A week in security (January 15 – January 21)

Last week on Labs, we gave you some background information about cookies, specifically which ones to worry about and why. We also warned you about scams surrounding the Mega Millions winner, who promised to donate his money to good causes. We analyzed a cryptocurrency miner using a very old...

Cybersecurity New Year’s resolutions, you say? Why not.

It's mid-January, and oh, how time flies. It wasn’t long since we bid farewell to 2017 and welcomed the new year with renewed hope and vigor. Of course, with such positivity comes a sense of an equally favorable outlook for the year ahead. However good that may sound, being faced with a tabula ra...

New Chrome and Firefox extensions block their removal to hijack browsers

What you don't see won't hurt you, must have been the reasoning of the threat actors who created the latest batch of extensions that make these browser hijackers even more difficult to remove. The extensions redirect users away from pages where they can disable or delete them in order to drive...

A coin miner with a “Heaven’s Gate”

You might call the last two years the years of ransomware. Ransomware was, without a doubt, the most popular type of malware. But at the end of last year, we started observing that ransomware was losing its popularity to coin miners. It is very much possible that this trend will grow as 2018...

Be wary of Mega Millions winner “giveaway” on social media

I don't do lotteries, but if I did, I'd probably never, ever win in a million years. That's not a problem faced by 20-year-old Shane Missler, winner of the fourth-largest haul in Mega Millions' 21 years of handing out large bundles of cash. He's on record as saying he wants to "do some good" for...

Cookies: Should I worry about them?

Starting off the new year, many of us are worried about cookies—how many we ate over the holidays and how we're going to avoid them in the break room, for example. With so much cybercrime and data theft swirling around like daily bomb cyclones, there's more than a few folks worried about the kind...

A week in security (January 8 – January 14)

It's very early in the year, yet everyone has already had a complete meltdown pun intended over a number of serious vulnerabilities found in legacy and modern microprocessors. Last week, rightly so, vendors released patches for hardware and OSes to help mitigate these threats. However, problems i...

Stripchat bot spells block

Here at Malwarebytes, we spent a lot of time and effort scouring the Internet looking for malicious websites that we can protect our users from. Sometimes, these websites are pushing malware or some kind of scam. Other times it comes down to bad advertising practices that are used to fool the use...

Fake Spectre and Meltdown patch pushes Smoke Loader malware

The Meltdown and Spectre bugs have generated a lot of media attention, and users have been urged to update their machines with fixes made available by various vendors. While some patches have created more issues than they fixed, we came across a particular one targeted at German users that actual...

WPA3 will secure Wi-Fi connections in four significant ways in 2018

CES, the annual consumer electronics extravaganza in Las Vegas, isn’t just a showcase for virtual reality and poorly-timed power outages. It’s also an opportunity to get a peek at the future of network security. That’s why on the first day of CES, the Wi-Fi Alliance announced the newest security...

Alleged creator of Fruitfly indicted for 13 years of spying

Way back at the start of last year, we took a look at something called Fruitfly, a Mac backdoor using old code that had been around for a long time and could deep breath upload files to computers, record images and video, snoop around in victims' information, take screenshots, and also log...

Meltdown and Spectre fallout: patching problems persist

Last week, the disclosure by multiple teams from Graz and Pennsylvania University, Rambus, Data61, Cyberus Technology, and Google Project Zero of vulnerabilities under the aliases Meltdown and Spectre rocked the security world, sending vendors scurrying to create patches, if at all possible, and...

Of princes and perpetrators: Beware of getting ensnared in 419 scams

We've mentioned before that 419 scams don't always originate from Nigeria. It's a very simple and popular scam that can be attempted by pretty much anyone with a flair for social engineering. Indeed, 419 scams are so associated with the region that many scammers in non-Nigerian countries know the...

RIG exploit kit campaign gets deep into crypto craze

There isn't a day that goes by without a headline about yet another massive spike in Bitcoin valuation, or a story about someone mortgaging their house to purchase the hardware required to become a serious cryptocurrency miner. If many folks are thinking about joining the 'crypto craze' movement,...

A week in security (January 1 – January 7)

New year, new threats, as 2018 gets underway. On our blog, we had dubious searches aplenty for those hunting for Malwarebytes information, and we also covered the huge Meltdown/Spectre bug, affecting hardware going back to 10 years. Other news Coin miners are at it again, with a proof of concept...

Meltdown and Spectre: what you need to know

UPDATE as of 1/12/18: Several vendors have produced patches for Meltdown and Spectre, however performance problems dog the fixes. Details on the patches were published here. UPDATE as of 1/04/18: Since the Malwarebytes Database Update 1.0.3624, all Malwarebytes users are able to receive the...

