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 dangerous, but they are added to make it just a bit more tricky to detect or track as it is constantly … [Read more...]
June 18, 2018
June 18, 2018
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 Terros Health data breach: 1,600 patients potentially impacted. (Source; ABC 15) A critical server … [Read more...]
June 11, 2018
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. (source: Adobe) Be careful with your World Cup Wi-Fi. (Source: Securelist) Wannacry ransomware … [Read more...]
June 4, 2018
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 also shared our latest intel about America Geeks, a band of tech scammers that we profiled in 2015 and … [Read more...]
May 30, 2018
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 a random contact. Or that time when the Alexa started laughing out of the blue. Indeed, something … [Read more...]
May 28, 2018
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 of its sharpest critics. (Source: The Atlantic) The man who cracked the lottery. Spoiler: it was an … [Read more...]
May 14, 2018
A week in security (May 7 – May 13)
Last week on Labs, we looked at the case of a fake Android AV, an annoying adware that goes by the name of Kuik, the return of threat actors behind the Shopper Stop tech scam, a new Netflix phishing scam, the recent zero-day vulnerability in Internet Explorer, and the insufficiency of merely relying on the presence of the green padlock. Also, in a brief blog post, we talked about why we removed … [Read more...]
May 8, 2018
Kuik: a simple yet annoying piece of adware
Some pieces of malware can be so simple—and yet such a pain to get rid of—especially when they start interfering with your system’s configuration. This much is true for the Kuik adware program, which surprised us all by forcing affected machines to join a domain controller. The perpetrators are using this unusual technique to push Google Chrome extensions and coin miner applications to their … [Read more...]
May 7, 2018
Week in security (April 30 – May 6)
Last week on Labs, we examined the Spartacus ransomware, reported about a new tactic used by the Necurs malspam campaign, informed you about the recommended Twitter password change, and discussed engaging students to start considering careers in cybersecurity. Other news NTML credentials can be stolen via malicious Portable Document Format (PDF) files without any user interaction. (Source: … [Read more...]
May 3, 2018
Internet Shortcut used in Necurs malspam campaign
The Necurs botnet continues to be one of the most prolific malicious spam distributors, with regular waves of carefully-crafted attachments that are used to download malware. The majority of malspam campaigns that we track are targeting Microsoft Office with documents containing either macros or exploits. We also see a number of other types of malicious attachments that are zipped scripts (.VBS, … [Read more...]
