IT NEWS

Twitter is potentially looking to add some new features to combat specific forms of abuse and / or aggravation on the platform. They’re still at the design stage, but they’re asking for feedback and it seems this will happen down the line. With that in mind, let’s take a look at what they’re up to.

Unmention yourself

This slightly clunky term is based around the Twitter-specific concept of “my mentions”. In other words, your reply tab which is surely filled with wonderful things. On the off chance that it isn’t, this can help. Twitter conversations tend to draw people in like inexorable whirlpools of terror. Perhaps someone you know tagged you into a random conversation because they thought you may be interested. That’s usually fine. It’s not fine when tagging you in is to encourage abuse.

Maybe you commented on a random news story and now everyone’s yelling at you. Perhaps trolls deliberately dropped you into a massive crowd of other trolls who are all also yelling at you. It’s possible you began the conversation yourself, and now everyone in your replies is yelling all day long.

Whatever your pickle, this is the fix. Currently, there is no way to remove yourself from a conversation. “Please untag me”, goes the cry of those in Twitter purgatory. “Oh no, you haven’t untagged me and I’m still being copied in to dozens of awful messages” goes the second cry. “It’s been 8 hours and a thread which was originally about cakes is now something to do with World War 2. Please help” goes the final cry before the phone is hurled out of the window.

When muting isn’t a solution

The current solution to this is the mute option. In theory, you hit the “mute conversation” button and it’s removed from view. It doesn’t matter how many replies it gets, or how many people send you a message: they’re all invisible, forever.

That’s the theory. In practice, the mute option is notoriously buggy. If you have a spider phobia, you can mute the word spider. It doesn’t mean the word won’t randomly break through the mute and show you some sort of horrendous spider content. If you mute a user who annoys you, Twitter may still randomly show you future replies or tweets. Mute a conversation? You can try. If you’re in a very viral conversation (whether you started it or joined later), these too will occasionally break the mute and pop back into your timeline.

Being able to “unmention” yourself, though? This is an additional string in the “please leave me alone” bow. If you’re able to drag yourself out of a thread, it’s possible the conversation will be gone for good. There’s an additional benefit here over muting. When you mute, it’s supposedly gone forever. This isn’t helpful if there are parts of the discussion you may want to revisit at a later date. If they can get this working, it promises to be very useful while avoiding the problem of having your replies tab hammered by unwanted noise.

Unmention individuals

If you’re fed up with people jumping in to send you nasty messages, you’ll be able to prevent them tagging you in ever again with this proposed feature. The moment they start typing out your username, they’ll be told that [username] can’t be “mentioned” (sent a message). The image shows the potential nasty person sending a message directly, like so:

@[username] did you know that thing you like is actually really awful? You should! And now I’m telling you all about how much I hate it! Hooray!

 It’s not clear if this would work for dropping someone into the middle of a message like:

You know what I hate? Those things that @[username] enjoys. Wow, are those some really terrible things that you like! Wow! Terrible!

Currently, the only option is to block. Blocking stops someone from sending you messages directly, but it doesn’t prevent the “drop someone’s username into the middle of a tweet” activity outlined above. As a result, they can still drive bad traffic to the victim. Stopping people from doing this would be a very useful thing indeed.

Unmention individuals, part 2

This doesn’t seem particularly different from the last option. The only real difference I can see is that you can essentially shut down people’s ability to mention you for 1, 3, or 7 days. A good option for when your replies section is completely out of hand.

Control mass mentions

Twitter was initially designed for letting small groups of friends know what you were up to via mobile. It’s morphed into a discussion platform over the years. On any given day, there’s millions of conversations about any subject you care to mention. The only problem is, it’s frequently unsuited to said conversations taking place because of, among other things, a lack of controls over who’s dropping you in or out of discussions, and an inability to keep your replies free from harm.

The moment you do a good Tweet and it goes viral, the platform is essentially unusable for a few days until things calm down. You’re DDoS’ing yourself off Twitter by virtue of being good at it. Even verified accounts, who have additional options regular users don’t have, find it impossible to get around this. The moment dozens, hundreds, or thousands of replies appear all at once? Good luck, see you in three days.

This is similar to the above proposed setting, except it tells you how many times you’ve been mentioned in a short space of time and then allows you to specify who, exactly, can mention you.

Closing thoughts on the proposed changes

As you can see, Twitter is trying to add some nuance to dealing with abuse and clutter generally. My sense here is that some sorely needed flexibility is on the way; we just need to see how long it takes to implement.

There’s still a few areas in all this that don’t seem to be addressed yet.

