Facebook has announced it will roll out a new option called Link History to mobile users around the world. What does that mean?

In what seems like yet another attempt to adapt its platform to prepare for new regulations, Facebook has started rolling out a new feature called Link History.

Link History allows users to view and re-visit links they have visited with their Facebook browsing activity.

Obviously Facebook will tell us that the new feature is for its users’ benefit, but we can see several ways in which this benefits Meta even more. The only positive for me is that it could be a handy option for finding that thing that you saw on Facebook that one time, but you can’t quite remember the details. This gets defeated partially by the fact that users that have Link History enabled report they were unable to see the Link History page at all when looking at Facebook on their laptop.

However, as Facebook tracking goes at least this is an option that you have some control over. On most, if not all, popular websites you’ll find Meta’s and other’s tracking pixels. With an ongoing battle against cookies and other trackers, this may be a new way for Facebook to track its user’s behavior.

With Link History, Facebook now has another separate place where it stores details about the websites you visit along with the settings to control that data. Settings that are, deliberately or not, hard to find and easy to misinterpret.

The company itself says:

> “When you allow link history, we may use your information to improve your ads across Meta technologies.”

Translated, this means that they will use the information to provide you with targeted ads.

Recently Meta got sued over coercing users to pay to stop tracking. Organizations concerned about our privacy say that by doing this, Meta has changed the user’s choices from “yes or no” to “pay or okay.”

Research in 2022 showed that in-app browsers inject JavaScript code into third party websites that cause potential security and privacy risks to the user. This resulted in a class-action complaint against Meta in San Francisco’s federal court, alleging the company built a secret workaround to Apple’s safeguards that protect iPhone users from tracking.

So this may be another attempt to follow users around on the web. Unlike on your desktop, clicking a link in Facebook, or Instagram, will open a special browser built into the app, rather than the default browser of the device.

For now, a limited number of Android and iPhone users will see this option appear in the Facebook Mobile Browser. But the company says it will roll out the option globally over time.

**How to turn link history on or off**

Link history is turned on by default so you will have to opt-out if you don’t want it.

1.  Tap any link inside the Facebook app to open Facebook’s Mobile Browser.
2.  Tap the three dots (more actions) in the bottom right, then tap **Go to Settings**.
3.  To turn link history on, tap the slider to on (blue) next to **Allow link history**, then tap **Allow** to confirm.
4.  To turn link history off, tap the slider to off (grey) next to **Allow link history**, then tap **Don’t allow** to confirm. 

**Note**: When you turn link history off, this will immediately clear your link history, and you will no longer be able to see any links you’ve visited. Facebook promises to delete the link history it’s created for you within 90 days.

**We don’t just report on privacy—we offer you the option to use it.**

Privacy risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep your online privacy yours by using Malwarebytes Privacy VPN.

 Facebook introduces another way to track you &#8211; Link History 

23andMe has responded in a letter to legal representatives of data breach victims that they were to blame themselves for re-using passwords

In a surprising move, in a letter to legal representatives of victims of the recent 23andMe data breach, the company has laid the blame at the feet of victims themselves.

23andMe even goes as far as to claim that this wasn’t a data breach at 23andMe at all. The reasoning:

> “… unauthorized actors managed to access certain user accounts in instances where users recycled their own login credentials—that is, users used the same usernames and passwords used on 23andMe.com as on other websites that had been subject to prior security breaches, and users negligently recycled and failed to update their passwords following these past security incidents, which are unrelated to 23andMe.”

In other words, it was their own fault since they re-used their passwords for services that were breached in the past. Accessing accounts on a website by using lists of usernames and passwords exposed on another is known as “credential stuffing”, and it’s both common and effective. It works because users often use the same password for multiple websites.

What 23andMe seems to have forgotten is that only 14,000 accounts were breached by credential stuffing. Afterwards, the attackers used those accounts to access a much larger trove of data via 23andMe’s feature called DNA Relatives which matches users with their genetic relatives.

So, in what was only made possible by 23andMe, customers who didn’t re-use their passwords and even had 2FA enabled still saw their data stolen. This resulted in the data of as many as seven million 23andMe customers being offered for sale on criminal forums.

It’s the second time the company has attempted to downplay the incident. In its first communication about the incident, 23andMe claimed the stolen data did not include genomic sequencing data.  Later, the company acknowledged that for a subset of these accounts, the stolen data might indeed contain health-related information based upon the user’s genetics.

The data in a file found by BleepingComputer contained information including 23andMe users’ account IDs, full names, sex, date of birth, DNA profiles, location, and region details.

As a result, at least four class action complaints were submitted in California seeking relief for the damage done by 23andMe’s failure to protect customer data. The lawsuits focus on different failures on 23andMe’s side to guard the safety of sensitive data, communicate appropriately about the incident, and monitor its network for abnormal activity.

In its defense, 23andMe reasons that customers re-used their passwords, gave permission to share data with **other users** on 23andMe’s platform, and that the medical information was non-substantive.

