A week in security (November 26 – December 2)
A roundup of last week’s security news from November 26 until December 2, including the Marriott breach, AV testing, 2019 security predictions, and an ad fraud botnet takedown.
Malwarebytes helps take down massive ad fraud botnets
Malwarebytes joins the fight against ad fraud in one of the largest take down operations in recent history.
FBI: Smart toys could harm children’s privacy and physical safety
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has recently issued a Public Service Announcement (PSA), encouraging consumers to think twice before purchasing internet-connected toys.
Fake FBI mail: “Send us $112 or we’ll lock your iCloud account”
Steer clear of this fake FBI message regarding your “locked” iCloud account. It’s nothing more than a get rich quick scam, and the people behind it are looking to cash in at your expense.
FBI announcement: paying the ransom is a bad idea
The FBI not only officially inform the world that they agree, ransomware is getting worse, but also decided to tell folks to not pay the ransom. We say “It’s about time.”
PSA: Tech Support Scams Pop-Ups on the Rise
The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has issued a public service announcement warning about a “new twist to the telephone tech support scam”. This new type of scam goes beyond the social engineering aspect and threatens users with actual malware. Find out what this scam is about and most importantly how to stop and/or avoid it.
FBI Takes Down Poorly Secured Carders
Feds bust group selling counterfeit credit cards online.
Ransomware demands additional payment to delete ‘criminal records’
Back in July 2013, we had discovered a new method of spreading the infamous FBI ransomware by using JavaScript code and iframes to create an illusion that the victim’s browser was locked. After several months, the threat is still very much alive hopping from one domain name to the next. The message is still the same and…
Firefox Zero-Day Used to Reveal Identities: Does The End Justify The Means?
An Exploit for Mozilla’s Firefox version 17 is making headlines, not simply because it is a zero-day but mainly because it appears to be part of a U.S. government program to uncover the identity of people using the Tor Browser to view child pornography.
Apple’s OS X FBI Ransomware Goes Global
Further customizations of the Mac ransom pages discovered today shows the bad guys are busy updating their templates for each country’s police force.