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...

A week in security (June 11 – June 17)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we discussed how to protect the online privacy of children, we gave you a spring 2018 overview of exploit kits, rounded up the ongoing discussions about the VPNFilter malware, and discussed the struggles of UK law enforcement with modern-day cybercrime. Other news...

UK law enforcement: an uphill struggle to fight hackers

About 16 years ago in the UK, I walked into a local police station to report a computer crime, because walking into local police stations is how they did things back then. There may well also have been penny farthing bicycles, real pea souper fogs, Mary Poppins, and Jack the Ripper, though I coul...

VPNFilter malware still making waves

Last month, a piece of malware called VPNFilter caused chaos for owners of MikroTik, Lynksys, TP-Link, and Netgear equipment. Roughly 500,000 devices worldwide fell victim, with the unwanted parasite able to listen to traffic, steal credentials, damage devices, and more. Until patches started to...

Exploit kits: Spring 2018 review

Since our last report on exploit kits, there have been some new developments with the wider adoption of the February Flash zero-day, as well as the inclusion of a new exploit for Internet Explorer. We have not seen that many changes in the drive-by landscape for a long time, although these are th...

Internet Safety Month: How to protect your child’s privacy online

June marks the beginning of summer. It is also National Internet Safety Month. This is the perfect time to remind vacationers that while it is essential to check that everything you need is packed and ready for a trip, it is equally vital for the family to take steps in securing their devices and...

A week in security (June 4 – June 10)

Last week on Labs, we took a look at hidden mobile ads, the perils of social media spam, and how to shore up your landline defenses. We also took a deep dive into Emotet malware analysis, and gave you some summertime safety tips. Other news Update your Adobe Flash player if you haven't already...

Tips for safe summer travels: your cybersecurity checklist

Summer is just around the corner in the Northern Hemisphere, and with it comes vacation plans for many. Those looking to take some time away from work and home are likely making plans to secure their home, have their pets taken care of, and tie up loose ends at work. But how about securing your...

Malware analysis: decoding Emotet, part 2

In part two of our series on decoding Emotet, you can catch up on part 1 here, we'll cover analysis of the PowerShell code. Before we do that, however, it is a good idea to list some of the functions and calls that are used in the code for the execution. System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal: us...

PSA: Users with landlines are more vulnerable to scams

It’s time to have “the talk” with your parents, relatives, and loved ones. Anyone still using a landline must be warned: having a home phone makes you particularly vulnerable to scams. We know here at Malwarebytes that our readers are often the unofficial “IT” department for their families,...

Social media: A treasure trove of spam and scams

There are two kinds of spam associated with social media. There are spam ads that actually live on social media, and there is spam that comes in your inbox, courtesy of social media. Both thrive by using data from your social media accounts. But how do spammers know how to target you and send you...

A week in security (May 28 – June 3)

Last week on Labs, we talked about the significance of SEO poisoning in the world of search marketing, blackmail attempts against financial institutions in Canada, voice command flaws in smart assistants, survey and potential phishing scams on Instagram, and the latest changes in Office 365. We...

Mobile Menace Monday: A race to hidden ads

Who doesn’t love a good motorcycle racing game, right? How about one easily available on Google Play, a “safe” place for all your Android app desires? How about a bike racing game that sticks with you so much, you can’t easily uninstall it? And it displays hidden ads? Wait, what!? That’s right! I...

Blocks for Flash and others coming to Office 365

If you're a user of Microsoft Office products such as Word and Excel, you're probably aware that they've been used as inroads for malware for a long, long time. But what about malware attacks without Macros? Sure. Macro malware for Macs? That, too. Malicious documents and spying tools? Danger, Wi...

A conversation with America Geeks

Thanks to NeeP for contributing significant research. You can check out NeeP's YouTube channel here. Malwarebytes has written quite a bit about tech support scammers, typically focusing on new scam techniques as they arise with new threat actor groups. But sometimes our research discovers scammer...

Instagram story spam claims free Apple Watch

I have to admit, I'm not 100 percent sure who Elton Castee is. "Who's that?" you ask? Digging around revealed that he's big on YouTube, has done some films, and raises money for dogs, which is very cool. He's also popular on Instagram, with 400k+ followers. With that in mind, we've seen a few...

Researchers discover vulnerabilities in smart assistants’ voice commands

Virtual personal assistants VPA, also known as smart assistants like Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant, are in the spotlight for vulnerabilities to attack. Take, for example, that incident about an Oregon couple’s Echo smart speaker inadvertently recording their conversation and sending it to...

