A little more than one month after the European Union enacted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to extend new data privacy rights to its people, the governor of California signed a separate, sweeping data protection law that borrowed several ideas from GDPR, sparking a torch in a legislative data privacy trend that has now spanned at least 10 countries. In Chile, lawmakers are … [Read more...]
April 1, 2020
February 7, 2020
Google Maps: online interventions with offline ramifications
The places where online life directly intersection with that lived offline will be forever fascinating, illustrated perfectly through a recent performance piece involving Google Maps, a cart, and an awful lot of mobile phones. Simon Weckert, an artist based in Berlin, Germany, showed how a little ingenuity could work magic on the ubiquitous Google Maps system. Turns out Google hadn’t accounted for … [Read more...]
January 27, 2020
A week in security (January 20 – 26)
Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we reported on a Ryuk ransomware attack on The Tampa Bay Times, a newspaper in Florida; unmasked an elaborate browser locking scheme behind the more advanced tech support operations that are currently active; and looked at the latest laws on regulating deepfakes. Other cybersecurity news Cisco’s Talos Intelligence Group discovered a new data stealer and … [Read more...]
January 23, 2020
January 13, 2020
A week in security (January 6 – 12)
Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we told readers how to check the safety of websites and their related files, explored the shady behavior taking place within the billion-dollar search industry, broke down the top six ways that hackers target retail businesses, and put a spotlight on the ransomware family Phobos. We also broke a major new story when we discovered that a government-subsidized … [Read more...]
December 11, 2019
The little-known ways mobile device sensors can be exploited by cybercriminals
The bevy of mobile device sensors in modern smartphones and tablets make them more akin to pocket-sized laboratories and media studios than mere communication devices. Cameras, microphones, accelerometers, and gyroscopes give incredible flexibility to app developers and utility to mobile device users. But the variety of inputs also give clever hackers new methods of bypassing conventional mobile … [Read more...]
November 6, 2019
ACCESS Act might improve data privacy through interoperability
Data privacy is back in Congressional lawmakers’ sights, as a new, legislative proposal focuses not on data collection, storage, and selling, but on the idea that Americans should be able to more easily pack up their user data and take it to a competing service—perhaps one that better respects their data privacy. The new bill would also require certain tech companies, including Facebook, … [Read more...]
October 14, 2019
A week in security (October 7 – 13)
Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we peered into the possible future of cybersecurity insurance, described the process for securing today’s managed service provider, and provided an in-depth explainer on the business espionage tactic known as “war shipping.” Further, in considering the intersection of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month and National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we gave … [Read more...]
September 23, 2019
A week in security (September 16 -22)
Last week on Labs, we sounded the alarm about the relaunch of Emotet, one of the year’s most dangerous forms of malware, with a new spam campaign. We also reported on how international students in UK are targeted by visa scammers, what CEOs think about a potential US data privacy law, and introduced Malwarebytes Browser Guard. Finally, we looked at the role of data destruction in … [Read more...]
September 23, 2019
A week in security (September 16 -22)
Last week on Labs, we sounded the alarm about the relaunch of Emotet, one of the year’s most dangerous forms of malware, with a new spam campaign. We also reported on how international students in UK are targeted by visa scammers, what CEOs think about a potential US data privacy law, and introduced Malwarebytes Browser Guard. Finally, we looked at the role of data destruction in … [Read more...]
