Unusual sign-in activity mail goes phishing for Microsoft account holders

We’ve received an interesting spam email which deliberately or not could get people thinking about the current international crisis. Being on your guard will pay dividends over the coming days and weeks, as more of the below is sure to follow. Unusual sign-in activity detected? The emails subject...

Covid app’s privacy information ruled not clear enough

The UKs data watchdog has issued a reprimand to both the Scottish government and NHS National Services Scotland about their Covid Status app. The Information Commissioners Office ICO urged both to act swiftly to address its concerns about the app that, according to the ICO, failed to provide peop...

How Crisis Text Line crossed the line in the public’s mind: Lock and Code S03E05

Last month, Politico reported that Crisis Text Line, a national mental health support nonprofit whose volunteers help people through text-based chats, was sharing those chats with a for-profit company that Crisis Text Line spun-off in an attempt to boost funding for itself. That for-profit ventur...

TrickBot takes down server infrastructure after months of inactivity

The king of tricks is dead. Long live the new king. Or will it make a comeback? While we already assumed TrickBot was dead in the water, the shutdown of the server infrastructure on February 24, 2022, did not go unnoticed. Is this really the end of one of the most active botnets in the last decad...

A week in security (February 21 – February 27)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Potential cybersecurity impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine Cyber lures and threats in the context of the war in Ukraine CISA warns of cyberespionage by Iranian APT “MuddyWater” Google and Microsoft accused of feeding smaller search engines spam ads Cyclops Bli...

Potential cybersecurity impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

On Thursday night, Russia launched a military invasion of its neighbor and former Soviet Union member Ukraine, drawing a broad rebuke from international leaders, along with significant protest from the Russian public. The toll of human life from this war is unknown, and, like the many internation...

Cyber lures and threats in the context of the war in Ukraine

The conflict between Ukraine and Russia goes a long way back, but it took a dramatic turn after the 2014 Ukrainian revolution. Since then, the war in the Donbas region has resulted in a number of casualties as well as a constant feeling of insecurity among the population. In recent months, Russia...

CISA warns of cyberespionage by Iranian APT “MuddyWater”

Cybersecurity agencies in the US and UK have issued a joint cybersecurity advisory CSA on MuddyWater, a government-sponsored Iranian advanced persistent threat APT actor. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI, the US Cyber Command Cyber...

Google and Microsoft accused of feeding smaller search engines spam ads

Google and Microsoft appear to have been flooding their smaller search engine rivals with spam ads, to limit the number of higher-value ads that appear on them, according to data viewed by POLITICO. Ads are considered "spam" if they appear in search results but have little to no relevance to the...

Cyclops Blink malware: US and UK authorities issue alert

According to a joint security advisory published yesterday by US and UK cybersecurity and law enforcement agencies, a new malware called Cyclops Blink has surfaced to replace the VPNFilter malware attributed to the Sandworm group, which has always been seen as a Russian state-sponsored group...

Yik Yak “cyberbullying”: What can be done?

In August 2021, Yik Yak, the once-popular anonymous social media platform on Android and iOS, made a comeback after shutting its doors in 2017. Six months after its return, its started to gain attention once more, as a result of cyberbullying—the main reason why it declined years ago. However, th...

How to update your drivers and when you need to

Many software vendors have a driver updater in their arsenal. But is it really that important to have the latest computer drivers? Where do you get them? And how do you go about updating? Driver updates fix security and compatibility problems, errors, broken code, and sometimes even add features ...

Hive ransomware: Researchers figure out a method to decrypt files

Files encrypted by ransomware cant be recovered without obtaining the decryption key, if the encryption has been done properly. But that doesnt seem to be the case for Hive ransomware. Researchers from the Kookmin University in Korea have published a method for decrypting the data scrambled by...

“Ethnicity recognition” tool listed on surveillance camera app store built by fridge-maker’s video analytics startup

The bizarre promotional video promises “Face analysis based on best of breed Artificial Intelligence algorithms for Business Intelligence and Digital Signage applications.” What follows is footage of a woman pushing her hair behind her ears, a man grimacing and baring his teeth, and an actor in a...

Xenomorph banking Trojan downloaded over 50,000 times from Play Store

Besides the name of the creature that “stars” in the Alien movies by 20th Century Fox, Xenomorph is also the name given to an Android banking Trojan. Researchers found this banking Trojan to be distributed on the official Google Play Store, with more than 50,000 installations. The researchers...

CISA offers guidance on dealing with information manipulation

Malicious actors use influence operations, like spreading false information, to shape public opinion, undermine trust, amplify division, and create dissension. In response, the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency CISA has released CISA Insights: Preparing for and Mitigating Foreign...

Facebook sued for siphoning facial recognition data without consent

Ken Paxton, the Attorney General of Texas, recently filed a lawsuit against Facebooks parent company, Meta, for harvesting the facial recognition data of millions of Texan residents—for a decade. Paxton filed the lawsuit on Monday in the states Harrison County District Court. The suit contains...