I put the emphasis on “other users” in order to point out a flaw in 23andMe’s reasoning—agreeing to share with other users is hardly the same as agreeing to share with a data thief. Without knowing the exact details of what happened, we feel that monitoring would indeed have raised alerts about abnormal activity and allowed them to stop the breach earlier. As it seems now, 23andMe only became aware of a problem when someone offered the data up for sale.

Whatever the judges may decide in the end, it’s looking like 23andMe has shown a lot of disregard for its customers’ privacy and the level of sensitivity of the data.

**Data breach**

There are some actions you can take if you are, or suspect you may have been, the victim of a data breach.

*   **Check the vendor’s advice.** Every breach is different, so check with the vendor to find out what’s happened, and follow any specific advice they offer.
*   **Change your password.** You can make a stolen password useless to thieves by changing it. Choose a strong password that you don’t use for anything else. Better yet, let a password manager choose one for you.
*   **Enable two-factor authentication (2FA).** If you can, use a FIDO2-compliant hardware key, laptop or phone as your second factor. Some forms of two-factor authentication (2FA) can be phished just as easily as a password. 2FA that relies on a FIDO2 device can’t be phished.
*   **Watch out for fake vendors.** The thieves may contact you posing as the vendor. Check the vendor website to see if they are contacting victims, and verify any contacts using a different communication channel.
*   **Take your time.** Phishing attacks often impersonate people or brands you know, and use themes that require urgent attention, such as missed deliveries, account suspensions, and security alerts.
*   **Set up identity monitoring.**Identity monitoring alerts you if your personal information is found being traded illegally online, and helps you recover after.

**We don’t just report on threats – we help safeguard your entire digital identit**y

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Protect your—and your family’s—personal information by using Malwarebytes Identity Theft Protection.

 23andMe blames &#8220;negligent&#8221; breach victims, says it’s their own fault 

Microsoft decided to disable App Installer links by default after it noticed several access brokers using the handler to spread malware.

In what might be conceived as one of Microsoft’s new year resolutions, it has disclosed that it’s turned off the ms-appinstaller protocol handler by default. The change is designed to make installing apps easier, but it also makes installing malware easier.

Typically, an app needs to be on a device before it can be installed, which normally means that a user has to download it first. To save time and disk space, Microsoft introduced the ability to install applications directly from a web server, without downloading it first. It relies on links that use the ms-appinstaller URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) scheme, which are handled by App Installer rather than a web browser. When software is installed this way users don’t see SmartScreen or browser warnings about downloaded executables.

Microsoft reports that it observed malicious activity where criminals tricked users into installing malware using ms-appinstaller links, allowing them to bypass mechanisms like SmartScreen that are designed to keep users safe.

Several cybercriminals were found selling a malware kit as a service that abuses the MSIX file format and ms-appinstaller protocol handler. They distribute signed malicious MSIX application packages using websites accessed through malicious advertisements for legitimate popular software.

The abuse was first noticed in November 2023. Several known groups were using it in different scenarios, all of which lead users to landing pages that mimicked legitimate software vendor sites, where the malware was available via ms-appinstaller links or malicious MSIX installers.

Cybercriminals used four different techniques to spread their malware:

*   **SEO poisoning**. Users who searched for legitimate software applications on Bing or Google were presented with search results for malicious landing pages.
*   **Malvertising**. Users searching for software were directed to malicious landing pages via search ads mimicking legitimate vendors.
*   **Teams messages**. Users were sent messages over Microsoft teams linking to malicious landing pages.
*   **Social engineering**. Microsoft showed an example of an employement opportunity site that tricked visitors into installing malware by saying it was a new PDF reader version that was required in order to view a document.

The criminal groups identified as using these methods were all initial access brokers (IABs). IABs are individuals or organizations that specialise in providing ransomware gangs with access to company networks.

Malicious installers can be spotted by looking at the publisher information in the ms-appinstaller prompt.

Image courtesy of Microsoft

To manually disable ms-appinstaller on your network, set the Group Policy EnableMSAppInstallerProtocol to disabled.

**How to avoid ransomware**

*   **Block common forms of entry.** Create a plan for patching vulnerabilities in internet-facing systems quickly; and disable or harden remote access like RDP and VPNs.
*   **Prevent intrusions.** Stop threats early before they can even infiltrate or infect your endpoints. Use endpoint security software that can prevent exploits and malware used to deliver ransomware.
*   **Detect intrusions.** Make it harder for intruders to operate inside your organization by segmenting networks and assigning access rights prudently. Use EDR or MDR to detect unusual activity before an attack occurs.
*   **Stop malicious encryption.** Deploy Endpoint Detection and Response software like ThreatDown EDR that uses multiple different detection techniques to identify ransomware, and ransomware rollback to restore damaged system files.
*   **Create offsite, offline backups.** Keep backups offsite and offline, beyond the reach of attackers. Test them regularly to make sure you can restore essential business functions swiftly.
*   **Don’t get attacked twice.** Once you’ve isolated the outbreak and stopped the first attack, you must remove every trace of the attackers, their malware, their tools, and their methods of entry, to avoid being attacked again.

