Bondu’s AI plush toy exposed a web console that let anyone with a Gmail account read about 50,000 private chats between children and their cuddly toys.

Bondu’s toy is marketed as:

“A soft, cuddly toy powered by AI that can chat, teach, and play with your child.”

What it doesn’t say is that anyone with a Gmail account could read the transcripts from virtually every child who used a Bondu toy. Without any actual hacking, simply by logging in with an arbitrary Google account, two researchers found themselves looking at children’s private conversations.

What Bondu has to say about safety does not mention security or privacy:

“Bondu’s safety and behavior systems were built over 18 months of beta testing with thousands of families. Thanks to rigorous review processes and continuous monitoring, we did not receive a single report of unsafe or inappropriate behavior from Bondu throughout the entire beta period.”

Bondu’s emphasis on successful beta testing is understandable. Remember the AI teddy bear marketed by FoloToy that quickly veered from friendly chat into sexual topics and unsafe household advice?

The researchers were stunned to find the company’s public-facing web console allowed anyone to log in with their Google account. The chat logs between children and their plushies revealed names, birth dates, family details, and intimate conversations. The only conversations not available were those manually deleted by parents or company staff.

Potentially, these chat logs could been a burglar’s or kidnapper’s dream, offering insight into household routines and upcoming events.

Bondu took the console offline within minutes of disclosure, then relaunched it with authentication. The CEO said fixes were completed within hours, they saw “no evidence” of other access, and they brought in a security firm and added monitoring.

In the past, we’ve pointed out that AI-powered stuffed animals may not be a good alternative for screen time. Critics warn that when a toy uses personalized, human‑like dialogue, it risks replacing aspects of the caregiver–child relationship. One Curio founder even described their plushie as a stimulating sidekick so parents, “don’t feel like you have to be sitting them in front of a TV.”

So, whether it’s a foul-mouth, a blabbermouth, or just a feeble replacement for real friends, we don’t encourage using Artificial Intelligence in children’s toys—unless we ever make it to a point where they can be used safely, privately, securely, and even then, sparingly.

How to stay safe

AI-powered toys are coming, like it or not. But being the first or the cutest doesn’t mean they’re safe. The lesson history keeps teaching us is this: oversight, privacy, and a healthy dose of skepticism are the best defenses parents have.

• Turn off what you can. If the toy has a removable AI component, consider disabling it when you’re not able to supervise directly.
• Read the privacy policy. Yes, I know, all of it. Look for what will be recorded, stored, and potentially shared. Pay particular attention to sensitive data, like voice recordings, video recordings (if the toy has a camera), and location data.
• Limit connectivity. Avoid toys that require constant Wi-Fi or cloud interaction if possible.
• Monitor conversations. Regularly check in with your kids about what the toy says and supervise play where practical.
• Keep personal info private. Teach kids to never share their names, addresses, or family details, even with their plush friend.
• Trust your instincts. If a toy seems to cross boundaries or interfere with natural play, don’t be afraid to step in or simply say no.

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

When data resurfaces, it never comes back weaker. A newly shared dataset tied to AT&T shows just how much more dangerous an “old” breach can become once criminals have enough of the right details to work with.

The dataset, privately circulated since February 2, 2026, is described as AT&T customer data likely gathered over the years. It doesn’t just contain a few scraps of contact information. It reportedly includes roughly 176 million records, with…

• Up to 148 million Social Security numbers (full SSNs and last four digits)
• More than 133 million full names and street addresses
• More than 132 million phone numbers.
• Dates of birth for around 75 million people
• More than 131 million email addresses

Taken together, that’s the kind of rich, structured data set that makes a criminal’s life much easier.

On their own, any one of these data points would be inconvenient but manageable. An email address fuels spam and basic phishing. A phone number enables smishing and robocalls. An address helps attackers guess which services you might use. But when attackers can look up a single person and see name, full address, phone, email, complete or partial SSN, and date of birth in one place, the risk shifts from “annoying” to high‑impact.

That combination is exactly what many financial institutions and mobile carriers still rely on for identity checks. For cybercriminals, this sort of dataset is a Swiss Army knife.

It can be used to craft convincing AT&T‑themed phishing emails and texts, complete with correct names and partial SSNs to “prove” legitimacy. It can power large‑scale SIM‑swap attempts and account takeovers, where criminals call carriers and banks pretending to be you, armed with the answers those call centers expect to hear. It can also enable long‑term identity theft, with SSNs and dates of birth abused to open new lines of credit or file fraudulent tax returns.

The uncomfortable part is that a fresh hack isn’t always required to end up here. Breach data tends to linger, then get merged, cleaned up, and expanded over time. What’s different in this case is the breadth and quality of the profiles. They include more email addresses, more SSNs, more complete records per person. That makes the data more attractive, more searchable, and more actionable for criminals.