For example, Twitter allows you to restrict how you can reply to tweets already. For example, I can set it to followers only, or people who I follow back. If someone dislikes your tweet, they’ll bypass restrictions by quote tweeting you. I don’t know if the new additions would prevent that from being possible.

Either way, expect to see more wrinkles ironed out over the coming weeks / months. Let’s see if Twitter can finally plug some of the more creative ways people have of causing chaos on the social media platform.

The post Twitter takes aim at the chaos, clutter and trolls with new feature concepts appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

A billion data points, including the usernames and mobile phone numbers of customers have been siphoned off Alibaba websites by a web crawler. The information has reached us about a week after a court ruling in the case.

The court ruling

A central Chinese court has ruled that an employee of a consultancy firm was guilty of gathering more than a billion data items of Taobao, users since 2019. (Taobao is the consumer-to-consumer platform on Alibaba’s sites.) The court imposed jail terms of more than three years, alongside fines totalling 450,000 yuan (approximately $70,000). Apparently the consultancy firm helped Taobao with merchants on Alibaba’s Taobao online mall. And their employee was using his access to the data to serve other clients.

Alibaba

Alibaba is one of the biggest online marketplaces in the world. Originally Alibaba.com started out as a business-to-business (B2B) platform, but with the foundation of Taobao it expanded into the consumer marketplace.

Alibaba’s consumer businesses annual active consumers on its China retail marketplaces reached 811 million for the twelve months that ended March 31, 2021, increasing from 779 million at the last quarter of 2020.

Like its nearest US equivalent, Amazon, the company also runs cloud services, a payment service (Alipay), and is active in digital media. In 2005 it started a close cooperation with Yahoo!

Alibaba statement

None of the customer data was sold and Alibaba’s users didn’t incur financial losses from the episode, the company said in a statement.

“Taobao devotes substantial resources to combat unauthorized scraping on our platform, as data privacy and security is of utmost importance. We have proactively discovered and addressed this unauthorized scraping. We will continue to work with law enforcement to defend and protect the interests of our users and partners.”

Web scraping

Although some media will call this a data leak or breach, web scraping is a different beast altogether. We did not expect to see the scale of Facebook’s data scrape of 533 million users to be “beaten” anytime soon, but a few months later and here we are. In Facebook’s case the scraping was possible because of a vulnerability that Facebook patched in 2019. In Alibaba’s case the scraping was enabled because the employee of the consultancy firm had full access to a part of the online infrastructure.

And while most types of web scrapers are perfectly fine, for example scrapers that help you find the best price for a product, the question is whether it is OK to scrape websites for personal data. While website users may have given consent to use some of their data for marketing purposes, is it fair to expect that they can anticipate how much information about them is available to potential scrapers, or how that data becomes something entirely different when it’s part of a billion-record data set, or when it’s combined with other information about them that makes their personal life pretty much an open book?

Chinese restrictions

The news about this court ruling comes at a keen moment for China as it recently announced it wants to tighten restrictions on the information gathering by internet giants like Alibaba, Tencent, and others. Last March, the Chinese government published new standards for the collection of personal data, specifically defining “necessary” data collection.

Among limitations like stopping app providers from collecting a broad range of data under a bundled consent model, the new data protection rules force Chinese companies to obtain government permission before transferring data outside of the country and grant individuals a right to access personal information held by data processors.

While we applaud these initiatives to protect user data-privacy, in China’s case it feels like a matter of “do as I say, not as I do.”

The post Jail for consultant who scraped colossal trove of Alibaba customer data appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Ukrainian law enforcement officials announced Wednesday that they had arrested several individuals involved in criminal activity committed by the Clop ransomware gang, a cybercriminal gang that helped popularize the “double extortion” model of not only threatening to encrypt a victim’s files, but also threatening to release confidential data that was stolen in an earlier breach.

According to a press release issued by Ukrainian authorities, law enforcement officials also shut down infrastructure that was used to spread the cybercrime gang’s ransomware, which was first spotted in February of 2019 as a new variant of the Cryptomix family.  

“Together, law enforcement has managed to shut down the infrastructure from which the virus spreads and block channels for legalizing criminally acquired cryptocurrencies,” the press release reportedly said, according to a translation from BleepingComputer. “Law enforcement officers conducted 21 searches in the capital and Kyiv region, in the homes of the defendants, and in their cars.”

Ukrainian law enforcement reportedly said that the Clop ransomware gang has caused roughly $500 million in financial damages, and that the individuals arrested could face up to eight years in prison.

