No, Colonel Gaddafi’s daughter isn’t emailing to give you untold riches

It’s not every day you receive a big money offer from someone claiming to sit in political asylum, but here we are. The following missive landed in our spam traps at the weekend. The mail claims to be from the daughter of no less than the late Colonel Gaddafi. Ayesha Gaddafi promises you untold...

Google, geofence warrants, and you

Another day, another example of how the data sharing choices we make can come back to haunt us. The Guardian reports a Florida resident finding his bike ride data requested by law enforcement. This is due to his route taking him close to the scene of a burglary a year earlier. According to the...

Internet safety tips for kids and teens: A comprehensive guide for the modern parent

When it comes to picking a new device for your child, its often difficult to know where to start. Whether youre looking for a smartphone, a laptop, a gaming device or something else, or even just signing up for an account online, you want to make sure your kids are protected. Its important to get...

New Mac malware masquerades as iTerm2, Remote Desktop and other apps

Last week, security researcher Patrick Wardle released details of a new piece of malware masquerading as the legitimate app iTerm2. The malware was discovered earlier the same day by security researcher Zhi @CodeColorist on Twitter, and detailed on a Chinese-language blog. For those who dont spea...

Microsoft makes a bold move towards a password-less future

In a recent blog Microsoft announced that as of September 15, 2021 you can completely remove the password from your Microsoft account and use the Microsoft Authenticator app, Windows Hello, a security key, or a verification code sent to your phone or email to sign in to Microsoft apps and service...

Freedom Hosting operator gets 27 years for hosting Dark Web child abuse sites

The wheels of justice have turned, if perhaps a bit slower than you may have expected. A Dublin resident, Eric Eoin Marques, has been sentenced to 27 years in federal prison. The reason is the frankly terrifying tally of child sexual abuse material CSAM he helped to distribute. Eoin helped to mak...

A week in security (Sept 13 – Sept 19)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs Why backups aren’t a “silver bullet” against ransomware, with Matt Crape: Lock and Code S02E17 The many tentacles of Magecart Group 8 Apple releases emergency update: Patch, but don’t panic Update now! Google Chrome fixes two in-the-wild zero-days Parts of the Dark...

Facebook’s own research reveals the harm that Instagram can inflict

For years, people have accused social media, and particularly image-driven sites like Instagram, of being bad for young people, particularly young women. It turns that Instagrams owner, Facebook, agrees. Thirty-two percent of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram...

FBI and CISA warn of APT groups exploiting ADSelfService Plus

In a joint advisory the FBI, the United States Coast Guard Cyber Command CGCYBER, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA warn that advanced persistent threat APT cyber-actors may be exploiting a vulnerability in ManageEngines single sign-on SSO solution. The vulnerability...

What is the Dark Web? The Dark Web explained

You may have seen the Dark Web referenced in popular TV shows and have gotten the wrong idea, or if you already knew about it, you may have snorted in derision. The Dark Web is also sometimes called the Deep Web, when in fact the Dark Web is only a part of the Deep Web. Terminology Surface Web is...

What are computer cookies?

We all know cookies as tasty baked treats that we love to eat, but computer cookies are quite different. Although they’re most popularly known as just "cookies", they may be referred to as browser cookies, Internet cookies, HTTP cookies, web cookies, computer cookies, or digital cookies. What are...

3 security lessons from an MSP that survived the Kaseya VSA attack

Jay Tipton, chief executive for the Managed Service Provider MSP Technology Specialists, remembers his Fourth of July weekend this year like many MSP employees likely remember theirs: As a bit of a nightmare. “That’s like the worst feeling you’ll ever have,” Tipton said about his initial...

HP OMEN users, update your driver now!

HP has released a patch to fix a flaw in the HP OMEN driver. As far as we know the flaw isnt being actively exploited, but its worth applying the patch as soon as you can. The flaw, the fix The driver vulnerability, which is tracked as CVE-2021-3437, was found by Kasif Dekel, a senior security...

Ransomware scammers target artists with fake Krita revenue deals

The Krita digital painting application is currently being targeted by ransomware authors. Available on Steam and other platforms, it’s a powerful tool with a very cheap purchase price and great reviews. A perfect bit of bait to start reeling in potential victims, in other words. How does the scam...

What are SSL certificates?

Secure Sockets Layer SSL certificates are what cause your browser to display a padlock icon, indicating that your connection to a websites is secure. Although the padlock may soon be hidden from view, certificates arent going anywhere. Lets start with some definitions and explain some of the...

[updated] Patch now! PrintNightmare over, MSHTML fixed, a new horror appears … OMIGOD

The September 2021 Patch Tuesday could be remembered as the final patching attempt in the PrintNightmare… nightmare. The ease with which the vulnerabilities shrugged off the August patches doesn’t look to get a rerun. So far we haven’t seen any indications that this patch is so easy to circumvent...