Our business solutions remove all remnants of ransomware and prevent you from getting reinfected. Want to learn more about how we can help protect your business? Get a free trial below.

 Microsoft disables ms-appinstaller after malicious use 

Europols’s spotlight report ‘Online fraud schemes: a web of deceit’, identifies investment fraud as a major threat.

Europols’s spotlight report ‘Online fraud schemes: a web of deceit’, looks into online fraud schemes—a major crime threat in the EU and beyond—and one of the report’s primary themes is investment fraud.

But first I want to share some more remarkable conclusions from the report:

*   Charity scams that prey on concern about international conflicts and natural disasters are becoming more prevalent.
*   Fraudsters are evolving their techniques and increasingly re-target fraud victims.
*   The social engineering techniques used by fraudsters are growing in complexity.
*   Logical attacks on ATMs still occur in the EU, with criminal networks testing ways to exploit new vulnerabilities.
*   It also notes the increasing use of “shimming” attacks where an attacker intercepts communication between a card and card reader’s chip interface, and then relays it to another device.

Investment fraud and business e-mail compromise (BEC) fraud remain the most prolific online fraud schemes. Criminal networks involved in these schemes pose a high threat, given their level of organization and resilience. This conclusion matches that of the 2022 Internet Crime Report produced by the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), which attributed almost $84 million dollars to BEC and over $75 million to investment fraud.

Europol found that criminal networks involved on investment fraud show great levels of adaptability by constantly refining and improving their methods and leveraging new investment products that are in high demand.

Preying on one of the most basic human flaws, investment scams and other get-rich-quick schemes are making up an ever larger portion of the online scammers’ cake. And the scammers are very much aware that a large amount of money can be made, and they are more than willing to invest in the tools that make their fraud look more trustworthy.

Investment fraudsters look for victims on social media platforms. But they also use e-mail, advertisements on websites, and instant messaging to trigger a potential victim’s interest. When a victim starts to ask questions, the criminals come up with reasons why funds can’t be withdrawn, such as fees or state taxes. To top things off, they will tell the victim they need more money in order to release their funds.

Criminal networks involved in investment fraud make extensive use of call centers. These call centers operate in different languages and the operators are not necessarily aware of the criminal activities behind the work they do.

One of the preferred tactics of investment fraud is the pyramid scheme, where victims are encouraged to recruit more participants. But another method resembles that of romance scams where the criminal builds a relationship with the victim.

Popular investment opportunities offered by the criminals include stocks, cryptocurrencies, and pension funds. The most reported investment fraud products in the EU are cryptocurrencies. The IC3 report mentions for example:

> “Cryptocurrency support impersonators: Increasingly, crypto owners are falling victim to scammers impersonating support or security from cryptocurrency exchanges. Owners are alerted of an issue with their crypto wallet and are convinced to either give access to their crypto wallet or transfer the contents of their wallet to another wallet to “safeguard” the contents.”

To re-target victims the criminals pose as lawyers or members of law enforcement claiming they can help victims to get the lost money back.

**Recognizing investment scams**

We are by no means financial experts, but we have seen too many good people lose money on Ponzi schemes, rug-pulls, and fake Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), so we feel it is our job to keep you safe, and warn against these types of online investment frauds.

We realize that it is hard to tell investment scams apart from some of the more legitimate offers that are thrown at us in commercials every day. But we do want to hand you a few easy-to-follow rules to keep your money in your own hands:

*   Treat calls, texts, mails, and other advice out of the blue with extreme caution.
*   Don’t judge a book by its cover. Investment scams can often afford to look good.
*   Make sure to read the fine print. Understand what you are getting into.
*   If it sounds too good to be true, it usually isn’t true.
*   Very high returns usually come with extremely high risks. Your money may sometimes even be better off in a casino.
*   When you are urged to act now, remember that while _some_ legitimate opportunities want you to hurry, scammers _always_ want you to hurry.
*   Don’t get turned into a money mule or money launderer.

Still not convinced? I have this piece of land on Venus, that I would be willing to part with for the right price. But you will need to act fast.

**We don’t just report on threats—we remove them**

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your devices by downloading Malwarebytes today.

 Investment fraud a serious money maker for criminals 

Researchers have found a flaw in the Black Basta ransomware encryption algorithm, allowing decryption of some files.

Researchers at SRLabs have made a decryption tool available for Black Basta ransomware, allowing some victims of the group to decrypt files without paying a ransom. The decryptor works for victims whose files were encrypted between November 2022 and December 2023.

The decryptor, called Black Basta Buster, exploits a flaw in the encryption algorithm used in older versions of the Black Basta group’s ransomware. The bug was fixed by the group in mid-December, probably as a result of the discovery, so it won’t work on the most recent attacks.

During the period the decryptor works for, the gang was responsible for 153 known attacks (attacks where the victim did not pay a ransom and appeared on Black Basta’s dark web data leak site).

