In the first three months of 2020, as the world clamped down to limit coronavirus, cyber threats ramped up. Our latest, special edition for our quarterly CTNT report focuses on recent, increased malware threats which all have one, big thing in common—using coronavirus as a lure. Our report, “Cybercrime tactics and techniques: Attack on home base,” analyze

Social media sites are stepping up their efforts in the war against misinformation… specifically, the coronavirus/COVID-19 infodemic. There’s a seemingly endless stream of potentially dangerous misinformation flying around online related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that could have fatal results.It’s boomtown in fake-news land riding high on the wave

What can you do as a scammer when no legitimate payment provider wants to process your payments anymore? Or, what if you are growing sick and tired of these same payment providers reimbursing disgruntled customers who claim that your products didn’t fix computers, like—you know—you said they would? Simple. You rely on some novel help. That is, unti

The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) scam onslaught continues. Per Threatpost, digital attackers ramped up their activity over Q1 2020 to the extent that they were sending approximately 1.5 million coronavirus-themed attack emails by the middle of April. How can we then be surprised by ZDNet’s reporting that the number of digital crime reports received by t

byLisa VaasHas somebody on Facebook tried to convince you that drinking bleach cures COVID-19?If you’ve had that kind of dangerous misinformation coughed up at you on the platform and have liked, reacted or commented on it, expect to start seeing messages in your newsfeed alerting you and letting you know that Facebook has since removed the effluvium.O

Americans are expected to start receiving monetary support from the government soon. In most cases, money would be directly deposited into the banking accounts associated with people’s tax returns. The funds will help US citizens, legal permanent residents, and people with valid social security numbers, fight the economic instability caused by the novel coro

In the last week, we’ve seen multiple coronavirus scams pushed by bad actors, including RAT attacks via fake health advisories, bogus e-books working in tandem with Trojans, and lots of other phishing shenanigans. Now we have another one to add to the ever-growing list: dubious coronavirus Bitcoin missives landing in your inbox. Reworking a classic spam tact

Coronavirus has changed the face of the world, restricting countless individuals from dining at restaurants, working from cafes, and visiting their loved ones. But for cybercriminals, this global pandemic is expanding their horizons. In the past week, Malwarebytes discovered multiple email scams that prey on the fear, uncertainty, and confusion regarding

Criminals are always on the lookout for finding new ways to scam people – and now they are trying to exploit the coronavirus scare that has taken over the world lately. With coronavirus cases in the US in the thousands, and expected to rise significantly, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. The deadly st

Tax season is on, so are the scammers trying to steal the hard-earned money of hard-working Americans. The Better Business Bureau (BBB) recently issued a statement confirming that it is the busiest time of the year not only for the IRS but also for bad actors trying to scam their way into people’s tax refunds from the IRS. The deadline for tax filing is appr

Last week, we told you we were launching a fortnightly podcast, called Lock and Code. This week, we made good on our promise, with lots of headlines generated right here on Labs, as well as other security news around the web. In addition, we talk with Britta Glade, Director of Content and Curation for RSA Conference, about the theme for last week’s con

Former cybersecurity czar Rudy Giuliani has been targeted by typosquatters on Twitter, thanks to copious misspellings and other keyboarding errors made in a number of his public tweets. In a tweet sent out on Sunday, Giuliani meant to send his 650,000-plus followers to his new website, RudyGiulianics.com. Instead, a space added after “Rudy” sent

Research and reporting on this article were conducted by Labs writers Chris Boyd and David Ruiz. Dating apps have been mainstream for a long time now, with nearly every possible dating scene covered—casual, long-term, gay, poly, of the Jewish faith, interested only in farmers—whatever you’re looking for. Sadly, wherever you find people trying to go abo

Seniors have become the main target of cybercriminals. A report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that Suspicious Activity Reports for elder financial exploitation quadrupled from 2013 to 2017. When there was a loss of money, the average loss per filer was $16,700. Shockingly, one-third of the individuals who lost money were ages 80 and older

In the early days, practically all tech support scammers would get their own leads by doing some amateur SEO poisoning and keyword stuffing on YouTube and other social media sites. They’d then leverage their boiler room to answer incoming calls from victims. Today, these practices continue, but we are seeing more advanced operations with a clear sep