As seen in a video of the arrests, Ukrainian officers were aided by investigators from South Korea. BleepingComputer reported that the arrest effort also included coordination from officials in the United States. In the video, nearly $30,000 are laid out in the floor, in $100 bills, and several cars, including a Mercedes Benz, a Tesla, and a Lexus, are taken away.

The international coordination effort represents at least the second time this year that countries have come together to fight cybercrime. In January, a coalition of countries collaborating through Europol helped take down Emotet by also attacking its infrastructure.

But whereas the Emotet takedown seems to have caused a significant disruption to that cyberthreat, the arrests made against Clop could present a smaller roadblock. That’s because, according to the cybersecurity company Intel 471, none of the actual members of the Clop ransomware gang were caught.

Instead, the arrests involved money launderers, Intel 471 said.

“The law enforcement raids in Ukraine associated with CLOP ransomware were limited to the cash-out/money laundering side of CLOP’s business only,” Intel 471 told BleepingComputer. “We do not believe that any core actors behind CLOP were apprehended and we believe they are probably living in Russia.”

The arrests also represent the second time in weeks that authorities have targeted a cybercrime gang by following the money. In early June, the US Department of Justice announced that it had recovered the majority of the ransom payment made by Colonial Pipeline to its attackers, the cybercriminal group called Darkside. By tracking the ransomware payment through the public Bitcoin ledger, the Department of Justice and the FBI managed to retrieve 63.7 bitcoins.

Cryptocurrencies have long been abused to fund cybercrime, and, perhaps with the recent retrieval of Colonial Pipeline’s ransom payment, that intersection will continue to be closely scrutinized. If so, it would fall in line with the Ransomware Task Force’s recommendations made in April, which suggested that governments lean further into regulating cryptocurrency.

While Clop was not particularly active last year—it did not enter our top 10 malware threats for businesses or consumers in 2020—the operators behind the ransomware still found ways to squeeze their victims. Inspired last year by the ransomware group Maze, Clop infiltrated company networks to steal sensitive data and then demanded that those organizations pay a ransom to keep the data secret. But this year, Clop refined that tactic by targeting corporate executives’ machines, hoping that executives would have more access to sensitive files and data. The idea was simple: Better access to sensitive data, better chance that a victim will pay to keep that data from being published.

As of Wednesday afternoon, according to BleepingComputer, Clop’s Tor payment site and data leak site were still operational.

The post Clop stopped? Ransomware gang loses Tesla and other treasures in police raid appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Apple has fixed two vulnerabilities in Safari’s WebKit component, announcing it is aware of a report that they may have been actively exploited. Both vulnerabilities could be abused by maliciously crafted web content that could lead to arbitrary code execution: In other words, the bugs let rogue websites do things on your phone without your permission.

Letting users of its products know that vulnerabilities are being actively exploited is a new approach for Apple. It has always been reluctant to provide much context in its security bulletins and only recently started adding information about whether vulnerabilities are being used in the wild.

WebKit

WebKit is the web browser engine used by Safari, Mail, App Store, and many other apps on macOS, iOS, and Linux. The vulnerable WebKit version is available for: iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, and iPod touch (6th generation). 

This is the 9^th actively-exploited zero-day patched by Apple this year. Seven of them were related to WebKit. One was a GateKeeper bypass, and the other a TCC bypass. Gatekeeper is designed to ensure that only trusted software runs on your Mac, and Apple’s TCC  protection is built to safeguard privacy.

CVEs

Publicly disclosed computer security flaws are listed in the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) database. The two vulnerabilities that were reported to be abused in the wild are:

• CVE-2021-30761: A memory corruption issue.
• CVE-2021-30762: A use after free issue.

Both vulnerabilities have been submitted by an anonymous researcher. It is not known whether they were both submitted by the same researcher.

Memory corruption issue

Memory corruption bugs occur when a program’s memory is modified in a way that was not anticipated by the programmers. When used by an attacker, a memory corruption bug can become a serious security vulnerability that might allow an attacker to leak sensitive information or execute arbitrary code. The generic term “memory corruption” is often used to describe the consequences of writing to memory outside the bounds of a buffer, or to memory addresses that are invalid.

Use after free

Use-After-Free (UAF) is a vulnerability related to incorrect use of dynamic memory during program operation. If after freeing a memory location, a program does not clear the pointer to that memory, an attacker can use the error to hack the program. Referencing memory after it has been freed can cause a program to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code.

Apple

As is customary, Apple did not provide details on the zero-day attacks, which appear to be aimed at a range of older models of iPhones. It’s remarkable that Apple disclosed that these vulnerabilities are being used in the wild as this has not been its habit until recently.