A week in security (February 14 – February 20)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Adobe patches actively exploited Magento/Adobe Commerce zero-day Ransomware gang hits 49ers’ network before Super Bowl kick off Don’t let scammers ruin your Valentine’s Day CISA Ransomware report warns “triple threat” attacks still on the prowl City: Skylines...

Watch out for this bump in LinkedIn phishing

LinkedIn is sometimes forgotten about in more general coverage of phishing attacks. Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram receive regular attention. Cryptowallet customer support scams run wild in the replies to any cryptocurrency themed tweet. Facebook users can often be...

US senators introduce the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)

US Senators Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee have introduced the Kids Online Safety Act KOSA, legislation that aims to enhance childrens safety online. This follows the The Wall Street Journal WSJs reporting on the harm Instagram can inflict on teens, which was...

Firefox and Chrome reaching major versions 100 may break some websites

Mozilla has issued a warning about the upcoming versions 100 for both Chrome and Firefox. The change in the version number from 2 to 3 digits may cause some problems when visiting websites that are not prepared for this change. For example, it’s possible that some parsing libraries may have...

Roblox Beamers steal items from kids

Roblox gamers are once again being warned to be on their guard against scammers plundering valuable digital items. Most multiplayer titles are all about customization. You won’t find many popular games where digital items aren’t up for grabs. Some games lock the items, such as outfits, weapons, o...

Ban Pegasus spyware, urges European Union Data Protection Supervisor

The European Data Protection Supervisor EDPS has urged the EU to ban the development and deployment of spyware with the capabilities of Pegasus to protect fundamental rights and freedoms. What is Pegasus? On July 18, a group of 17 newspaper and media organizations—aided by Amnesty International’s...

Journalist won’t be indicted for hacking for viewing a state website’s HTML

A journalist incorrectly branded as a "hacker" by the governor of Missouri wont be prosecuted "for hacking". This was a quick and foreseen win for St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Josh Renaud after a prosecutor from Cole County dismissed Missouri Governor Mike Parsons criminal charges against him...

Update now! Chrome patches actively exploited zero-day vulnerability

Google has released an update for its Chrome browser that includes eleven security fixes, one of which has been reportedly exploited in the wild. The vulnerability that is reported as being exploited in the wild has been assigned CVE-2022-0609. CVE-2022-0609 The vulnerability is described as a...

City: Skylines developers warn of rogue mod

Players of the popular city-building simulator and video game City: Skylines need to check devices for rogue code lurking in mods related to a rework of something called Harmony, essential for modding across several titles. The threat arrives in a broader landscape—video game modding—already know...

CISA Ransomware report warns “triple threat” attacks still on the prowl

Though we may be stuck with endless COVID-19 scams and a gradual visible rise in all manner of cryptocurrency hijinks, the old school attacks are as perilous as ever; CISA, the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, have released their 2021 report detailing the increasing globalised thre...

Don’t let scammers ruin your Valentine’s Day

Today is Valentines Day, so we thought wed show you how cybercriminals use special times like this one for phishing attacks. Our Valentines story starts with a victim receiving an email message. The email urges them to open an attached file, and also contains well formatted content that tries to...

Ransomware gang hits 49ers’ network before Super Bowl kick off

The San Francisco 49ers has confirmed that it has been hit by a ransomware attack. The announcement came just hours before the biggest football game of the year, Sundays Super Bowl between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams. In a boilerplate statement to BleepingComputer, the 49ers...

Adobe patches actively exploited Magento/Adobe Commerce zero-day

Adobe has released an emergency advisory for users of its Commerce and Magento platforms. It explains that a critical zero-day vulnerability is actively being exploited in attacks against sites that use these two content management system CMSs. Users should apply the patch as soon as possible. Th...

A week in security (February 7 – February 13)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Securitas breached, 3TB of airport employee records exposed How to avoid being scammed this Valentine’s Day News Corp falls victim to cyberattack “We absolutely do not care about you”: Sugar ransomware targets individuals Microsoft takes macros out of the equation...

The world’s most coveted spyware, Pegasus: Lock and Code S03E04

Two years ago, the FBI reportedly purchased a copy of the worlds most coveted spyware, a tool that can remotely and silently crack into Androids and iPhones without leaving a trace, spilling device contents onto a console possibly thousands of miles away, with little more effort than entering a...

Twitter cans 2FA service provider over surveillance claims

Twitter is transitioning away from from its two-factor authentication 2FA provider, Mitto AG, a Swiss communications company. The social media giant broke the news to US Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon. It is noted that Twitters decision to move away from Mitto AG came after allegations that its...