BlackBasta first appeared in April 2022 and is a regular entry in the top 5 most active ransomware groups in our monthly ransomware reviews. Among others, the ransomware has been used to attack organizations like Canada’s Yellow Pages and German arms producer Rheinmetall.

Known Black Basta attacks, December 2022 – November 2023

The decryptor comes with a few restrictions due to the nature of the flaw it exploits.

On its Github page for Black Basta Buster, SRLabs explains:

> “Files below the size of 5000 bytes cannot be recovered. For files between 5000 bytes and 1GB in size, full recovery is possible. For files larger than 1GB, the first 5000 bytes will be lost but the remainder can be recovered.”

**So, how do you recover your files?**

The decryptor only works on one file at a time and your best chances are on virtual machine disks. According to SRLabs, virtualised disk images “have a high chance of being recovered, because the actual partitions and their filesystems tend to start later. So the ransomware destroyed the MBR or GPT partition table, but tools such as “testdisk” can often recover or re-generate those.”

Files can be recovered if the plaintext of 64 encrypted bytes is known. The easiest way to establish this is to find a sequence of zeroes in the file. It may be possible to decrypt large files that don’t contain large enough chunks of zero-bytes, but you will need an unencrypted version of the target file. In many cases this will defeat the purpose of decryption, but there may be are edge cases where you have a previous version of the target file that meets the requirements, but does not hold the information you want to decrypt.

On the Github pages you will find several python scripts to help you with the recovery of the encrypted files. Interested parties can find instructions on how to use them in the readme file. This is not an easy process and certainly not something we would recommend using for every encrypted file. Each victim will need to weigh up how useful it is to them.

BleepingComputer reports that some digital forensics companies may have been aware of the flaw and have been assisting clients for months in recovering important files, similar to the way the FBI offered decryption keys to Hive victims after penetrating its computer networks. They may have done the same for ALPHV victims, but this is unconfirmed.

Obviously, it’s better to avoid malicious encryption if you can, so here are some pointers.

**How to avoid ransomware**

*   **Block common forms of entry.** Create a plan for patching vulnerabilities in internet-facing systems quickly; and disable or harden remote access like RDP and VPNs.
*   **Prevent intrusions.** Stop threats early before they can even infiltrate or infect your endpoints. Use endpoint security software that can prevent exploits and malware used to deliver ransomware.
*   **Detect intrusions.** Make it harder for intruders to operate inside your organization by segmenting networks and assigning access rights prudently. Use EDR or MDR to detect unusual activity before an attack occurs.
*   **Stop malicious encryption.** Deploy Endpoint Detection and Response software like ThreatDown EDR that uses multiple different detection techniques to identify ransomware, and ransomware rollback to restore damaged system files.
*   **Create offsite, offline backups.** Keep backups offsite and offline, beyond the reach of attackers. Test them regularly to make sure you can restore essential business functions swiftly.
*   **Don’t get attacked twice.** Once you’ve isolated the outbreak and stopped the first attack, you must remove every trace of the attackers, their malware, their tools, and their methods of entry, to avoid being attacked again.

Our business solutions remove all remnants of ransomware and prevent you from getting reinfected. Want to learn more about how we can help protect your business? Get a free trial below.

 Oops! Black Basta ransomware flubs encryption 

This week on the Lock and Code podcast, we speak with Suzanne Bernstein about  DNA privacy and protecting data from hackers.

_This week on the Lock and Code podcast…_

Hackers want to know everything about you: Your credit card number, your ID and passport info, and now, your DNA.

On October 1 2023, on a hacking website called BreachForums, a group of cybercriminals claimed that they had stolen—and would soon sell—individual profiles for users of the genetic testing company 23andMe.

23andMe offers direct-to-consumer genetic testing kits that provide customers with different types of information, including potential indicators of health risks along with reports that detail a person’s heritage, their DNA’s geographical footprint, and, if they opt in, a service to connect with relatives who have also used 23andMe’s DNA testing service.

The data that 23andMe and similar companies collect is often seen as some of the most sensitive, personal information that exists about people today, as it can expose health risks, family connections, and medical diagnoses. This type of data has also been used to exonerate the wrongfully accused and to finally apprehend long-hidden fugitives.

In 2018, deputies from the Sacramento County Sherriff’s department arrested a serial killer known as the Golden State Killer, after investigators took DNA left at decades-old crime scenes and compared it to a then-growing database of genetic information, finding the Golden State Killer’s relatives, and then zeroing in from there.

And while the story of the Golden State Killer involves the use of genetic data to _solve_ a crime, what happens when genetic data is _part_ of a crime? What law enforcement agency, if any, gets involved? What rights do consumers have? And how likely is it that consumer complaints will get heard?

For customers of 23andMe, those are particularly relevant questions. After an internal investigation from the genetic testing company, it was revealed that 6.9 million customers were impacted by the October breach.

What do they do?

Today on the Lock and Code podcast with host David Ruiz, we speak with Suzanne Bernstein, a law fellow at Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) to understand the value of genetic data, the risks of its exposure, and the unfortunate reality that consumers face in having to protect themselves while also trusting private corporations to secure their most sensitive data.