“For our customers’ protection, Apple doesn’t disclose, discuss, or confirm security issues until an investigation has occurred and patches or releases are available. Recent releases are listed on the Apple security updates page.”

Waiting to disclose issues until a patch is available certainly makes sense, but keeping under wraps how serious an issue is, is a different case. Whether this new habit of letting customers know that vulnerabilities are actively being abused is here to stay remains unknown, but it brings Apple more inline with industry norms. From our perspective it is progress. Not in the least because it gives users a perspective into the urgency of getting the necessary patches.

Stay safe, everyone!

The post Patch now! Apple fixes in-the-wild iPhone vulnerabilities appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Microsoft will terminate support for Windows 10 Home and Pro on 14 October 2025, a decade after the original Windows 10 was brought to market. Although some may claim that a Microsoft document has been “quietly edited” over the weekend to reflect this “sudden change”, this reveal isn’t new. In fact, based on a Wayback Machine screen capture of the same page, Windows Central has pointed out that this reveal has been on the Microsoft page since September 2020.

Nevertheless, this renewed interest on Windows 10 has come almost three weeks after the Microsoft Build 2021 event in late May, where Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella teased of something big in the works: a “next generation of Windows” (Hint: It won’t be called Windows 11). Furthermore, this end-of-life cycle reveal has happened at least a week before a new Windows digital event on 24 June 2021.

And soon we will share one of the most significant updates to Windows of the past decade to unlock greater economic opportunity for developers and creators. I’ve been selfhosting it over the past several months, and I’m incredibly excited about the next generation of Windows. Our promise to you is this: we will create more opportunity for every Windows developer today and welcome every creator who is looking for the most innovative, new, open platform to build and distribute and monetize applications. We look forward to sharing more very soon.

Transcription of Nadella’s keynote, reproduced from Windows Central, during the Build 2021 event

Microsoft hasn’t hinted on when this new OS will be revealed to the public, much less made available in the market, but Nadella admitted that he has been testing it for months. We don’t know what it will contain, but Windows is still the platform of choice for most businesses, and therefore the platform of choice for most malware—including the most dangerous forms, like ransomware—so we’d be surprised if it doesn’t include something designed to tackle that head on.

The company also expects the transition from the would-be-retired Windows 10 to the new desktop OS would take around four years. History suggests that’s optimistic. Windows XP reached the end of its life seven years ago.

This matters, because the end of life means an end of patches, and a progressively worsening security situation for any organisations that don’t migrate in time. The time to start planning is now.

And if there is anything we’ve learned about end-of-life cycles and support, it’s this: Scammers and fraudsters have made it a point to use news like this to lure potential victims into either downloading malware disguised as a legitimate file or to steal pertinent information and credentials. So, while we prepare for this transition, let’s not forget to also keep our eyes open. Stay informed, and stay safe!

The post Windows 10 to retire in four years (or 52 Patch Tuesdays, in sysadmin years) appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Although sharing your day’s highlights in snapshots and videos on Instagram can be entertaining, some people claim to feel happier after deleting their accounts. Consuming media tailor-made to make other people’s lifestyles appear alluring can be addictive for some and induce anxiety in others. Not only do people delete Instagram for their wellbeing, but they remove it for privacy concerns. Hackers, scammers, and stalkers can use the photo and video sharing social networking platform to target others, and Instagram is part of Facebook’s advertising panopticon.

For any of these reasons, a number of Instagram users decide to take a break from the platform at some point, either temporarily or permanently. If you do, remember that you will lose the following data permanently when you delete your Instagram account:

• Profile
• Photos
• Videos
• Comments
• Likes
• Followers

You can sign up with the same username again after deleting your Instagram account. However, this won’t be possible if someone else has created an account with the same username. Hypothetically, someone could impersonate you after you leave by creating an account with the same username. That’s why you may want to disable your account rather than delete it.

How do I disable my Instagram account temporarily?

To hide your account, profile, photos, comments, and likes, you can opt to disable your Instagram account instead of erasing it. Disabling it is easy and requires a web browser on a computer, tablet, or mobile phone. Unfortunately, you can’t use an Instagram app to disable Instagram.

1. Log into your Instagram account from a web browser.
2. Click your profile picture on the top right of the screen.
3. Click Profile followed by Edit Profile.
4. Find Temporarily disable my account on the bottom right after scrolling down.
5. Pick an option from the drop-down menu that says Why are you disabling your account?
6. Enter your password.
7. Hit Temporarily Disable Account to hide your account until you’re ready to reactivate it.