For potential victims, the lesson is simple but important. If you have ever been an AT&T customer, treat this as a reminder that your data may already be circulating in a form that is genuinely useful to attackers. Be cautious of any AT&T‑related email or text, enable multi‑factor authentication wherever possible, lock down your mobile account with extra passcodes, and consider monitoring your credit. You can’t pull your data back out of a criminal dataset—but you can make sure it’s much harder to use against you.

What to do when your data is involved in a breach

If you think you have been affected by a data breach, here are steps you can take to protect yourself:

• Check the company’s advice. Every breach is different, so check with the company to find out what’s happened and follow any specific advice it offers.
• 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 2FA can be phished just as easily as a password, but 2FA that relies on a FIDO2 device can’t be phished.
• Watch out for impersonators. The thieves may contact you posing as the breached platform. Check the official website to see if it’s contacting victims and verify the identity of anyone who contacts you 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.
• Consider not storing your card details. It’s definitely more convenient to let sites remember your card details, but it increases risk if a retailer suffers a breach.
• Set up identity monitoring, which alerts you if your personal information is found being traded illegally online and helps you recover after.

Use Malwarebytes’ free Digital Footprint scan to see whether your personal information has been exposed online.

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Most iPhone owners have hopefully learned to manage app permissions by now, including allowing location access. But there’s another layer of location tracking that operates outside these controls. Your cellular carrier has been collecting your location data all along, and until now, there was nothing you could do about it.

Apple just changed this in iOS 26.3 with a new setting called “limit precise location.”

How Apple’s anti-carrier tracking system works

Cellular networks track your phone’s location based on the cell towers it connects to, in a process known as triangulation. In cities where towers are densely packed, triangulation is precise enough to track you down to a street address.

This tracking is different from app-based location monitoring, because your phone’s privacy settings have historically been powerless to stop it. Toggle Location Services off entirely, and your carrier still knows where you are.

The new setting reduces the precision of location data shared with carriers. Rather than a street address, carriers would see only the neighborhood where a device is located. It doesn’t affect emergency calls, though, which still transmit precise coordinates to first responders. Apps like Apple’s “Find My” service, which locates your devices, or its navigation services, aren’t affected because they work using the phone’s location sharing feature.

Why is Apple doing this? Apple hasn’t said, but the move comes after years of carriers mishandling location data.

Unfortunately, cellular network operators have played fast and free with this data. In April 2024, the FCC fined Sprint and T-Mobile (which have since merged), along with AT&T and Verizon nearly $200 million combined for illegally sharing this location data. They sold access to customers’ location information to third party aggregators, who then sold it on to third parties without customer consent.

This turned into a privacy horror story for customers. One aggregator, LocationSmart, had a free demo on its website that reportedly allowed anyone to pinpoint the location of most mobile phones in North America.

Limited rollout

The feature only works with devices equipped with Apple’s custom C1 or C1X modems. That means just three devices: the iPhone Air, iPhone 16e, and the cellular iPad Pro with M5 chip. The iPhone 17, which uses Qualcomm silicon, is excluded. Apple can only control what its own modems transmit.

Carrier support is equally narrow. In the US, only Boost Mobile is participating in the feature at launch, while Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile are notable absences from the list given their past record. In Germany, Telekom is on the participant list, while both EE and BT are involved in the UK. In Thailand, AIS and True are on the list. There are no other carriers taking part as of today though.

Android also offers some support

Google also introduced a similar capability with Android 15’s Location Privacy hardware abstraction layer (HAL) last year. It faces the same constraint, though: modem vendors must cooperate, and most have not. Apple and Google don’t get to control the modems in most phones. This kind of privacy protection requires vertical integration that few manufacturers possess and few carriers seem eager to enable.

Most people think controlling app permissions means they’re in control of their location. This feature highlights something many users didn’t know existed: a separate layer of tracking handled by cellular networks, and one that still offers users very limited control.

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Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your mobile devices by downloading Malwarebytes for iOS, and Malwarebytes for Android today.

Last week we talked about an app that promises users they can make money testing games, or even just by scrolling through TikTok.

Imagine our surprise when we ended up on a site promoting that same Freecash app while investigating a “cloud storage” phish. We’ve all probably seen one of those. They’re common enough and according to recent investigation by BleepingComputer, there’s a

“large-scale cloud storage subscription scam campaign targeting users worldwide with repeated emails falsely warning recipients that their photos, files, and accounts are about to be blocked or deleted due to an alleged payment failure.”

Based on the description in that article, the email we found appears to be part of this campaign.

The subject line of the email is:

“{Recipient}. Your Cloud Account has been locked on Sat, 24 Jan 2026 09:57:55 -0500. Your photos and videos will be removed!”

This matches one of the subject lines that BleepingComputer listed.