Search engine shenanigans: Malwarebytes mentions aren’t what they seem

Thing might be a touch quiet at the moment as we ease into 2018, but that doesn't mean dubious antics and dodgy dealings aren't still making waves online. As a matter of fact, should you go searching for some of our researchers, their blog posts, or just a couple of notable quotables from news...

IPv6, it’s waiting for you

IPv6 is an expression IT professionals are likely to have seen or heard at one time, but what exactly is it? Let us give you a quick introduction, and then try to explain what it does differently by comparing it to its predecessor, IPv4. IPv4 and IPv6 are both Internet communications protocols...

Facebook phishers want you to “Connect with Facebook”

As we edge toward Christmas, scammers are throwing their own party—in the form of Facebook phishing pages linked to and from bogus landing pages hosted on sitesdotgoogledotcom URLs. These landing pages, adorned with very large and very fake "Login with Facebook" buttons, may be extra convincing t...

The seven most colossal data breaches of 2017

By Logan Strain If it seems like the words “leak,” “compromised data,” and “breach” are constantly in the news, it’s not just you. The frequency of major data breaches is increasing. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, the number of breaches is expected to top 1,500 in 2017. That’s a...

Tech support scammers make browser lockers more resilient

Tech support scammers have been relying on fraudulent pop-ups for many years in order to scare potential victims into calling for remote assistance. These so-called browser lockers or browlocks typically originate from malicious ads malvertising that can appear on any website, including trusted...

Lo lo lo Loapi Trojan could break your Android

Kaspersky has found what they deem as a jack of all trades malicious app they call Trojan.AndroidOS.Loapi. Like the Trojan AsiaHitGroup we discovered last month on Google Play, this malware can do all the things—it's a downloader, dropper, SMS Trojan, and can push ads all from the same malicious...

A week in security (December 11 – December 17)

Last week we explained what fast flux is and how it's being abused, we showed you all kinds of Bitcoin-related scams, presented a video recording of a tech support scammer trying to sell free software, and pointed out some free software to keep an eye on your Internet traffic. We also informed yo...

Mobile Menace Monday: upping the ante on Adups

Adups is back on our radar. The same China-based company caught collecting an abundance of user data and creating a backdoor on mobile devices in 2016 has another malicious card to throw down. This time, it's an auto installer we detect as Android/PUP.Riskware.Autoins.Fota. We thought they cleane...

Exosrv.com, an ad server for adult sites, tops Malwarebytes detections

Update 12/18/2017: Upon review, we have decided to lift the block on those two ad servers. You can read ExoClick's comments below: At Exoclick we use large resources to ensure that the ads that we serve are clear, clean and issue free. Where malwares and other forms of malvertising are detected...

Tech support scammer tries to sell free software

AmericaGeeks is your typical tech support scam company, but with an extra warming glow of attitude, greed, and complete all-around rudeness. Most scams will gladly take your money by buttering up the victim while simultaneously scaring them into thinking that they are in a dangerous situation wit...

Free tools: Internet traffic monitoring

Are you an amateur analyst or security enthusiast looking for free tools to do some basic Internet traffic monitoring? You've come to the right place. Not everyone is versed in the use of robust tools like Wireshark even though it is worth the trouble of learning if you have to do network traffic...

There’s a hole in my bucket: Bitcoin scams aim to exploit volatile market

Bitcoin! Black gold! Texas tea! Only one of these is currently worth ridiculous amounts of money and technically numbers two and three are the same thing. Whether you're in possession of lots of Bitcoins, or in full bandwagon panic "must buy 20 graphics cards before the bubble bursts" mode, you...

A state of constant uncertainty or uncertain constancy? Fast flux explained

Last August, WireX made headlines. For one thing, it was dubbed the first-known DDoS botnet that used the Android platform. For another, it used a technique that—for those who have been around in the industry for quite a while now—rung familiar in the ears: fast flux. In the context of...

A week in security (December 04 – December 10)

Last week on the blog, we looked at a RIG EK malware campaign, explored how children are being tangled up in money mule antics, took a walk through the world of Blockchain, and gave a rundown of what's involved when securing web applications. We also laid out the trials and tribulations of the...

How cryptocurrency mining works: Bitcoin vs. Monero

Ever wondered why websites that are mining in the background don’t mine for the immensely hot Bitcoin, but for Monero instead? We can explain that. As there are different types of cryptocurrencies, there are also different types of mining. After providing you with some background information abou...

Napoleon: a new version of Blind ransomware

The ransomware previously known as Blind has been spotted recently with a .napoleon extension and some additional changes. In this post, we'll analyze the sample for its structure, behavior, and distribution method. Analyzed samples 31126f48c7e8700a5d60c5222c8fd0c7 - Blind ransomware the first...

Interesting disguise employed by new Mac malware HiddenLotus

On November 30, Apple silently added a signature to the macOS XProtect anti-malware system for something called OSX.HiddenLotus.A. It was a mystery what HiddenLotus was until, later that same day, Arnaud Abbati found the sample and shared it with other security researchers on Twitter. The...

