Under the hoodie: why money, power, and ego drive hackers to cybercrime

Just one more hour behind the hot grill flipping burgers, and Derek could call it a day. Under his musty hat, his hair was matted down with sweat, and his work uniform was spattered with grease. He knew he’d smell the processed meat and smoke for the next three days, even after he’d showered. But...

Back to school cybersecurity: hints, tips, and links for a safer school year

It's that time of year again when parents are slowly gearing up for a new school term. Some schools have a strict policy of only using their own pre-approved lab devices, while others allow students to bring their own devices. Whatever the plan, it's never too early to start thinking about some o...

Process Doppelgänging meets Process Hollowing in Osiris dropper

One of the Holly Grails for malware authors is a perfect way to impersonate a legitimate process. That would allow them to run their malicious module under the cover, being unnoticed by antivirus products. Over the years, various techniques have emerged in helping them to get closer to this goal...

A week in security (August 6 – August 12)

Last week, we published a review of exploit kits, talked about everyday tech that can give you a headache, and showed how to protect RDP access from ransomware. We also published a study on the true cost of cybercrime. Other news: Discovered at Black Hat: WhatsApp "message manipulation" Source: T...

8 everyday technologies that can make you vulnerable to cyberattacks

The technological advances of the modern world make for an exciting and convenient lifestyle. With each new development, from artificial intelligence to the Internet of Things, we make the mundane and tedious more manageable. The security vulnerabilities of the latest tech have been well...

White hat, black hat, and the emergence of the gray hat: the true costs of cybercrime

This post was written by Michael Osterman of Osterman Research. Osterman Research recently completed a major survey on behalf of Malwarebytes to determine the actual cost of cybercrime to businesses. Many studies have focused on the cost of lost reputation, lost future business, and other...

Exploit kits: summer 2018 review

The uptick trend in cybercriminals using exploit kits that we first noticed in our spring 2018 report has continued into the summer. Indeed, not only have new kits been found, but older ones are still showing signs of life. This has made the summer quarter one of the busiest we've seen for exploi...

A week in security (July 30 – August 5)

Last week, we posted a roundup of spam that may have landed in your mailbox, talked about what makes us susceptible to social engineering tactics, and took a deep dive into big data. Other news: Facebook claimed to have removed accounts that display behavior consistent with possible Russian actor...

Explained: What is big data?

If the pile of manure is big enough, you will find a gold coin in it eventually. This saying is used often to explain why anyone would use big data. Needless to say, in this day and age, the piles of data are so big, you might end up finding a pirate’s treasure. How big is the pile? But when is t...

Social engineering attacks: What makes you susceptible?

We now live in a world where holding the door open for someone balancing a tray of steaming hot coffee—she can’t seem to get her access card out to place it near the reader—is something we need to think twice about. Courtesy isn’t dead, mind you, but in this case, you'd almost wish it were. Becau...

What’s in the spam mailbox this week?

We've seen a fair few spam emails in circulation this week, ranging from phishing to money muling to sexploitation. Shall we take a look? The FBI wants to give you back your money First out of the gate, we have a missive claiming to be from the FBI. Turns out you lost a huge sum of money that you...

A week in security (July 23 – July 29)

Last week on Labs, we looked at an adware called MobiDash getting stealthy, a new strain of Mac malware called Proton that was found after two years, and the ‘Hidden Bee’ miner that was delivered via an improved drive-by download toolkit. We also delved into the security improvements expected in...

New Android P includes several security improvements

According to the Android developer Program Overview, the next major version of Android, Android 9.0 or P, is set to arrive soon. Their plans show a final release within the next three months Q3 2018. The end of the Android P beta program is approaching, with the first release candidate built and...

‘Hidden Bee’ miner delivered via improved drive-by download toolkit

This blog post was authored by @hasherezade and Jérôme Segura. We recently detected a drive-by download attack trying to exploit CVE-2018-4878, a vulnerability in Flash Player, in a sequence that was not matching any of the exploit kit patterns that we currently track. Upon investigation, we...

Introducing: Malwarebytes Browser Extension

Are you tired of all the unwanted content the world wide web offers up, whether you like it or not? It is our privilege to introduce you to the Malwarebytes Browser Extension BETA. Or, better said, the Malwarebytes Browser Extensions, because we have one for Firefox and one for Chrome. Introducti...

Trojans: What’s the real deal?

The fictional Greeks hiding in their legendary Trojan horse would probably be excited to learn that the default Wiki page for Trojan is, in fact, their big wooden horse thingy vs. computer infections or dubious businesses. Sorry, fictional ancient Greek warriors. It’s not that we don't think you'...