Two major Canadian banks blackmailed after alleged data breach

While the US was celebrating Memorial Day on Monday, Canada was dealing with an unusual data breach affecting two popular financial institutions: Simplii Financial and Bank of Montreal BMO. The CBC broke the story and updated it throughout the day to mention that some 90,000 customers were possib...

SEO poisoning: Is it worth it?

Search Engine Optimization SEO poisoning basically comes down to getting your web page high in the rankings for relevant search results without buying advertisements or using legitimate, but tedious, SEO best practices. Instead, threat actors use illegal means to push their page to the top...

A week in security (May 21 – May 27)

Last week we told you about a Mac cryptominer using XMRig, an overview of Dreamcast related scams, part 1 of decoding Emotet, and what to do about bad coding habits that die hard. We also published the results of our second CrackMe contest. Other news How a pioneer of machine learning became one ...

Malware analysis: decoding Emotet, part 1

Emotet Banking Trojan malware has been around for quite some time now. As such, infosec researchers have made several attempts to develop tools to de-obfuscate and even decrypt the AES-encrypted code belonging to this malware. The problem with these tools is that they target active versions of th...

Happy anniversary to Dreamcast…and its scams

This month marks 20 years since the legendary SEGA Dreamcast console was first announced. Looked on fondly by gamers, it revolutionised many aspects of gaming and brought cheapish online console gaming to the masses. Click to enlarge SEGA has endured many, many calls for it to come back as...

Why bad coding habits die hard—and 7 ways to kill them

Developers are usually the focus of blame when software vulnerabilities cause organizational breaches. Sometimes, quality assurance engineers are included in the flame. Interestingly, though, hardly anyone looks at why bad coding habits form in the first place. We're talking about the culture, th...

Malwarebytes CrackMe 2: contest summary

About three weeks ago, we published our second CrackMe. It triggered a lot of interest, and we got many high-quality write-ups. Choosing the winner was really difficult! In this post, I am going to summarize the contest and comment on the received submissions. CrackMe 2 challenge The topic of the...

New Mac cryptominer uses XMRig

A new Mac cryptominer was discovered this week, after affected users saw their fans whirring out of control and a process named "mshelper" gobbling up CPU time like Cookie Monster. Fortunately, this malware is not very sophisticated and is easy to remove. The malware became public knowledge in a...

A week in security (May 14 – May 20)

Last week, we looked at the deluge of incoming policies caused by GDPR, tackled Adobe Reader zero days, and ran through some iPhone security tips. We also caught some helpline scammers in the act, explored advergaming, got our Senate Bill game face on, and deep dived into Drupal vulnerabilities...

Vote for Malwarebytes Labs: European Security Blogger Awards 2018

It's nearly time for Infosec Europe 2018, and that means it's also time to consider voting for your favourite security blogs, podcasts, video channels, and more for the upcoming European Security Blogger Awards. Thanks to your generous votes, we've been fortunate enough to pick up the award for...

Why tech companies wanted Senate Bill 315 vetoed

When Georgia Senate Bill 315 SB-315 was introduced, people in the tech world anxiously awaited its fate, regardless of their geographic location. They knew that some laws initially restricted to single states become more widespread after politicians set precedents. And they knew that this law cou...

A look into Drupalgeddon’s client-side attacks

Drupal is one of the most popular Content Management Systems CMS, along with WordPress and Joomla. In late March 2018, Drupal was affected by a major remote code execution vulnerability CVE-2018-7600 followed by yet another CVE-2018-7602 almost a month later, both aptly nicknamed Drupalgeddon 2 a...

Exploring the virtual worlds of advergaming

Games and analytics services ran into one another headfirst recently, in a spat related to the game Conan Exiles. Developers had to remove a tracking service, which allowed game developers to track where Steam players had come from. By generating an API key and integrating it into the game,...

Fake Malwarebytes helpline scammer caught in the act

An estimated one in every 10 American adults lost money in a cyber scam in the past 12 months, according to a report released by the FTC earlier in the month. On average, each scam victim lost $430, totaling about $9.5 billion overall. To put this in perspective, that’s over 22 million Americans...

Seven security tips for staying safe on an iPhone

iPhones have a reputation for being notoriously secure. After all, they caused quite the kerfuffle between Apple and the FBI because they are, from the FBI's point of view, too secure! However, don't let that lull you into a false sense of security. Using an iPhone is not an automatic guarantee o...

Adobe Reader zero-day discovered alongside Windows vulnerability

During the first half of 2018, we have witnessed some particularly interesting zero-day exploits, including one for Flash CVE-2018-4878 and more recently for Internet Explorer CVE-2018-8174. The former was quickly used by exploit kits such as Magnitude, while it is only a matter of time before we...