How we can stop the New Mafia’s digital footprint from spreading in 2018

Cybercriminals are the New Mafia of today’s world. This new generation of hackers are like traditional Mafia organizations, not just in their professional coordination, but their ability to intimidate and paralyze victims. To help businesses bring a good security fight to the digital streets, we...

Use TeamViewer? Fix this dangerous permissions bug with an update

TeamViewer, the remote control/web conference program used to share files and desktops, is suffering from a case of "patch it now." Issued yesterday, the fix addresses an issue where one user can gain control of another's PC without permission. Windows, Mac, and LinuxOS are all apparently affecte...

Internet of Things (IoT) security: what is and what should never be

The Internet has penetrated seemingly all technological advances today, resulting in Internet for ALL THE THINGS. What was once confined to a desktop and a phone jack is now networked and connected in multiple devices, from home heating and cooling systems like the Nest to AI companions such as...

How to harden AdwCleaner’s web backend using PHP

More and more applications are moving from desktop to the web, where they are particularly exposed to security risks. They are often tied to a database backend, and thus need to be properly secured, even though most of the time they are designed to restrict access to authenticated users only. PHP...

Blockchain technology: not just for cryptocurrency

Imagine a place where you can safely store all your personal information and only you decide who has access to it. You can choose which parts of that information you want to share, and you can just as easily revoke that access. If this place ever comes into existence, I am willing to bet it will ...

Terdot Trojan likes social media

We usually advise people that have fallen victim to banker Trojans to change all their passwords, especially the ones that are related to their financial sites and apps. Besides the dangers of re-used passwords, there are other reasons why this is important. This advice is especially applicable t...

How the EU intends to battle fake news

Last week the European Union issued a press release to announce their next steps against fake news. These steps will be the launch of a public consultation and the setup of a high-level expert group representing academics, online platforms, news media, and civil society organizations. The first...

Text messages and the Bitcoin Code: follow the money trail

I was a bit surprised to receive lots of messages similar to the one below this past week: I mean, we've all done it—managed a bulk text spam campaign offering free Bitcoins in your spare time, while completely forgetting said business exists. Maybe I did it in my sleep? It's all gone a bit Fight...

OSX.Proton spreading through fake Symantec blog

Sunday night, a series of tweets from security researcher @noarfromspace revealed a new variant of the OSX.Proton malware, spreading in a concerning new method—spoofing security company Symantec's blog. Method of infection The malware is being promoted via a fake Symantec blog site at...

A week in security (November 13 – November 19)

Last week, we gave you some tips for the inevitable online chaos that is Cyber Monday, explained how "trusted" root certificates can sometimes be anything but, and explored the strange world of catphishing. We also pulled apart some malware found on Google Play and laid out the specifics of the...

10 tips for safe online shopping on Cyber Monday

Shoppers familiar with the Cyber Monday circus know they’re stepping into the lion’s den. The Internet has always been a lawless place, but it becomes particularly rough during the holiday shopping season. In preparation for the frenzy, cyber villains have crafted a virtual onslaught of social...

When you shouldn’t trust a trusted root certificate

Root certificates are the cornerstone of authentication and security in software and on the Internet. They're issued by a certified authority CA and, essentially, verify that the software/website owner is who they say they are. We have talked about certificates in general before, but a recent eve...

Bad romance: catphishing explained

You've heard or read about some variant of this story before: Girl meets Boy on a dating website. Girl falls in love. Boy claims he does, too. Girl is excited to meet Boy soon. But at the last minute, Girl finds out that Boy 1 had an accident and broke a hip; 2 has a very sick relative he needs t...

New Android Trojan malware discovered in Google Play

A new piece of mobile malware has been discovered in Google Play masquerading as multiple apps: an alarm clock app, a QR scanner app, a compass app, a photo editor app, an Internet speed test app, and a file explorer app. According to Google Play data, all were last updated between October and...

Explained: the cloud

Even if you are reading this post because you have no idea what the cloud is, you might be using it more often than you realize. Twitter, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft Office 365 are some of the most well-known cloud apps. Let’s start with a definition of the cloud to get a grip ...

A week in security (November 6 – November 12)

After coming out victorious in a case against PUPs, Malwarebytes CEO Marcin Kleczynski has this to say: We fought for our users and we won. -- Marcin Kleczynski @mkleczynski November 9, 2017 And my, do we feel like champions! You can read more about this here. Last week, we looked into the...

Augmented Reality games and real-world trolling

Augmented Reality games—where you wave a device around and the digital collides with reality— have been booming in popularity ever since Pokemon GO! rolled into mobile storefronts. However, many AR games haven't really been designed with the possible consequences of real-world safety in mind. Tak...