New strain of Mac malware Proton found after two years

Last week, Kaspersky reported on a new variant of the Mac malware Proton, which they have dubbed Calisto, that has been around for at least two years. Calisto is thoroughly dead at this point, but there are still potential security implications involved with these older infections. Proton was fir...

A week in security (July 16 – July 22)

Last week on Labs, we looked at a Magniber expansion, explored open source vulnerabilities, and checked out the boons and drawbacks of smart assistants. We also continued our ad blocking article extravaganza, gave a whistlestop tour of third-party problems, and published our Q2 Cybercrime tactics...

Mobile Menace Monday: Adware MobiDash gets stealthy

The Adware known as MobiDash, detected by Malwarebytes for Android as Android/Adware.MobiDash, is far from a new. However, this ad-displaying nuisance now comes with some additional stealth features. First appearing last spring, these new features are not limited to a single variant of MobiDash...

The danger of third parties: ads, pipelines, and plugins

It may or may not be comforting to know that, ultimately, bulletproof security is out of your hands. You can have the most locked down PC on Earth, have two-factor authentication 2FA set up across the board, take sensible actions to protect your personal information, and read all the EULAs under...

How to block ads like a pro

In part one of this series, we had a look at a few reasons why you should be blocking online advertisements on your network and devices. From malvertising attacks and privacy-invading tracking systems to just being an outright annoyance, online ads and trackers are a nuisance that provides an...

What’s the real value—and danger—of smart assistants?

You've heard them called virtual assistants, digital personal assistants, voice assistants, or smart assistants. Operated by artificial intelligence, technologies such as Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, and Cortana have become ubiquitous in our culture. But what exactly do they do? And how serious...

5 ways to find and fix open source vulnerabilities

Guest post by Limor Wainstein A recent discovery of surreptitious execution of cryptomining code by a sandboxed app, riding piggyback on the open source software OSS ecosystem, raises pertinent questions about the security of open source code and its dependencies. Programmers often use OSS as a...

Cybercrime tactics & techniques Q2 2018

A generally slow quarter reflects an overall lull in cybercrime, picking up where Q1 left off with cryptominers continuing to dominate, ransomware continuing to evolve through experimentation, and exploits making a small but significant comeback. In nearly every malware category for both business...

Magniber ransomware improves, expands within Asia

This blog post was authored by @hasherezade and Jérôme Segura. The Magnitude exploit kit is one of the longest-serving browser exploitation toolkits among those still in use. After its inception in 2013, it enjoyed worldwide distribution with a liking for ransomware. Eventually, it became a priva...

A week in security (July 9 – July 15)

Last week, we talked about domestic abuse fuelled by IoT, doing threat intel programs right, blocking ICO fraud, and man-in-the-middle attacks. We also explained why we block shady ad blockers and provided tips to online shoppers for Prime Day. Other news: Reports revealed that low-end Android...

A primer: How to stay safe on Amazon Prime Day

Bank card—check! Shopping list—check! Lumbar back support pillow—check! Noise canceling headphones—check! And, of course, coffee—check! If you’re an Amazon shopper, then you know by now that Prime Day is nigh! And if you’re one of the many who dreads bidding the weekend goodbye, this is probably...

Block all or nothing to prevent ICO fraud?

At Malwarebytes, we feel we have reached a point where we need to ask our customers how to proceed on the subject of ICO scams. Asking for your opinion may seem strange to some of you, but Malwarebytes comes from a community of mutual help and trust. If you were unaware of this, reading how our C...

When three isn’t a crowd: Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks explained

Gone are the days when eavesdropping is just the stuff of spies and the town gossip. In fact, it has evolved to become everyone’s favorite pastime. Thanks to the internet, it is exponentially easier now more than ever to idle by and catch juicy information than to press your ear against your...

We block shady ad blockers

Some of you have reached out to us concerning Malwarebytes blocking of certain ad blocking extensions, or an influx in web blocking notifications. First things first, this is not a false positive. Recently in their blog, AdGuard has discovered that numerous malicious ad blocking extensions were...

IoT domestic abuse: What can we do to stop it?

Some 40 years ago, the sci-fi/horror film Demon Seed told the tale of a woman slowly imprisoned by a sentient AI, which invaded the smart home system her husband had designed to manage it. The AI locked doors, windows, turned off communications, and even put a synthesised version of her onscreen ...

So you’ve been asked to start a threat intel program

Ever since the Mandiant APT1 report landed like a bomb in private sector security reporting, threat intelligence has been a hot buzzword many companies have been chasing over. But what is threat intelligence? What do you need to execute it well? And how many new tools do you need to buy? The...

A week in security (July 2 – July 8)

Last week, we tracked back a large mining operation from their Coinhive shortlink, we took a look at online project management tools, we described a new macro-less technique to distribute malware, and talked about a Mac malware that targets crypto-mining users. Other news: Huawei enterprise comms...

