attacker-controlled management server. No password is stolen, no files are downloaded, and there are no obvious red flags. It just takes a single click on a convincing Google Meet fake...

Beware of fake OpenClaw installers, even if Bing points you to GitHub

Attackers are abusing OpenClaw’s popularity by seeding fake “installers” on GitHub, boosted by Bing AI search results, to deliver infostealers and proxy malware instead of the AI assistant users were looking for. OpenClaw is an open‑source, self‑hosted AI agent that runs locally on your machine...

Fake CleanMyMac site installs SHub Stealer and backdoors crypto wallets

A convincing fake version of the popular Mac utility CleanMyMac is tricking users into installing malware. The site instructs visitors to paste a command into Terminal. If they do, it installs SHub Stealer, macOS malware designed to steal sensitive data including saved passwords, browser data,...

Windows File Shredder: When deleting a file isn’t enough

Most of us think deleting a file means it’s gone for good. But “delete” on a Windows device often just means “out of sight,” not necessarily “out of reach.” That’s where File Shredder, a new feature within Malwarebytes Tools for Windows, comes in. File Shredder lets you securely delete files from...

Supreme Court to decide whether geofence warrants are constitutional

Google has weighed in on a court case that will decide the future of a powerful but contentious tool for law enforcement. The company submitted an opinion to the US Supreme Court arguing that geofence warrants are unconstitutional. A geofence warrant is a form of "reverse warrant" that turns a...

Does the UK really want to ban VPNs? And can it be done?

The idea of a "Great British Firewall" makes for a catchy headline, but it would be riddled with holes and cause huge problems. The Guardian reports that the GCHQ Government Communications Headquarters, a UK intelligence, security, and cyber agency, is exploring the idea of a British firewall...

Attackers abuse OAuth’s built-in redirects to launch phishing and malware attacks

Attackers are abusing normal OAuth error redirects to send users from a legitimate Microsoft or Google login URL to phishing or malware pages, without ever completing a successful sign‑in or stealing tokens from the OAuth flow itself. That calls for a bit more explanation. OAuth Open Authorizatio...

High-severity Qualcomm bug hits Android devices in targeted attacks

Google has patched 129 vulnerabilities in Android in its March 2026 Android Security Bulletin, including a Qualcomm display flaw that is known to be actively exploited. You can check your device’s Android version, security update level, and Google Play system update in Settings. You should get a...

Pentagon ditches Anthropic AI over “security risk” and OpenAI takes over

On Friday the US Pentagon cut ties with Anthropic, the company behind Claude AI. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth designated the San Francisco-based company a "supply-chain risk to national security." The supply-chain risk designation means that no contractor, supplier, or partner doing business wi...

Chrome flaw let extensions hijack Gemini’s camera, mic, and file access

Chrome’s Gemini “Live in Chrome” panel Gemini’s embedded, agent-style assistant mode within Chrome had a high‑severity vulnerability tracked as CVE‑2026‑0628. The flaw let a low‑privilege extension inject code into the Gemini side panel and inherit its powerful capabilities, including local file...

Samsung TVs stop spying on viewers in Texas. Here’s how to disable ACR anywhere

Samsung has settled a lawsuit with the Texas Attorney General over how its smart TVs collect and monetize viewing data using Automated Content Recognition ACR. As part of the settlement, Samsung agreed to stop collecting ACR data from Texans without explicit, informed consent and to rewrite its...

A fake FileZilla site hosts a malicious download

A trojanized copy of the open-source FTP client FileZilla 3.69.5 is circulating online. The archive contains the legitimate FileZilla application, but with a single malicious DLL added to the folder. When someone downloads this tampered version, extracts it, and launches FileZilla, Windows loads...

Purchase order attachment isn’t a PDF. It’s phishing for your password

An attachment named New PO 500PCS.pdf.hTM, posing as a purchase order in PDF form, turned out to be something entirely different: a credential-harvesting web page that quietly sent passwords and IP/location data straight to a Telegram bot controlled by an attacker. Imagine you’re in accounts...

A week in security (February 23 – March 1)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Public Google API keys can be used to expose Gemini AI data Inside a fake Google security check that becomes a browser RAT Fake Zoom and Google Meet scams install Teramind: A technical deep dive How to understand and avoid Advanced Persistent Threats The Conduent...

Public Google API keys can be used to expose Gemini AI data

Google Maps/Cloud API Application Programming Interface keys that used to be safe to publish can now, in many cases, be used as real Gemini AI credentials. This means that any key sitting in public JavaScript or application code may now let attackers connect to Gemini through its API, access data...

Inside a fake Google security check that becomes a browser RAT

A website styled to resemble a Google Account security page is distributing what may be one of the most fully featured browser-based surveillance toolkits we have observed in the wild. Disguised as a routine security checkup, it walks victims through a four-step flow that grants the attacker push...

