“You should have asked for the presence of a digital detective,” Karen said when I told her what happened at the police station. I had accompanied a neighbor, who is a small business owner, that had been hit with ransomware and wanted to file a report. After listening to his story, the police officer at the desk asked if my neighbor had a description of the perpetrator. I may have groaned. … [Read more...]
March 4, 2020
February 25, 2020
Introducing Lock and Code: a Malwarebytes Labs podcast
Intrepid Labs readers might be happy to know that we’re stepping into territory long-requested and desired: we’re launching a podcast. Malwarebytes researchers and reporters are on the front lines of cybercrime, delivering both fast-breaking news and thoughtful features on our blog to raise awareness and help users stay safe and private online. We want to take what we do here and … [Read more...]
February 14, 2020
Misleading cybersecurity lessons from pop culture: how Hollywood teaches to hack
In pop culture, cybercrimes are often portrayed as mysterious and unrealistic. Hackers are enigmatic and have extraordinary tech abilities. They can discover top secrets in a short time and type at breakneck speed to hack into a database. In real life, though, hacking is not that straightforward. Hackers may have technical capabilities and high intelligence, but they are otherwise normal human … [Read more...]
November 26, 2019
Would ‘Medicare for All’ help secure health data?
DISCLAIMER: This post is not partisan, but rather focuses on risk assessment based on history and what threats we are facing in the future. We do not endorse any healthcare plan style in any way, outside of examining its data security risk. For many folks, the term ‘Healthcare for All’ brings up an array of emotions ranging from concern to happiness, and with the changes that come with this … [Read more...]
November 26, 2019
July 18, 2019
No man’s land: How a Magecart group is running a web skimming operation from a war zone
Our Threat Intelligence team has been monitoring the activities of a number of threat actors involved in the theft of credit card data. Often referred to under the Magecart moniker, these groups use simple pieces of JavaScript code (skimmers) typically injected into compromised e-commerce websites to steal data typed by unaware shoppers as they make their purchase. During the course of an … [Read more...]
May 22, 2019
May 21, 2019
Skimmer acts as payment service provider via rogue iframe
Criminals continue to target online stores to steal payment details from unaware customers at a rapid pace. There are many different ways to go about it, from hacking the shopping site itself, to compromising its supply-chain. A number of online merchants externalize the payment process to a payment service provider (PSP) for various reasons, including peace of mind that transactions will be … [Read more...]
May 15, 2019
Microsoft pushes patch to prevent ‘WannaCry’ level vulnerability
This month marks the two-year anniversary since the infamous WannaCry attack. As an anniversary present to the world, Microsoft has pushed out patches to secure a newly-identified Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) vulnerability found in certain Windows operating systems. The potential damage of the newly-discovered RDP vulnerability matches the same dangers we experienced with the WannaCry … [Read more...]
May 14, 2019
WhatsApp fix goes live after targeted attack on human rights lawyer
If you use WhatsApp, you’ll want to update both app and device as soon as possible due to a freshly-discovered exploit. The vulnerability was found in Google Android, Apple iOS, and Microsoft Windows Phone builds of the app. Unlike many mobile attacks, potential victims aren’t required to install or click on anything—they may not even be aware something malicious has taken place. This attack came … [Read more...]