“We live our lives online and there’s certain risks that are unavoidable or that are manageable relative to the benefit that a consumer might get from it,” Bernstein said.

> “Ultimately, while it’s not the consumer’s responsibility, an informed consumer can make the best choices about what kind of risks to take online.”

Tune in today to listen to the full conversation.

_Show notes and credits:_

Intro Music: “Spellbound” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)  
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License  
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/  
Outro Music: “Good God” by Wowa (unminus.com)

**We don’t just report on threats—we remove them**

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your devices by downloading Malwarebytes today.

 DNA data deserves better, with Suzanne Bernstein: Lock and Code S05E01 

A list of topics we covered in the week of December 25 to December 31 of 2023

December 29, 2023 - Ransomware gangs don't always win, and when they don't, it feels pretty great.

December 27, 2023 - We look at the three most common methods that ransomware groups use to avoid being detected.

December 26, 2023 - Cybercriminals now have AI to write their phishing emails, which might well improve their success rates. Here's what to watch out for.

December 25, 2023 - A list of topics we covered in the week of December 18 to December 24 of 2023

December 21, 2023 - Xfinity has notified customers that due to exploitation of the Citrix Bleed vulnerability, attackers were able to access personal data of almost 36 million customers.

 A week in security (December 25 &#8211; December 31) 

Ransomware gangs don't always win, and when they don't, it feels pretty great.

Ransomware gangs care about one thing: Stealing money.

Over time, their craven, cybercriminal efforts have toppled businesses, destabilized hospitals, and ruined lives. Worst of all, they show no sign of slowing down, and their extortion attempts—which no longer focus on ransomware delivery alone—are getting bolder, meaner, and uglier.

As Allan Liska, intelligence analyst at Recorded Future, recently said on the Lock and Code podcast, times have changed.

“There are no protections anymore,” Liska said. “For a while, some ransomware actors \[said\] ‘No, we won’t go after hospitals, or we won’t do this, or we won’t do that.’ Those protections all seem to have flown out the window, and they’ll go after anything and anyone that will make them money. It doesn’t matter how small they are or how big they are.”

Considering all this, it’s pretty damn nice to see ransomware gangs lose.

As the holidays put people closer to family and friends (and ransomware gangs closer to attacking—seriously, watch out for that), Malwarebytes Labs is sharing some of the brighter moments of 2023 in which ransomware gangs didn’t get what they wanted. And while some of these “victories” still include an unfortunate ransomware deployment, they all have the same result for the ransomware gangs involved: A lost payday.

Here are four times ransomware gangs failed in 2023.

**1\. The Royal Mail ransomware attack**

On January 11, the Royal Mail service in the United Kingdom publicly announced that it had suffered a “severe service disruption” due to a cyber incident. Until the incident was cleared, customers were asked to not send packages or letters overseas.

Within days of Royal Mail’s announcement, news outlets began linking the alleged cyber incident to the ransomware gang LockBit, which, oddly, denied the attack.

But underneath the public reporting, a fascinating negotiation between the cybercriminal gang and its victim would play out for weeks.

On January 12, a representative for Royal Mail makes contact with a cybercriminal for LockBit on a chat hosted in the dark web. The Royal Mail rep is direct, says they work in IT, and, curiously, has a deft command of flattery, referring to LockBit’s work as “pen-testing.” More impressively, the Royal Mail rep immediately takes control of the conversation by implementing one of the most effective strategies in ransomware negotiations: Stalling for time.

Despite LockBit’s constant pushes for urgency, the Royal Mail rep grinds the conversation to a halt, at one point raising a thus-unheard-of concern with LockBit’s decryption key: Yes, it may work on a few sample files, but will it work on _really big files_?

“My management have heard that your decryptor might not work on large files,” the Royal Mail rep says, deploying yet another stunning negotiation tactic by trying to invoke a manager to deliver difficult news.

After days of back and forth, the LockBit rep returns to the most important issue—payment. LockBit had asked for an astounding $80 million ransom, and, after enough delay, it is time to talk money.

But again, Royal Mail’s rep turns the tables. Yes, the Royal Mail service could possibly make a payment that large, but there is only one problem, the representative says: We’re not Royal Mail.

Shock. Horror. Utter embarrassment. According to the Royal Mail rep, LockBit had attacked _the wrong Royal Mail_, instead deploying ransomware for a Royal Mail subsidiary, where a more reasonable starting point in ransomware demands should be about $4 million.

At this point, the LockBit rep accepts defeat.

“You are a very clever negotiator,” the LockBit agent says. “I appreciate your experience in stalling and bamboozling.”

We’ll take that as a win.

**2\. MGM bounces back 10 days after ransomware siege**

In Sin City, the house always wins, even when it loses $100 million.

In the late hours of September 11, customers and hotel guests at the Las Vegas resort MGM Grand noticed something was off—literally. On TikTok, a user shared a video showing rows of digital gambling machines with blank, non-functional screens. On the MGM Grand website, online reservations had become inaccessible. And for some unfortunate guests, even their room keys didn’t work.