How to download your Instagram data on a Computer, Android, or iPhone

You may want to back up your pictures, videos, and posts from Instagram before deleting your account. Once you delete your account, your media is irrecoverable. Here is how to get a copy of everything you’ve shared on Instagram:

1. Click or tap your profile picture and then find Settings.
2. Click Privacy and Security on a computer or tap Security on Android or iPhone.
3. Click Request Download on a computer or tap Download Data on your mobile device.
4. Enter your email address, Instagram account password and use the Request Download option.
5. Wait for an email from Instagram titled Your Instagram Data. Instagram says that it can take up to 48 hours to send the email.
6. Use the link in the email to download your data.
7. You can contact Instagram directly if you’ve lost your username or password and need access to your data.

How do I delete my Instagram account on a computer?

Log into your Instagram account. Follow this link to get to the Delete your account page. Pick from one of the listed reasons explaining why you want to delete your account. Re-enter your password and delete your account for good.

How do I delete my Instagram account on my iPhone or Android device?

Deleting an Instagram account through a mobile app isn’t possible. You may find it easier to delete it on a computer and remove the mobile app. You can use the following steps, but they eventually lead you to a hyperlink on a web browser.

1. Start the Instagram app on your phone.
2. Tap the Profile icon.
3. Go to the Profile page and tap Settings.
4. Scroll down to Help Center and tap Basics.
5. Hit Getting Started and then scroll through the options until you find Delete Your Account
6. Select How do I delete my account and follow the hyperlink to your web browser.
7. You may need to enter your Instagram password and choose a reason for deleting your account.
8. Hit Permanently deactivate my account and then tap OK.
9. Uninstall Instagram from your iPhone.

How do I make my Instagram account more secure?

While many users are concerned about scams on Instagram, or the threat of having their accounts hacked—they also don’t want to delete or deactivate their accounts. Thankfully, there is a compromise. Here are some measures that may help you improve your security and privacy on Instagram:

• Set a long, unique password.
• Enable two-factor authentication by clicking Security > Two-Factor Authentication > Get Started.
• Consider making your account private, so that only approved followers can see it. You can do this in your privacy settings by clicking Settings > Privacy > Account Privacy and toggling Private account.
• You may also want to visit the Comments or Story option under Settings > Privacy to manage how followers interact with your posts.
• Check the Add Automatically option under Privacy > Tags to stop tagged photos from being added to your profile.
• Check the authenticity of the accounts you follow by hitting the three-dot menu on a profile and selecting About this Account. Watch out for red flags like frequent username changes and more.
• Don’t hesitate to block, mute, restrict, or remove followers that affect your peace of mind or try to breach your account security.
• Use good antivirus/anti-malware software on whatever device you use to access your Instagram account. In case you accidentally click on something malicious, you’ll have protection for your computer, tablet, or mobile device.

The post How to delete your Instagram account appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

One year ago, as countless employees settled into new routines for working from home (WFH), a Reddit user shared a video online of a strange contraption: A wire coat hanger bent out of shape, one side gripping an external USB mouse, the other side latched onto an oscillating fan. As the fan swished left and then right, so, too, did the USB mouse.

What was the point? The device, the Reddit user suggested, was a low-tech defense against workplace surveillance.

“WFH Tip #2: How to always appear online,” read the video’s title.

This laughable attempt to subvert digital workplace monitoring was a bit of a joke, but the video spotlighted an unfortunate reality facing WFH employees today. Rather than being trusted to accomplish their jobs out of physical view, a startling number of employees are being tracked and measured through privacy-invasive software which can surveil their web browsing habits, track their app usage, monitor their screen time—periodically capturing screen images—and even transcribe their phone calls.

The fascination with digital workplace surveillance software—sometimes called “bossware”—is increasing, according to a recent survey funded by ExpressVPN, in collaboration with Pollfish. Of the 2,000 employers surveyed, 57 percent “implemented employee monitoring software in the past six months.” Of those that had not deployed such software, 59 percent said they were “very or somewhat likely” to do so in the future.

But employers should caution themselves against likely pushback, as employees in the survey repeatedly expressed contempt for the tools and the behavior it enabled.

“It’s micro-management,” said one anonymous survey respondent, according to the key highlight report from ExpressVPN. “As long as my productivity is acceptable and my work is getting done, it shouldn’t matter how I pass the time while waiting for an active job to pick up.”

Employers can’t feign ignorance about this, either. According to the the ExpressVPN survey, while 78 percent of employers admitted to using employee monitoring software to track their employees, even more—83 percent—believe there are “ethical concerns” with that type of software.