And the content of the email:

“Payment Issue – Cloud Storage

Dear User,

We encountered an issue while attempting to renew your Cloud Storage subscription.

Unfortunately, your payment method has expired. To ensure your Cloud continues without interruption, please update your payment details.

Subscription ID: 9371188

Product: Cloud Storage Premium

Expiration Date: Sat,24 Jan-2026

If you do not update your payment information, you may lose access to your Cloud Storage, which may prevent you from saving and syncing your data such as photos, videos, and documents.

Update Payment Details {link button}

Security Recommendations:

• Always access your account through our official website
• Never share your password with anyone
• Ensure your contact and billing information are up to date”

The link in the email leads to  https://storage.googleapis[.]com/qzsdqdqsd/dsfsdxc.html#/redirect.html, which helps the scammer establish a certain amount of trust because it points to Google Cloud Storage (GCS). GCS is a legitimate service that allows authorized users to store and manage data such as files, images, and videos in buckets. However, as in this case, attackers can abuse it for phishing.

The redirect carries some parameters to the next website.

The feed.headquartoonjpn[.]com domain was blocked by Malwarebytes. We’ve seen it before in an earlier campaign involving an Endurance-themed phish.

After a few more redirects, we ended up at hx5.submitloading[.]com, where a fake CAPTCHA triggered the last redirect to freecash[.]com, once it was solved.

The end goal of this phish likely depends on the parameters passed along during the redirects, so results may vary.

Rather than stealing credentials directly, the campaign appears designed to monetize traffic, funneling victims into affiliate offers where the operators get paid for sign-ups or conversions.

BleepingComputer noted that they were redirected to affiliate marketing websites for various products.

“Products promoted in this phishing campaign include VPN services, little-known security software, and other subscription-based offerings with no connection to cloud storage.”

How to stay safe

Ironically, the phishing email itself includes some solid advice:

• Always access your account through our official website.
• Never share your password with anyone.

We’d like to add:

• Never click on links in unsolicited emails without verifying with a trusted source.
• Use an up-to-date, real-time anti-malware solution with a web protection component.
• Do not engage with websites that attract visitors like this.

Pro tip: Malwarebytes Scam Guard would have helped you identify this email as a scam and provided advice on how to proceed.

Redirect flow (IOCs)

storage.googleapis[.]com/qzsdqdqsd/dsfsdxc.html

feed.headquartoonjpn[.]com

revivejudgemental[.]com

hx5.submitloading[.]com

freecash[.]com

Update February 5, 2026

Almedia GmbH, the company behind the Freecash platform, reached out to us for information about the chain of redirects that lead to their platform. And after an investigation they notified us that:

“Following Malwarebytes’ reporting and the additional information they shared with us, we investigated the issue and identified an affiliate operating in breach of our policies. That partner has been removed from our network.

Almedia does not sell user data, and we take compliance, user trust, and responsible advertising seriously.”

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Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. If something looks dodgy to you, check if it’s a scam using Malwarebytes Scam Guard, a feature of our mobile protection products. Submit a screenshot, paste suspicious content, or share a text or phone number, and we’ll tell you if it’s a scam or legit. Download Malwarebytes Mobile Security for iOS or Android and try it today!

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs:

• Match, Hinge, OkCupid, and Panera Bread breached by ransomware group
• TikTok’s privacy update mentions immigration status. Here’s why.
• Meta confirms it’s working on premium subscription for its apps
• Microsoft Office zero-day lets malicious documents slip past security checks
• Clawdbot’s rename to Moltbot sparks impersonation campaign
• Malicious Chrome extensions can spy on your ChatGPT chats
• WhatsApp rolls out new protections against advanced exploits and spyware
• Watch out for AT&T rewards phishing text that wants your personal details
• A WhatsApp bug lets malicious media files spread through group chats
• TikTok narrowly avoids a US ban by spinning up a new American joint venture
• Get paid to scroll TikTok? The data trade behind Freecash ads
• One privacy change I made for 2026 (Lock and Code S07E02)

Stay safe!

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Other noteworthy stories that might have slipped under the radar: Apple updates platform security guide, LastPass detects new phishing wave, CISA withdraws from RSA Conference.

The post In Other News: Paid for Being Jailed, Google’s $68M Settlement, CISA Chief’s ChatGPT Leak appeared first on SecurityWeek.

The ShinyHunters ransomware group has claimed the theft of data containing 10 million records belonging to the Match Group and 14 million records from bakery-café chain Panera Bread.

The Match Group, that runs multiple popular online dating services like Tinder, Match.com, Meetic, OkCupid, and Hinge has confirmed a cyber incident and is investigating the data breach.

Panera Bread also confirmed that an incident occurred and has alerted authorities. “The data involved is contact information,” it said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

ShinyHunters seems to be gaining access through Single-Sign-On (SSO) platforms and using voice-cloning techniques, which has resulted in a growing number of breaches across different companies. However, not all of these breaches have the same impact.