“Digital keys weren’t working,” said the same TikTok user who shared video of the hotel’s broken digital slot machines. “Had to get physical keys printed.”

MGM Grand had been hit by a ransomware gang named Scattered Spider, a group of cybercriminals that, it would turn out, had already found some luck on the Las Vegas strip.  

On September 14, Caesar’s Entertainment reported in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it, too, had suffered a cyber breach, and according to reporting from CNBC, it received a $30 million ransom demand, which it then negotiated down by about 50 percent.

MGM Grand, however, chose a different path. Across 10 hectic days—which included equipping hotel elevators with handheld, two-way radios in case guests encountered any problems—the MGM Grand became operational once more, all without paying a ransom.  

MGM Resorts International later provided a sober estimation of the cost of the recovery effort, expecting a $100 million loss to its third-quarter results, and valid criticism about the hotelier’s security vulnerabilities remain, but in the land of vice and greed, stopping a ransomware gang is a feat that few have accomplished.

**3\. Qakbot shot down**

Duck hunting season came early this year.

In August, an international investigation led by US law enforcement agencies nearly wiped Qakbot from the internet, shutting down a large part of the botnet’s infrastructure, retrieving $8.6 million in cryptocurrency, and removing the botnet’s associated Qakbot malware from hundreds of thousands of infected machines around the world.

When infected with the Qakbot malware, computers would join the Qakbot “botnet,” an army of devices that could be controlled by a cybercriminal gang and pilfered for login credentials. The infected machines would also be susceptible to additional malware, and in the case of Qakbot-infected computers, that additional malware was often the ransomware variant called Black Basta.

Because of this enormous reach, Black Basta consistently appeared in Malwarebytes’ monthly Ransomware Reviews that record the most active ransomware variants across publicly-recorded attacks.

In April, Black Basta was responsible for at least 40 attacks. In September, just one month after Qakbot’s announced takedown, that number dropped to six.

**4\. ALPHV tattles on its victim to little success**

A new wrinkle about modern ransomware attacks is that some of them don’t involve any ransomware at all.

That’s because, years ago, ransomware gangs learned that their malware of choice wasn’t the sole reason that victims paid ransoms. Rather, the ransomware that was deployed was just a digital representation of a highly effective, criminal lever: Extortion.

Since at least 2020, ransomware gangs have implemented a “double-extortion” technique against victims, stealing an organization’s files and threatening to publish them online before also deploying ransomware to encrypt the original copies left behind. More recently, however, ransomware gangs have resorted to just stealing a victim’s data without detonating any ransomware afterwards. The State of Maine, for instance, likely suffered such an attack this year in a data breach that impacted 1.3 million people.

But in November, the ransomware gang ALPHV, also known as BlackCat, tried something different.

Earlier in the month, ALPHV attacked the company MeridianLink. After a few days, MeridianLink showed no sign of paying the ransom, so ALPHV upped the pressure by reporting MeridianLink to, of all places, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

To hear ALPHV tell it, MeridianLink was required to report ALPHV’s attack to the SEC because of newly-announced rules from the federal agency that mandate the reporting of any “material cybersecurity incident” within four days.

“It has come to our attention that MeridianLink, in light of a significant breach compromising customer data and operational information, has failed to file the requisite disclosure under Item 1.05 of Form 8-K within the stipulated four business days, as mandated by the new SEC rules,” ALPHV allegedly wrote in their complaint to the SEC.

MeridianLink, however, was unimpressed. After confirming “a” cybersecurity incident, a spokesperson with the company downplayed its severity.

“Based on our investigation to date, we have identified no evidence of unauthorized access to our production platforms, and the incident has caused minimal business interruption,” the MeridianLink spokesperson said. Further, the rules cited by ALPHV were not even in effect, yet, so noncompliance would be impossible.

To date, MeridianLink has not reportedly paid the ransom. More importantly, ALPHV may have learned something the rest of the world already knows: Criminal tactics only gain sympathy within criminal enterprises. Next time, complain to your coworkers, not the federal government.  

**How to avoid ransomware**

*   **Block common forms of entry.** Create a plan for patching vulnerabilities in internet-facing systems quickly; and disable or harden remote access like RDP and VPNs.
*   **Prevent intrusions.** Stop threats early before they can even infiltrate or infect your endpoints. Use endpoint security software that can prevent exploits and malware used to deliver ransomware.
*   **Detect intrusions.** Make it harder for intruders to operate inside your organization by segmenting networks and assigning access rights prudently. Use EDR or MDR to detect unusual activity before an attack occurs.
*   **Stop malicious encryption.** Deploy Endpoint Detection and Response software like ThreatDown EDR that uses multiple different detection techniques to identify ransomware, and ransomware rollback to restore damaged system files.
*   **Create offsite, offline backups.** Keep backups offsite and offline, beyond the reach of attackers. Test them regularly to make sure you can restore essential business functions swiftly.
*   **Don’t get attacked twice.** Once you’ve isolated the outbreak and stopped the first attack, you must remove every trace of the attackers, their malware, their tools, and their methods of entry, to avoid being attacked again.