Parts of the Dark Web “awash” with school children’s personal data

NBC News has collected and analyzed a trove of childrens personal information it discovered on the Dark Web. Even though this information may not be as useful to cybercriminals as credit card details or login credentials, the information is still out there, where we don’t want it. So what is it,...

Update now! Google Chrome fixes two in-the-wild zero-days

Google announced on Monday that it will be issuing patches for 11 high severity vulnerabilities found in Chrome, including two that are currently being exploited in the wild. The patch, which is part of the Stable Channel Update for Chrome 93 93.0.4577.82, will be released for Windows, Mac, and...

Apple releases emergency update: Patch, but don’t panic

Spyware developed by the company NSO Group is back in the news today after Apple released an emergency fix for iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches. The update fixes a vulnerability silently exploited by software called Pegasus, which is often used in high-level surveillance campaigns by...

The many tentacles of Magecart Group 8

This blog post was authored by Jérôme Segura During the past couple of years online shopping has continued to increase at a rapid pace. In a recent survey done by Qubit, 70.7% of shoppers said they increased their online shopping frequency compared to before COVID-19. Criminals gravitate towards...

Why backups aren’t a “silver bullet” against ransomware, with Matt Crape: Lock and Code S02E17

A recent spate of ransomware attacks in the US and abroad have derailed major corporations, spurring a fuel shortage on the US East Coast, shuttering grocery stores in Sweden, and sending students home from grade schools. The solution, so many cybersecurity experts say, is to implement backups,...

A week in security (Sept 6 – Sept 12)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs Apple delays plans to search devices for child abuse imagery. ProtonMail hands user’s IP address and device info to police, showing the limits of private email. Patch now! Netgear fixes serious smart switch vulnerabilities. Tor vs VPN—What is the difference? Windows...

That’s the way the cookie banner crumbles?

Elizabeth Denham, current head of the Information Commissioner’s Office ICO, the UK’s data protection watchdog and the organization tasked to ensure that businesses comply with the country’s strict data protection laws, is said to have met with her counterparts in the G7 nations on Tuesday to...

Facebook puts on Ray-Bans, struts into the privacy minefield of smart glasses

Facebook, neck-deep in virtual / augmented reality with the Oculus headset, continues to move things up a gear. Its announced “Ray-Ban stories”, smart glasses which take video and photos. The company may yet go one step further and incorporate these features into Augmented Reality AR specs which ...

Gamers beware: The risks of Real Money Trading (RMT) explained

Any game with an online component can be at risk from a practice known as Real Money Trading RMT, where in-game items, artefacts, characters and the like are sold for real money. It’s a big problem for developers, especially in competitive and / or massively multiplayer online role-playing game...

500,000 Fortinet VPN credentials exposed: Turn off, patch, reset passwords

A threat actor has leaked a list of almost 500,000 Fortinet VPN credentials, stolen from 87,000 vulnerable FortiGate SSL-VPN devices. The breach list provides raw access to organizations in 74 countries, including the USA, India, Taiwan, Italy, France, and Israel, with almost 3,000 US entities...

Sextortion on the rise, warns FBI

The pandemic saw a surge in sextortion cases in 2020. Fast forward 12 months, and the numbers continue to rise significantly. This revelation came from the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center IC3. Until 31 July 2021, it had received over 16,000 sextortion complaints, with victims losing a combine...

[updated] Windows MSHTML zero-day actively exploited, mitigations required

Several researchers have independently reported a 0-day remote code execution vulnerability in MSHTML to Microsoft. The reason it was reported by several researchers probably lies in the fact that a limited number of attacks using this vulnerability have been identified, as per Microsoft’s securi...

Tor vs VPN—What is the difference?

Our data is a precious commodity and there are plenty of people who would like to get their hands on it, from spouses and marketing teams to crooks and state-sponsored spies. Because of that, tools like Tor and Virtual Private Networks VPNs are growing in popularity. But while both tools can...

Patch now! Netgear fixes serious smart switch vulnerabilities

In a security advisory, NetGear has announced it has fixed three vulnerabilities in firmware updates for several network devices. Most of the affected products are smart switches, some of them with cloud management capabilities that allow for configuring and monitoring them over the web. One of t...

ProtonMail hands user’s IP address and device info to police, showing the limits of private email

They say there’s two sides to every story. Depending on your point of view, you may have heard a recent story thats either about overreaching law enforcement and protestors exposed by organisations happy to hand over revealing data despite saying they wont. Or: BREAKING: legitimate business...

Apple delays plans to search devices for child abuse imagery

After the uproar from users and privacy advocates about Apple’s controversial plans to scan users devices for photos and messages containing child abuse and exploitation media, the company has decided to put the brakes on the plan. If you may recall, Apple announced in early August that it would...

A week in security (August 30 – September 5)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs ProxyToken: another nail-biter from Microsoft Exchange Macs turn on apps signed by Symantec, treat them as malware Google Play sign-ins can be abused to track another person’s movements FTC bans SpyFone and its CEO from continuing to sell stalkerware BrakTooth...