Fake Zoom and Google Meet scams install Teramind: A technical deep dive

UPDATE February 27, 2026 : We have added more clarity around the abuse of legitimate commercial products, and of Teramind's stealth mode. Important note: Teramind, the software vendor referenced in this article, has stated they are not affiliated with the threat actors described, did not deploy t...

How to understand and avoid Advanced Persistent Threats

By definition, an advanced persistent threat APT is a prolonged, targeted attack on a specific victim with the intention to compromise their system and gain information from or about that target. About a decade ago, the term was mostly used for state-sponsored threat actors. I used threat actors...

The Conduent breach; from 10 million to 25 million (and counting)

The Conduent breach has quietly grown into one of the biggest third‑party data incidents in US history, and the real story now is how many different programs and employers are swept up in it, even for people who have never heard of Conduent. When we first covered this incident, public filings...

Instagram flagged explicit messages to minors in 2018. Image-blurring arrived six years later

Meta took six years to blur explicit images on Instagram, even though internal emails show executives were aware in 2018 that minors were receiving them, according to newly unsealed court documents. In a deposition given last year, Adam Mosseri now the head of Instagram discusses an email thread...

Developer creates app to detect nearby smart glasses

An independent developer, moved after reading about the abuse of smart glasses to film people without their consent, decided to create an app to detect nearby smart glasses. Smart glasses are wearable devices built into ordinary-looking eyewear that add functions like audio, cameras, sensors, and...

Reddit, porn sites fined by UK regulators over children’s safety and privacy

The UK’s online safety and privacy regulators are targeting companies that violate new age verification laws at both ends : Porn sites that did not keep children out, and mainstream platforms that profited from children coming in. On February 23, media regulator Ofcom fined porn operators that...

Roblox gives predators “powerful tools” to target children, says LA County

Los Angeles County has sued online gaming company Roblox, adding to a series of suits that accuse the virtual worlds platform of misleading parents into thinking it's safe while leaving children exposed to predators and sexually explicit content. The February 19 filing makes LA County the first...

Fake Zoom meeting “update” silently installs unauthorized version of monitoring tool abused by cybercriminals to spy on victims

UPDATE February 27, 2026: We have added more clarity around the abuse of legitimate commercial products. UPDATE February 25, 2026 : Teramind has stated that it is not affiliated with the threat actors described and did not authorize the deployment of the software referenced. Further updates have...

Refund scam impersonates Avast to harvest credit card details

A fraudulent website dressed in Avast’s brand is tricking French-speaking users into handing over their full credit card details—card number, expiry date, and three-digit security code—under the cover story of processing a €499.99 refund that was never owed to them. The operation combines live ch...

OpenClaw: What is it and can you use it safely?

An AI tool with a funny name has caused quite a commotion as of late—including some allegations of machine consciousness—so here is a breakdown on OpenClaw. Launched in November 2025, OpenClaw is an open-source, autonomous artificial intelligence AI agent that was made to run locally on your own...

Password managers keep your passwords safe, unless…

I’m a big advocate of password managers. Granted, there are better alternatives for passwords like passkeys, but if a provider offers nothing but password options, which many do, you can’t do much about that. So, for the time being we seem to be stuck with passwords. Every reputable password...

Fake Huorong security site infects users with ValleyRAT

A convincing lookalike of the popular Huorong Security antivirus has been used to deliver ValleyRAT, a sophisticated Remote Access Trojan RAT built on the Winos4.0 framework, to users who believed they were improving their security. The campaign, attributed to the Silver Fox APT group—a...

A week in security (February 16 – February 22)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Age verification vendor Persona left frontend exposed, researchers say Facebook ads spread fake Windows 11 downloads that steal passwords and crypto wallets AI-generated passwords are a security risk Intimate products maker Tenga spilled customer data Meta patents ...

What can’t you say on TikTok?

This week on the Lock and Code podcast … A funny thing happened on TikTok last month, and it has brought allegations of censorship, manipulation, and control. It was the week of January 22, and after a long legal battle, TikTok had finally—for the first time in its company history—moved its...

Age verification vendor Persona left frontend exposed, researchers say

Researchers investigating Discord’s age-verification checks say they discovered an exposed frontend belonging to Persona, the identity-verification vendor used by Discord. It revealed a far more expansive surveillance and financial intelligence stack than a simple “teen safety” tool. A short whil...

Facebook ads spread fake Windows 11 downloads that steal passwords and crypto wallets

Attackers are running paid Facebook ads that look like official Microsoft promotions, then directing users to near-perfect clones of the Windows 11 download page. Click Download Now and instead of a Windows update, you get a malicious installer—one that silently steals saved passwords, browser...