The pandemic’s productivity panic

In the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, as thousands of companies shifted to WFH models, a certain panic arose regarding potential, lowered productivity. The combination of removing workers from a potentially collaborative in-office environment, expecting them to simultaneously tackle childcare and work, and hoping they can manage the stress of a global pandemic, often led corporate leaders to believe that their employees’ productivity would slow to a crawl.

Those concerns, it appears, led to increased demand for digital workplace surveillance software.

According to reporting from Wired in October of last year:

“As working from home has flourished, so too has employee monitoring software. Programs such as Time Doctor, ActivTrak, Teramind and the dystopian-sounding StaffCop have all seen huge upticks in demand. Remote teams are now watched through their webcams via always-on video services like Sneek. In the office-free world, bosses can now clandestinely scan screenshots, login times and keystrokes at will to ensure their workforce is keeping its focus and productivity.”

The sentiments of employers captured in the ExpressVPN survey sound similar. As the survey authors wrote, “the biggest driver behind employers’ growing interest in surveillance is their uncertainty and unease about the status of their company and whether employees are doing what needs to be done to maintain overall business performance.”

That showed up in the data with the following numbers:

• 74 percent of employers said “remote work makes them feel a lack of control over their business”
• 57 percent “don’t trust their employees to work without in-person supervision”
• 59 percent “don’t trust their employees to work without digital supervision”

Considering this broad, shared concern in potentially lowered activity, then, it is quite strange that survey after survey after survey have shown there is little truth to it.

When Microsoft commissioned KRC Research, Boston Consulting Group, and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania to survey 9,000 respondents across Europe last August who started working in more hybrid and remote models, 39 percent said they felt equally productive, 34 percent said they felt somewhat more productive, and 10 percent said they felt significantly more productive.

When Mercer surveyed 800 employers last year, 94 percent said “productivity has remained the same or improved since employees began working remotely.”

And when Malwarebytes Labs asked 200 managers, directors, and C-suite executives in IT and cybersecurity roles across the United States about their biggest struggles with shifting to a WFH model, only 2.5 percent said they experienced “significantly lower” productivity.

The data is not there, but that does not seem to matter for the managers who are making the decision to surveil their employees. Instead, the decisions seem to be carried on intangible unease. In fact, according to the ExpressVPN survey, 69 percent of employers said they “feel uneasy about remote work because they can’t observe employees in person”

Well, what are the employees feeling?

Employee pushback

When employees know they are being surveilled, they do not just dislike it. They consider it damaging to their relationship with the employers.

• 43 percent of employees said the use of these tools “is a violation of trust”
• 28 percent said it “makes them feel unappreciated”
• 26 percent said it “makes them feel resentment”

Further, 59 percent of employees reported feeling “stress and/or anxiety about their employer surveilling their online activity.” The reasons for that stress vary—from 41 percent wondering “whether they’re being watched” to 36 percent feeling “pressure to work longer hours in general. But, critically, 20 percent of employees said they “feel dehumanized as a result of workplace surveillance.”

These are heavy terms, and employers should recognize that when their employees begin to feel like this, they have a strong chance of losing them. According to the survey results, 54 percent of employees said “they’d be likely to quit if their employer and/or boss implement surveillance measures.”

But for the employees who will not quit, the picture is not any brighter. Instead, employers will likely find themselves fighting against employees who are subversively rolling out anti-surveillance measures that they either look up online or devise themselves (need we remember the Reddit user’s renegade partnership between their home fan and their USB mouse?). According to the survey, 31 percent of employees who know they are surveilled said they use “anti-surveillance software,” and 25 percent “researched hacks to fake online activity.”

Surprisingly, almost half of surveilled employees—49 percent—said they “pretended to be online while actually doing non-work activities.”

This is the pushback that employers can expect for voluntarily wrecking their employees’ trust. Remember, many employees reported feeling resentment about being surveilled. It stands to reason that an employee who resents their employer will have little qualms about tricking them, wasting their time, and half-assing it until they can find a new job.

After all, what’s the point of putting in professional work if you won’t be treated like a professional? The popularity on Reddit alone isn’t worth it.

The post Working from home? You’re probably being spied on appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Are you seeing some pattern here?

In what could be a called “shocking news” on Friday, BleepingComputer revealed that the gang behind the Avaddon ransomware shut down its operations after releasing more than 2,000 decryption keys to the technology news site.

BleepingComputer claimed they received an anonymous tip purporting to be from the FBI, containing a password and a link to a password-protected ZIP file.

If you may recall, Avaddon is a big game hunting (BGH), ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) tool that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) warned organizations about last month.

Malwarebytes detects this ransomware as Ransom.Avaddon.