Online Safety Bill will legally require porn sites to verify users’ age

When Ioannis Dekas, a father of four boys, found that one of his sons had access to pornography, he and his wife became concerned. "In two weeks leading up to this moment, wed noticed a drastic change in his behavior," Dekas said in a BBC interview, "Withdrawal, a sense of anger towards his...

Update now! Apple fixes actively exploited zero-day

Apple has released a security fix for a zero-day vulnerability CVE-2022-22620 that it says "may have been actively exploited." According to the security update information provided by Apple the vulnerability exists in WebKit—the HTML rendering engine component of its Safari browser—and can be use...

Ransomware author releases decryption keys, says goodbye forever

Update 12th February: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that the decryption tool used to unlock files existed prior to the keys being released - this has now been corrected. If you’re unfortunate enough to be caught out by ransomware, the consequences can be devastating. You may ...

A new Magecart campaign is making waves

Malwarebytes’ researchers are closely monitoring web skimmers and have noticed that one of the infamous Magecart groups is causing a rise in the number of attacks while gobbling up over a quarter of the total number of attacks in one campaign. Magecart attacks have increased in the past 30 days i...

SAP customers are urged to patch critical vulnerabilities in multiple products

German enterprise software maker SAP has patched three critical vulnerabilities affecting Internet Communication Manager ICM, a core component of SAP business applications. Customers are urged by both SAP and CISA to address these critical vulnerabilities as soon as possible. On February 8, SAP...

Apple accidentally kept some Siri recordings from iPhones, even for opted-out users

Apple’s release of iOS 15.4 beta 2 completes the fix for a bug that may have recorded interactions with Siri without permission on some devices. Apple has fixed this bug that was introduced in iOS 15 and accidentally kept some recordings, regardless of whether you opted out or not. The bug was...

IRS abandons facial recognition plans for online services

If you dislike the use of facial recognition technology in relation to essential services, youre in luck. One such proposition has been removed. Last year, the IRS announced it would be using facial recognition selfies to confirm identity. If you wanted the convenience of making payments online,...

Update now! Firefox and Adobe updates are more critical than Microsoft’s

The most critical updates for this “Patch Tuesday” come from Firefox and Adobe. While Microsoft addresses 70 vulnerabilities in its February 2022 Patch Tuesday release, none of them are ranked as critical. Firefox and Adobe however have fixed a few issues that could be qualified as critical...

Microsoft: Slow MFA adoption presents “dangerous mismatch” in security

Multi-factor authentication MFA has been around for many years now, but few enterprises have fully embraced it. In fact, according to Microsofts inaugural "Cyber Signals" report, only 22 percent of all its Azure Active Directory AD enterprise clients have adopted two-factor authentication 2FA, a...

Meta blows safety bubble around users after reports of sexual harassment

There’s trouble brewing in the Metaverse, but the trouble isnt a particularly new problem. In fact, it’s been an issue for years - and so have many of the solutions. Strangely, Meta is having to play catch-up where some basic security and safety settings are concerned in the virtual realm. At...

Microsoft takes macros out of the equation for five Office apps

Microsoft says it is going to disable macros in five Office apps by default. Besides Excel 4.0 macros, which were disabled by default last month, now VBA macros obtained from the Internet will be blocked by default as well. The change will begin rolling out in Version 2203, starting with Current...

“We absolutely do not care about you”: Sugar ransomware targets individuals

Ransomware tends to target organizations. Corporations not only house a trove of valuable data they cant function without, but they are also expected to cough up a considerable amount of ransom money in exchange for their encrypted files. And while corporations struggle to keep up with attacks,...

News Corp falls victim to cyberattack

Media giant News Corp says it has fallen victim to a cyberattack. First analysis indicates that the attack was a state sponsored attack, aimed at emails and documents of News Corp employees, including journalists. News Corp says data was stolen, but that it didnt include financial data or...

How to avoid being scammed this Valentine’s Day

With Valentines Day approaching, you can be sure that the scammers will want to take advantage of lovebirds everywhere. From romance scams and sextortion, to fake dating sites and phishing campaigns, heres how to avoid a sting in the tail this Valentines Day. Romance scams Stories of online roman...

Securitas breached, 3TB of airport employee records exposed

An unsecured AWS server, found open to the public Internet, is the root cause of a huge compromise of data of airport employees in Colombia and Peru. This server, according to a report, belongs to Securitas, a Stockholm-based multinational company that provides security services like security...

A week in security (January 31 – February 6)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Threat actor steals email with Zimbra zero-day FBI warns of bogus job postings on recruitment sites Investment scams are on the rise A worrying Etsy listing reveals the stalking potential of Apple’s AirTags Beware bogus OperaGX sponsorship offers $320 milllion stol...

Threat actor steals email with Zimbra zero-day

Researchers have discovered a threat actor attempting to exploit a cross-site scripting XSS zero-day vulnerability in the Zimbra email platform. Zimbra is open source webmail application used for messaging and collaboration. Cross-site scripting is a type of injection attack wherein a vulnerabili...