 The top 4 ransomware gang failures of 2023 

Online scams abound every day, but these four scams from 2023 were particularly devious.

In 2023, the public primarily confronted two varieties of online scams: the technical and the topical.

Technical scams abuse legitimate aspects of modern internet infrastructure to lead users to illegitimate or compromised sites. A team of hackers can, say, boost their own info-stealing websites through Google search results, providing a veneer of authenticity to their malicious intent. These scams can involve vast criminal segmentation and coordination between malware developers, code writers, and hackers who sometimes also infect legitimate websites with dangerous tools.

Topical scams, on the other hand, are simpler. By leveraging major news events or luring users with too-good-to-be-true deals, cybercriminals trick victims into giving away their vital credit card information through cyberspace.

Both are dangerous, both are effective, and both had their fair share of sneaky examples this year.

With your holiday shopping over (or, we hope it’s over, as it’s a bit late now for gifts), we at Malwarebytes Labs wanted to look back on four of the sneakiest online scams we saw last year.

****Forged in fire, fraud on Facebook****

In November, an insulated tumbler made by the drinkware company Stanley allegedly survived a roaring fire that sadly destroyed a woman’s car. The car owner, Danielle Marie Lettering, posted a video on TikTok that showed a Stanley tumbler—merely singed—inside a wrecked Kia.

“Everybody is so concerned if the Stanley spills but what else,” Lettering said in the video she posted. “It was in a fire yesterday and it still has ice in it.”

Lettering’s TikTok video has more than 90 million views and a wealth of comments about first-time interest in Stanley’s products.

And right on time, just weeks later, Malwarebytes Labs spotted a fraudulent Facebook ad—posing as a legitimate sale from Dick’s Sporting Goods—selling the now-storied Stanley Quencher cup for just $19, a steal compared to Amazon listings near $45.

Users who clicked on the ad were not taken to the legitimate website for Dick’s Sporting Goods, but instead routed to a website where the payment processor was registered in Hong Kong.

Sprung just before Black Friday, this scam had it all—the urgency of an annual mega-shopping event, the name of a recognized and trusted online retailer, and the allure of a once-benign product now launched into viral celebrity.

****WoofLocker sends victims into a redirection labyrinth****

Tech support scams often follow a similar plot: Cybercriminals will place malicious ads online that label a bogus phone number for everyday users who are experiencing common tech problems. When those users look up their tech troubles online, they’ll see results that display the scammers’ phone number, fooling them into calling what they think is a legitimate helpline, only to be led through a series of social engineering tricks to eventually hand over their money.

But the tech support scam held up by “Wooflocker” is different.

Wooflocker does not rely on malicious advertising (also known as malvertising). Wooflocker only ensnares victims who, of their own accord, visit any of several compromised websites.

With every visit to a compromised website, a user is surreptitiously “fingerprinted”—if their IP address, computer environment, and cyber-defenses (or lack thereof) are all preferable to the hackers behind Wooflocker, then those website visitors are redirected to another domain with a URL that is created then and there by Wooflocker’s hacking scripts.

Malwarebytes Labs first spotted Wooflocker in 2020, and even then, we learned that the cybercriminals behind it had likely been building out their web traffic redirection machine since 2017. But in the years since we last checked in, Wooflocker has become more sophisticated. The current iteration of Wooflocker now relies on web hosting services in Bulgaria and Ukraine, which could potentially provide added protection against any takedown efforts.

****The “logout king”** gets pinned**

In March, the reporting outlet ProPublica revealed that, after months of investigation, it had likely tracked down one of the most notorious online scammers—the self-proclaimed “log-out king,” also known as OBN Brandon.

OBN Brandon’s trick is almost always the same. He reports accounts of growing Instagram influencers to the customer service department of Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, which also owns Instagram. Once he wrongfully enacts a ban on the account, OBN Brandon reaches out to the person behind the account and says he can bring it back—for a price.

As to _how_ OBN Brandon convinces Meta’s customer support to take down an account, there are multiple tactics. According to ProPublica:

“In some cases OBN hacks into accounts to post offensive content. In others, he creates duplicate accounts in his targets’ names, then reports the original accounts as imposters so they’ll be barred for violating Meta’s ban on account impersonation. In addition, OBN has posed as a Meta employee to persuade at least one target to pay him to restore her account.”

Once a simple image-sharing tool, Instagram has now ballooned into a business platform for countless influencers who take promotional offers from larger companies to be featured in posts and Reels—which are short-form videos on the app. Similarly, many small businesses and entrepreneurs use the platform to self-promote and connect users to their products and services.

One OBN victim that ProPublica spoke to claimed that, before his account was targeted, he had been making between $15,000 and $20,000 a month simply from his Instagram account.

“People pay me all the time to post promos for music, crypto,” the individual told ProPublica. “I can make five, 10 grand by accident if I needed to. … The money’s crazy.”