FBI warns of ransomware threat to food and agriculture

The FBI has issued a Private Industry Notification PIN about cybercriminal actors targeting the food and agriculture sector with ransomware attacks. Farms are literally the first step in one of the most important, if not the most important, supply chain in our economy: The food supply chain. As...

Watch what you send on anonymous SMS websites

Its a good idea to try and keep certain things private. For example, people have been using anonymous email services for years. These either hide your real email address, or replace it entirely for specific tasks. Folks will go one step further, setting aliases for each service they sign up to. I...

WhatsApp hit with €225 million fine for GDPR violations

WhatsApp was hit with a €225 million fine for violating the General Data Protection Regulation GDPR, the European Union’s sweeping data protection law that has been in effect for more than three years. The fine represents the highest ever penalty levied by the Irish Data Protection Commission,...

Vulnerable WordPress plugin leaves online shoppers vulnerable

The most popular web content management system CMS is WordPress, which is used by more than 30% of all websites. By extension, the most popular ecommerce platform in the world is WooCommerce, a plugin that turns a WordPress website into an online shop. In fact, WooCommerce is so popular that it...

BrakTooth Bluetooth vulnerabilities, crash all the devices!

Security researchers have revealed details about a set of 16 vulnerabilities that impact the Bluetooth software stack that ships with System-on-Chip SoC boards from several popular vendors. The same group of researchers disclosed the SweynTooth vulnerabilities in February 2020. They decided to du...

FTC bans SpyFone and its CEO from continuing to sell stalkerware

Nearly two years after the US Federal Trade Commission first took aim against mobile apps that can non-consensually track people’s locations and pry into their emails, photos, and videos, the government agency placed restrictions Wednesday on the developers of SpyFone—which the FTC called a...

Google Play sign-ins can be abused to track another person’s movements

Even people that have been involved in cybersecurity for over 20 years make mistakes. I’m not sure whether that is a comforting thought for anyone or whether everyone should be worried now. But it is what it is and I make it a habit of owning my mistakes. So here goes. With the aid of Google I wa...

Macs turn on apps signed by Symantec, treat them as malware

On August 23, following an update to Apples security systems on macOS, some Mac users began to see security alerts about some of their apps, claiming that they "will damage your computer," and offering users the option to "report malware to Apple." This has led to much confusion online, and to an...

ProxyToken: Another nail-biter from Microsoft Exchange

Had I known this season of Microsoft Exchange was going to be so long Id have binge watched. Does anyone know how many episodes there are? Sarcasm aside, while ProxyToken may seem like yet another episode of 2021s longest running show, that doesn’t make it any less serious, or any less...

A week in security (August 23 – August 29)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Patch now! Microsoft Exchange is being attacked via ProxyShell Realtek-based routers, smart devices are being gobbled up by a voracious botnet Criminals exploited weak checks and old tech to pull off vast COVID benefit fraud Mice “taking over the world!”, one Windo...

Hackers, tractors, and a few delayed actors. How hacker Sick Codes learned too much about John Deere: Lock and Code S02E16

No one ever wants a group of hackers to say about their company: "We had the keys to the kingdom." But thats exactly what the hacker Sick Codes said on this weeks episode of Lock and Code, in speaking with host David Ruiz, when talking about his and fellow hackers efforts to peer into John Deeres...

Microsoft warns about phishing campaign using open redirects

The Microsoft 365 Defender Threat Intelligence Team posted an article stating that they have been tracking a widespread credential phishing campaign using open redirector links. Open redirects have been part of the phisher’s arsenal for a long time and it is a proven method to trick victims into...

How to stay secure from ransomware attacks this Labor Day weekend

Labor Day weekend is just around the corner and, believe it or not, cybercriminals are likely just as excited as you are! Ransomware gangs have nurtured a nasty habit of starting their attacks at the least convenient times: When computers are idle, when employees who might notice a problem are ou...

Latest iPhone exploit, FORCEDENTRY, used to launch Pegasus attack against Bahraini activists

Researchers from Citizen Lab, an academic research and development lab based in the University of Toronto in Canada, has recently discovered that an exploit affecting iMessage is being used to target Bahraini activists with the Pegasus spyware. The Bahrain government and groups linked to them—suc...

US government and private sector agree to invest time, money in cybersecurity

In the wake of several high-profile ransomware attacks against critical infrastructure and major organizations in the last few months, President Biden met with private sector and education leaders to discuss a whole-of-nation effort needed to address cybersecurity threats and bolster the nation’s...

Cold wallet, hot wallet, or empty wallet? What is the safest way to store cryptocurrency?

In August of 2021, a thief stole about $600 million in cryptocurrencies from The Poly Network. They ended up giving it back, but not because they were forced to. Slightly more than one week later, Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Liquid was hacked and lost $97 million worth of digital coins. Thes...

The best browsers for privacy and security

Unfortunately there is a low correlation factor between what most people find the best browsers and what are the best browsers when it comes to privacy and security. If you look at the market share of the most popular browsers, there is one browser that steals the crown without a lot of...