Avaddon ransomware attack victims

While various sectors in Australia were noted to be particularly targeted, the Avaddon strain has been instrumental in the successful network compromise of the Asian division of the AXA Group, one of the biggest cyber insurance companies in the world. Avaddon threat actors were able to extract information about what appears to be client info: passports, bank account information, ID cards, contracts, fraud-related hospital files, and other medical reports containing sensitive data about patients, and more.

Coincidentally, this attack came close to a week after the insurance giant announced that it would cease covering customers in France who pay up after being attacked by ransomware. An insurance company refusing to cover for any monetary loss over a cyberattack will no doubt significantly increase the likelihood of victim companies refusing to cough up money to ransomware gangs.

Schepisi Communication, an Australia-based telecom service provider, was also hit by Avaddon last month after its platinum partner, Telstra, fell victim to a ransomware attack by the same group. The criminals claimed to have access to data of a large amount of SIM cards, mobile devices, contracts, and banking information to name a few. When the company refused to pay the demand, their official website was downed by distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, taking their website offline for several days.

Avaddon threat actors are also not one to shy away from going after organizations in the healthcare industry. According a threat report from eSentire, a leading Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service provider, Avaddon has targeted the Capital Medical Center in Washington, Bridgeway Senior Healthcare in New Jersey, and an intensive care online network.

A domino effect? Or a simple coincidence?

After DarkSide called it quits from the pressures of the US government following their attack against Colonial Pipeline, reading about Avaddon—considered to be a “second tier ransomware operator”—would make one think that there is cause for celebration. Indeed, this is a win and something we should be grateful for.

Let us not forget, however, that any time a ransomware gang decides to shut down, more gangs appear (If you’re on Twitter and follow several malware/ransomware hunters, you’ll agree).

It is also a known fact that ransomware actors have the habit of rebranding under the guise of shutting down—or to simply avoid US sanctions—so it won’t be far off to think that this is all a ruse. And speaking of sanctions, as of this writing, there is nothing that links Avaddon’s demise to the increased attention the US government has given ransomware groups lately. It’s likely then that this is all just part of the normal flow of events when groups give up from time to time. That said, this could be one of those wait-and-see scenarios.

Nonetheless, we welcome any ransomware gang quitting as good news. But perhaps, at the same time, we’re also left wondering: Is there a quiet chaos going on right now within and among the underground ransomware gangs? Will they start dropping like flies? Will we be left with our old, insecure ways if or when ransomware attacks do plummet?

Well, let’s wait and see.

The post Another one bites the dust: Avaddon ransomware group shuts down operation appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs:

• Amazon SIdewalk starts sharing your WiFi data tomorrow, thanks
• White hat, black hat, grey hat hackers: what’s the difference?
• Can two VPN “wrongs” make a right? Lock and Code S02E10
• DOJ recovers pipeline ransom, signals more aggressive approach to cybercrime
• 800 arrests after police dupe crime groups into using backdoored phones
• TrickBot indictment reveals the scale and complexity of organised cybercrime
• Microsoft fixes seven zero-days, including two PuzzleMaker targets, Google fixes serious Android flaw
• How to clear cookies
• Russia accused of hacking Dutch police during MH17 investigation
• How a Resident Evil image leaked in a ransomware attack ended up in the middle of a $12 copyright claim
• Cloud vs on premise: 3 reasons the cloud is winning
• How to deactivate or delete your Facebook account

Other cybersecurity news

• Hackers steal wealth of data from game giant EA (Source: VICE)
• JBS USA pay $11 million ransom to ransomware attackers (Source: JBS USA)
• China arrests over 1,000 for using cryptocurrency to help launder proceeds of phone scams (Source: The Register)
• Philippine investigators accuse ex-Wirecard COO of fraud, cybercrime (Source: France 24)
• UK promises tougher line on cybercrime (Source: Computer Weekly)
• Some banks could do more to protect customers from phishing scams, says Which? (source: Wales Online)
• The coming AI hackers (Source: Harvard Business Review)
• Hackers steal 26m account logins for Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Netflix and more (Source: Metro)
• This phishing email is pushing password-stealing malware to Windows PCs (Source: ZDNet)
• Researchers discover Stem Audio smart speaker eavesdropping risk (Source: The Daily Swig)

Stay safe, everyone!

The post A week in security (June 7 – June 13) appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

People worldwide use Facebook to connect with friends and family, and to engage in pointless debates with strangers over moderately amusing cat videos. But while some feel that the social media platform is an essential part of life, others find the data scandals and privacy issues disconcerting. For those who wish to take a break from Facebook either temporarily or permanently, instructions for deleting or deactivating your account are below.