AI-generated passwords are a security risk

Using Artificial Intelligence AI to generate your passwords is a bad idea. It's likely to give that password to a criminal who can then use it in a dictionary attack—which is when an attacker runs through a prepared list of likely passwords words, phrases, patterns with automated tools until one ...

Intimate products maker Tenga spilled customer data

Tenga confirmed reports published by several outlets that the company notified customers of a data breach. The Japanese manufacturer of adult products appears to have fallen victim to a phishing attack targeting one of its employees. Tenga reportedly wrote in the data breach notification: “An...

Meta patents AI that could keep you posting from beyond the grave

Tech bros have been wanting to become immortal for years. Until they get there, their fallback might be continuing to post nonsense on social media from the afterlife. On December 30, 2025, Meta was granted US patent 12513102B2: Simulation of a user of a social networking system using a language...

Betterment data breach might be worse than we thought

Betterment LLC is an investment advisor registered with US Securities and Exchange Commission SEC. The company disclosed a January 2026 incident in which an attacker used social engineering to access a third‑party platform used for customer communications, then abused it to send crypto‑themed...

Job scam uses fake Google Forms site to harvest Google logins

As part of our investigation into a job-themed phishing campaign, we came across several suspicious URLs that all looked like this: https://forms.google.ss-o.com/forms/d/e/uniqueid/viewform?form=opportunitysec&promo= The subdomain forms.google.ss-o.com is a clear attempt to impersonate the...

Scammers use fake “Gemini” AI chatbot to sell fake “Google Coin”

Scammers have found a new use for AI: creating custom chatbots posing as real AI assistants to pressure victims into buying worthless cryptocurrencies. We recently came across a live "Google Coin" presale site featuring a chatbot that claimed to be Google's Gemini AI assistant. The bot guided...

Chrome “preloading” could be leaking your data and causing problems in Browser Guard

This article explains why Chrome’s “preloading” feature can cause scary-looking blocks in Malwarebytes Browser Guard and how to turn it off. Modern browsers want to provide content instantly. To do that, Chrome includes a feature called page preloading. When this is enabled, Chrome doesn’t just...

Scam Guard for desktop: A second set of eyes for suspicious moments

Scams aren’t so obvious anymore. They're well-written, have working grammar, and can lead victims to very convincing branded webpages. Scammers increasingly use AI tools to clone sites and create highly sophisticated scams at scale, so don't expect to rely on spotting obvious typos anymore. That’...

Update Chrome now: Zero-day bug allows code execution via malicious webpages

Google has issued a patch for a high‑severity Chrome zero‑day, tracked as CVE‑2026‑2441, a memory bug in how the browser handles certain font features that attackers are already exploiting. CVE-2026-2441 has the questionable honor of being the first Chrome zero-day of 2026. Google considered it...

Hobby coder accidentally creates vacuum robot army

Sammy Azdoufal wanted to steer his robot vacuum with a PS5 controller. Like any good maker, he thought it would be fun to drive a new DJI Romo around manually. He ended up gaining access to an army of robotic cleaners that gave him eyes into thousands of homes. Driven by purely playful reasons,...

ClickFix added nslookup commands to its arsenal for downloading RATs

ClickFix malware campaigns are all about tricking the victim into infecting their own machine. Apparently, the criminals behind these campaigns have figured out that mshta and Powershell commands are increasingly being blocked by security software, so they have developed a new method using...

A week in security (February 9 – February 15)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: How to find and remove credential-stealing Chrome extensions Fake shops target Winter Olympics 2026 fans Outlook add-in goes rogue and steals 4,000 credentials and payment data Child exploitation, grooming, and social media addiction claims put Meta on trial Apple...

How to find and remove credential-stealing Chrome extensions

Researchers have found yet another family of malicious extensions in the Chrome Web Store. This time, 30 different Chrome extensions were found stealing credentials from more than 260,000 users. The extensions rendered a full-screen iframe pointing to a remote domain. This iframe overlaid the...

Fake shops target Winter Olympics 2026 fans

If you've seen the two stoat siblings serving as official mascots of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, you already know Tina and Milo are irresistible. Designed by Italian schoolchildren and chosen from more than 1,600 entries in a public poll, the duo has already captured hearts worldwide...

Outlook add-in goes rogue and steals 4,000 credentials and payment data

Researchers found a malicious Microsoft Outlook add-in which was able to steal 4,000 stolen Microsoft account credentials, credit card numbers, and banking security answers. How is it possible that the Microsoft Office Add-in Store ended listing an add-in that silently loaded a phishing kit insid...

Child exploitation, grooming, and social media addiction claims put Meta on trial

Meta is facing two trials over child safety allegations in California and New Mexico. The lawsuits are landmark cases, marking the first time that any such accusations have reached a jury. Although over 40 state attorneys general have filed suits about child safety issues with social media, none...