In its investigation, ProPublica identified a 20-year-old Nevada man as a likely operator or affiliate behind OBN Brandon. Once the outlet gave more details to Meta, Meta sent a cease-and-desist order to the man, also banning him from the platform.

****In their villain era****

For years, Taylor Swift fans were starving.

Not since 2018 had the most recent TIME Person of the Year produced a full-fledged world circuit tour. But in 2023, that changed, when Swift began her “Eras” tour, a globe-spanning celebration of her past albums that, on stage, delighted audiences for three-and-a-half hours every night, no matter the weather.

Still in production, Swift’s “Eras” tour has already brought in literal billions for the pop star goddess, according to one Washington Post estimate.

But the tour has also brought in a significant payday for ticket scammers.

In June, just a few months into the start of the “Eras” tour, Attorney General Dana Nessel for the state of Michigan issued a warning to Swift fans in her state.

“Michigan residents who are defrauded by online ticket scammers should not just shake it off,” said Nessel. “We know these scams all too well. If you believe you were taken advantage of, filing a complaint with my office is better than revenge.”

According to Malwarebytes Labs’ own reporting at the time, scams that preyed on the Eras tour were popping up all across the United States:

“Other locations for the tour are trying to get ahead of the scam curve, issuing their own warnings ahead of events where possible. For example, Cincinnati has highlighted tales of woe related to fake ticket sales on Facebook. Detroit flagged fake ticket sales on Instagram. CBC covered multiple fake sale attempts cheating folks in Canada out of significant chunks of money. Elsewhere, teens have lost out on $1,200 thanks to Craigslist scammers.”

With many, many, many more shows scheduled (the latest of which is in December 2024), stay alert.

**We don’t just report on threats—we remove them**

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your devices by downloading Malwarebytes today.

 4 sneaky scams from 2023 

We look at the three most common methods that ransomware groups use to avoid being detected.

An often heard remark is that when your security solution notices a ransomware attack, it’s already too late. There’s a lot of truth in that, if you consider the encryption process to be the ransomware attack. However, these days encryption is just a part of many ransomware attacks.

Some of the cybercriminals we conveniently call ransomware groups have even completely stopped using the encryption process because it’s too “noisy.” Any AI based solution that is worth the electrons used to create it, will notice the activities on a system associated with encryption and the deletion of backups.

In the first days of ransomware, the cybercriminals sent you an email, hoping you would open an attachment or click a link to infect your system with malware. But malware has only a short time-span during which it can hope to stay undetected. Widespread malware is usually just one update away from detection.

So, to hide their presence, many of these gangs have resorted to a lot more silent operations. Consider this typical attack flow:

1.  Initial access is gained by exploiting vulnerabilities on software or hardware found in the target’s environment.
2.  With valid credentials gained by the vulnerability exploitation, phishing, or password attacks, the criminals get access to an internet exposed service, where they can set up some foothold to provide them with command and control options.
3.  From here they can start lateral movement across the target’s network and find ways to raise their permissions.
4.  The next step is often called data exfiltration, which is nothing more than copying interesting looking files to a location under their control where the criminals can have a good look at them.

As you can see, there was no malware involved in these steps. Every single step can be done by using software that is already present. The lateral movement is often done by deploying built-in tools like PowerShell, PsExec, or Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI).

We call this technique Living-off-the-Land (LOTL). LOTL attacks are performed by mimicking normal behavior, and make it extremely difficult for IT teams and security solutions to detect any signs of malicious activity.

Another way to avoid being detected is using fileless malware. Fileless malware is intended to be memory resident only, ideally leaving no trace after its execution. So, the malicious payload exists only in the computer’s memory, which means nothing is ever written directly to the hard drive. As a rule, if malware authors can’t avoid detection by security vendors, they at least want to delay it for as long as possible. This made fileless malware a step forward in the arms race between malware and security products.

Another, very different method to avoid detection is to disable the resident security software before the actual attack is launched. One way to achieve this, which we have seen this year, is by using signed drivers. The drivers can be deployed only when the attacker has already gained administrative privileges on compromised systems. Drivers are loaded early in the boot process of a system and can therefore interfere with subsequently loaded programs.

The most common type of attacks that uses drivers is the “bring your own vulnerable driver” (BYOVD) approach, in which the attackers use a driver from a legitimate software publisher that has known and exploitable security vulnerabilities. Since the driver is legitimate, it will bypass security checks and allow the attacker to then exploit it once it has been installed on the system.

However, there’s also been abuse of several developer program accounts engaged in submitting malicious drivers to obtain a Microsoft signature. Signatures from a trustworthy software publisher make it more likely the driver will get into Windows without interference from the security software.

Many anti-malware solutions, including Malwarebytes, have anti-tampering protection in place, so finding methods to disable the protection is a big deal for malware authors.

Finding signs of malicious activity that are designed to stay under the radar is a job for specialists, which is why many organizations are looking for Managed Detection & Response (MDR) services.

Our business solutions remove all remnants of ransomware and prevent you from getting reinfected. Want to learn more about how we can help protect your business? Get a free trial below.

Source

Malwarebytes