Deleting your Facebook account

How to delete your Facebook account from a browser

Removing Facebook for good is easier than you think. Follow this link to the page that allows you to end your account permanently. Click Delete Account, enter your password, and your account is gone forever. But before you do, consider downloading a copy of the information you have stored on Facebook, including photos, videos, and more. Here is an official guide from Facebook that can help.

How to delete your Facebook account from the iPhone app

1. Start the Facebook app on your iPhone.
2. Tap the three-lined icon (hamburger menu).
3. Tap Settings & Privacy.
4. Tap Settings.
5. Tap Account Ownership and Control.
6. Tap Deactivation and Deletion.
7. Tap Delete Account.
8. Delete your Facebook app for good measure.

How to delete your Facebook account from the Android app

1. Start the Facebook app on your Android device.
2. Tap the three-lined icon (hamburger menu).
3. Tap Settings & Privacy.
4. Tap Settings.
5. Tap Account Ownership and Control.
6. Tap Deactivation and Deletion.
7. Tap Delete Account.
8. Delete your Facebook app for good measure.

The cons of deleting your Facebook account

Deleting your Facebook account can certainly feel liberating. You don’t have to worry about managing your privacy or consuming seemingly endless social media content. But rather than a permanent deletion, some people prefer to take a break from Facebook by deactivating their account for the following reasons:

• You won’t be able to access Facebook again unless you create a new account.
• It’s impossible to use Messenger without a Facebook account.
• Some accounts that you entered through Facebook Login may malfunction. You may need to contact those apps and websites or create new accounts.
• You’ll permanently lose your data unless you download a copy. 
• You’ll lose your app purchases, achievements, and more related to your Facebook login on Oculus.  

Can you undelete Facebook if you change your mind?

Facebook says that it needs up to 90 days from the start of the deletion request to remove everything you’ve posted permanently. It may even keep some data in backup storage for legal issues as part of its data policy. It also offers a 30-day grace period after you erase your account. Here is how to cancel your account deletion within 30 days:

1. Log in to your Facebook account.
2. Hit Cancel Deletion.

Deactivating your Facebook account

Deactivating your Facebook is a temporary measure. After you deactivate your account, your Facebook page, including your intro, photos, friends, and posts, is hidden. No one can send you friend requests either. However, your messages are still visible to their recipients. Here are some advantages of deactivating your Facebook instead of deleting it:

• Your photos, videos, and posts are hidden but not permanently deleted.
• Facebook Messenger is still fully accessible.
• You can still access accounts through Facebook Login.
• You can reactivate Facebook whenever you please by logging in.

How to deactivate your Facebook account from a browser

The same link that allows you to erase your account also allows you to deactivate your account. Hit Deactivate Account and then enter your password to lose access to Facebook temporarily. Alternatively, you can use the following steps:

1. Select Settings & Privacy from the drop-down menu on the top right.
2. Click Settings.
3. Click Your Facebook Information.
4. Click Deactivation and Deletion.
5. Select Deactivate Account and hit Continue to Account Deactivation.
6. Enter your password and deactivate your account.

How to deactivate your Facebook account from the iPhone app

1. Start the Facebook app on your iPhone.
2. Tap the three-lined icon (hamburger menu).
3. Tap Settings & Privacy.
4. Tap Settings.
5. Tap Account Ownership and Control.
6. Tap Deactivation and Deletion.
7. Tap Deactivate account.

How to deactivate your Facebook account from the Android app

1. Start the Facebook app on your Android device.
2. Tap the three-lined icon (hamburger menu).
3. Tap Settings & Privacy.
4. Tap Settings.
5. Tap Account Ownership and Control.
6. Tap Deactivation and Deletion.
7. Tap Deactivate Account.

Tips for using Facebook safely

We understand that some users don’t want to deactivate or delete Facebook, but still have safety concerns. There are steps you can take to better manage your privacy and security on Facebook. Here are some tips that may help:

• Set a long, unique password for your Facebook account. You can use a trusted password manager to make the task easier.
• Avoid oversharing information on Facebook. Threat actors can use it for social engineering.
• Be careful when accepting friend requests. Limit posts to trusted friends and not the public.
• Limit the audience of old posts on your Timeline by clicking General > Privacy > Your Activity > Limit Past Posts.  
• Stop Facebook from using your data to show you tailored ads by clicking General > Ads > Ad Settings.
• Manage third-party apps that have access to your data by clicking General > Apps and Websites.
• Beware of social media scams and be careful which links you click on Facebook or in Messenger.

The post How to deactivate or delete your Facebook account appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.