Everybody and their mother is blocking ads, so why aren’t you?

This post may ruffle a few feathers. But we’re not here to offer advice to publishers on how to best generate revenue for their brand. Rather, we’re here to offer the best advice on how to maintain a safe and secure environment. If you’re not blocking advertisements on your PC and mobile device,...

Can we trust our online project management tools?

How would you feel about sharing confidential information about your company on Twitter or Facebook? That doesn’t sound right, does it? So, in a corporate life where we keep our work calendars online, and where we work together on projects using online flow-planners and online project management...

Obfuscated Coinhive shortlink reveals larger mining operation

During the past several months, in-browser mining has continued to affect a large number of websites, predominantly relying on Coinhive's infamous API. We documented several campaigns on this blog, in particular Drupalgeddon, where attackers are taking advantage of vulnerabilities in popular...

New macro-less technique to distribute malware

One of the most common and effective infection vectors, especially for businesses, is the use of malicious Office documents. This year alone, we witnessed two zero-days for both Flash and the VBScript engine, which were first actually embedded into Office documents before gaining wider adoption i...

Mac malware targets cryptomining users

Last week, a security researcher named Remco Verhoef announced the discovery of a new piece of Mac malware being distributed on cryptomining chat groups. This malware was later further analyzed by Patrick Wardle, who gave it the rather appropriate moniker OSX.Dummy. The malware was being...

A week in security (June 25 – July 1)

Last week on Labs, we looked at comment moderation duties, Viagra spam on a news-making restaurant's website, and how to manage your child's online presence for Internet safety month. We also looked at a set of big breaches and leaks, as well as malware threats with a World Cup vibe. Other news...

Major data breaches at Adidas, Ticketmaster pummel web users

There's been a number of data breaches and accidental data exposures coming to light in the last few days, and no matter where in the world you happen to be located, you'll want to do some due diligence and see if you've been affected. These aren't small fishes being preyed upon by black hats;...

Internet Safety Month: How to manage your child’s online presence

When you hear the term "reputation risk management," you might think of a buzzword used in the business sector. Reputation risk management is a term used to describe how companies identify potential risks that may harm their reputation and mitigate them before they blow off. As companies grow, so...

Red Hen website suffers SEO spam compromise

If you're thinking about checking out the website owned by the restaurant that asked White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to leave the premises, you might want to hold off. There's some site compromise action afoot. Although the homepage appears to be acting in a perfectly normal...

World Cup 2018: malware attacks gunning for goal

World Cup 2018 is upon us and in full swing, bringing together 32 nations for a month of footballing to see who'll be crowned World Champion. With the tournament underway, we thought it'd be fun to see which of the footballing powerhouses also expended a similar amount of energy fighting off...

Did my comment on your blog get lost?

If you ever feel bad about your job because of mindless tasks you must perform day after day, or if you're bothered by the fact that your chosen work pays crap, produces nothing useful, and helps no one: have a look at blog comment spammers and breathe a sigh of relief. They make almost any job...

A week in security (June 18 – June 24)

Last week, we took a deep dive into SamSam ransomware, looked at ways how to identify and delete malicious emails, recognized that there are now risks affecting job recruitment portals, analyzed a malicious Android app banking on the popularity of Fortnite, and identified causes and solutions for...

What’s causing the cybersecurity skills gap?

The proliferation of next-gen technology into mainstream society has been a boon for consumers, entrepreneurs, and business owners alike. Between the rise of mobile computing, the Internet of Things IoT, and modern social media, our society is more connected than ever before. But all of this...

Fake Fortnite for Android links found on YouTube

The extremely popular video game Fortnite is coming to Android sometime this summer, and the fanbase is going wild. Not surprisingly, mobile malware developers are taking advantage. Already, there are several videos on YouTube with links claiming to be versions of Fortnite for Android, despite th...

PSA: Recruitment portals and job sites at risk

Readers of Malwarebytes Labs aren't new to the social engineering tactics of malcontents to get users to respond to fake job offers via email. In 2014, we wrote about spam claiming to be from the recipient's supposed work application to a "Career Services Department," only to be redirected to a...

SamSam ransomware: controlled distribution for an elusive malware

SamSam ransomware has been involved in some high profile attacks recently, and remains a somewhat elusive malware. In its time being active, SamSam has gone through a slight evolution, adding more features and alterations into the mix. These changes do not necessarily make the ransomware more...

Five easy ways to recognize and dispose of malicious emails

I suppose we all get our share of spam. Some more than others. But how do we differentiate between simple commercial spam and the types of emails that want to get us in trouble? The unsolicited commercial spam email is generally easy to recognize, report, and discard, but what about more dangerou...