An Instagram data breach reportedly exposed the personal info of 17.5 million users As spotted by Malwarebytes, the alleged leak includes usernames, email addresses, phone numbers and more. If you received a bunch of password reset requests from Instagram recently, you're not alone. As reported by Malwarebytes, an antivirus software company, there was a data breach revealing the sensitive information of 17.5 million Instagram users. Malwarebytes added that the leak included Instagram usernames, physical addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and more. The company added that the data is available for sale on the dark web and can be abused by cybercriminals.

All 1.8 billion Gmail users have been issued a'red alert' over a scam that lets hackers gain access to accounts. The attack uses AI to craft deepfake robocalls and malicious emails capable of bypassing security filters. The combination works to convince victims their Gmail account has been compromised. Users receive a phone call that suspicious activity was detected in their account and are told an email is soon to follow with steps to rectify the issue. The email includes a fake website that looks identical to Google's, which prompts users to enter their login credentials.

Searching on Google might seem like one of the safest things to do online. But cybersecurity experts warn that there are some searches which could put you at serious risk of being hacked. Last week, it was revealed that cybercriminals had hijacked the Google results for'Are Bengal cats legal in Australia?' to infect cat-lovers' computers. Now, experts have revealed the seven other common words and phrases you should never Google. Using a technique called'SEO poisoning' criminals exploit Google's search results to lure unsuspecting victims into websites they control.

Around half of the traffic online comes from bots. So it is crucial to manage bots since both malicious and helpful bot exists on the Internet. In 2021, around $261M has been invested in best-of-breed bot management technology. Analysts have predicted that the bot management market is set to grow rapidly. In Forrester Analytics: Application Security Solutions Forecast, 2020 To 2025 (Global), Forrester predicts that the application security solutions market will grow from $4.7B in 2019 to $12.9B by 2025 and that bot management will overtake traditional Web Application Firewall (WAF) solutions.

Imagine getting to a courthouse and seeing paper signs stuck to the doors with the message "Systems down." What about police officers in the field unable to access information on laptops in their vehicles, or surgeries delayed in hospitals? That's what can happen to a city, police department, or hospital in a ransomware attack. Ransomware is malicious software that can encrypt or control computer systems. Criminals who launch these attacks can then refuse to return access until they get paid.

Mac computers are less secure than they used to be and more vulnerable to certain types of software threats than their Microsoft Windows counterparts. That's the assertion from a newly issued report on malware from cybersecurity company Malwarebytes. The report contradicts a long-held belief that Macs are more immune to such threats than Windows PCs. Malwarebytes conceded most of the Mac threats were not considered as malicious or dangerous as traditional malware. It detected only a single incident – targeting Coinbase and other cryptocurrency companies – that involved anything beyond tricking the user into downloading and opening something they shouldn't. "What we saw was a virtual landslide of adware and PUP (potentially unwanted programs) detections, far outpacing growth on the Windows side," the report said.

AI-enabled malware could soon be the newest weapon in the threat actors' arsenal, a recent report from Malwarebytes warned. Malwarebytes described AI-enabled malware and cyberattacks as threats that utilize machine learning and AI to find vulnerable systems, evade detection from security products and enhance social engineering techniques. While there are currently no examples of AI-enabled malware in the wild, the report said, it "would be better equipped to familiarize itself with its environment before it strikes," according to the report. "We are talking about how AI-enabled malware can be harder to detect," said Adam Kujawa, director of Malwarebytes Labs. "It could deliver more targeted malware, create better spearfishing campaigns, because it's able to collect big data from social media, and [create more convincing] fake news and clickbait."

Artificial intelligence (AI) is already playing a role in combatting malware and other threats. Through machine learning, AI can now do more than just add malware samples to security software. It can also detect future versions and similar variants of the same malware. But what if the very AI that helps organizations fight these threats was co-opted by cybercriminals? What if malware became smarter and tougher and almost undetectable through AI?

When Facebook announced at the end of September that it had suffered a data breach that ultimately affected 30 million accounts, it seemed, perhaps, like the work of sophisticated nation state hackers. But a new report from The Wall Street Journal suggests spammers as the culprit instead. That shouldn't make you feel that much better, though, given just how much damage criminals can do with the kind of information stolen from Facebook. It was, after all, a lot. The sophisticated daisy chain attack that the hackers pulled off garnered the names, phone numbers, and email of 15 million Facebook users.

Secure is a weekly column that dives into the rapidly escalating topic of cybersecurity. Regardless of how much money is poured into increasing cybersecurity, the situation doesn't seem to improve. Could machine learning that adapts to new methods be the solution? For some companies, such machine learning techniques go hand in hand with more traditional signature based detection and others employ behavioral learning to watch out for other, unspecified threats. For threat prevention company Cylance, however, machine learning is all it needs to offer what it claims is the most effective anti-malware solution available today.