The impact

For the Match Group, ShinyHunters claims:

“Over 10 million records of Hinge, Match, and OkCupid usage data from Appsflyer and hundreds of internal documents.”

Match says there is no evidence that logins, financial data, or private chats were stolen, but Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and tracking data for some users are in scope. A notification process has been set in motion.

For Panera Bread, ShinyHunters claims to have compromised 14 million records containing PII.

Panera Bread reassures users that there is no indication that the hackers accessed user login credentials, financial information, or private communications.

ShinyHunters also breached Bumblr, Carmax, and Edmunds among others, but I wanted to use Panera Bread and the Match Group as two examples that have very different consequences for users.

When your activity on a dating app is compromised, the impact can be deeply personal. Concerns can range from partners, family members, or employers discovering dating profiles to the risk of doxxing. For many people, stigma around certain apps can lead to fears of being outed, accused of infidelity, or even extorted.

The impact of the Panera Bread breach will be very different. “I just ordered a sandwich and now some criminals have my home address?” Data like this is useful to enrich existing data sets. And the more they know, the easier and better they can target you in phishing attempts.

Protecting yourself after a data breach

If you think you have been affected by a data breach, here are steps you can take to protect yourself:

• Check the company’s advice. Every breach is different, so check with the company to find out what’s happened and follow any specific advice it offers.
• 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 2FA can be phished just as easily as a password, but 2FA that relies on a FIDO2 device can’t be phished.
• Watch out for impersonators. The thieves may contact you posing as the breached platform. Check the official website to see if it’s contacting victims and verify the identity of anyone who contacts you 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.
• Consider not storing your card details. It’s definitely more convenient to let sites remember your card details, but it increases risk if a retailer suffers a breach.
• Set up identity monitoring, which alerts you if your personal information is found being traded illegally online and helps you recover after.

You can use Malwarebytes’ free Digital Footprint scan to find out if your private information is exposed online.

---

We don’t just report on threats—we help safeguard your entire digital identity

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Protect your, and your family’s, personal information by using identity protection.

In 2026, could any five words be more chilling than “We’re changing our privacy terms?”

The timing could not have been worse for TikTok US when it sent millions of US users a mandatory privacy pop-up on January 22. The message forced users to accept updated terms if they wanted to keep using the app. Buried in that update was language about collecting “citizenship or immigration status.”

Specifically, TikTok said:

“Information You Provide may include sensitive personal information, as defined under applicable state privacy laws, such as information from users under the relevant age threshold, information you disclose in survey responses or in your user content about your racial or ethnic origin, national origin, religious beliefs, mental or physical health diagnosis, sexual life or sexual orientation, status as transgender or nonbinary, citizenship or immigration status, or financial information.”

The internet reacted badly. TikTok users took to social media, with some suggesting that TikTok was building a database of immigration status, and others pledging to delete their accounts. It didn’t help that TikTok’s US operation became a US-owned company on the same day, with Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) criticizing what he sees as a lack of transparency around the deal.

A legal requirement

In this case, things are may be less sinister than you’d think. The language is not new—it first appeared around August 2024. And TikTok is not asking users to provide their immigration status directly.

Instead, the disclosure covers sensitive information that users might voluntarily share in videos, surveys, or interactions with AI features.

The change appears to be driven largely by California’s AB-947, signed in October 2023. The law added immigration status to the state’s definition of sensitive personal information, placing it under stricter protections. Companies are required to disclose how they process sensitive personal information, even if they do not actively seek it out.

Other social media companies, including Meta, do not explicitly mention immigration status in their privacy policies. According to TechCrunch, that difference likely reflects how specific their disclosure language is—not a meaningful difference in what data is actually collected.

One meaningful change in TikTok’s updated policy does concern location tracking. Previous versions stated that TikTok did not collect GPS data from US users. The new policy says it may collect precise location data, depending on user settings. Users can reportedly opt out of this tracking.

Read the whole board, not just one square

So, does this mean TikTok—or any social media company—deserves our trust? That’s a harder question.

There are still red flags. In April, TikTok quietly removed a commitment to notify users before sharing data with law enforcement. According to Forbes, the company has also declined to say whether it shares, or would share, user data with agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

That uncertainty is the real issue. Social media companies are notorious for collecting vast amounts of user data, and for being vague about how it may be used later. Outrage over a particularly explicit disclosure is understandable, but the privacy problem runs much deeper than a single policy update from one company.

People have reason to worry unless platforms explicitly commit to not collecting or inferring sensitive data—and explicitly commit to not sharing it with government agencies. And even then, skepticism is healthy. These companies have a long history of changing policies quietly when it suits them.

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We don’t just report on data privacy—we help you remove your personal information

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. With Malwarebytes Personal Data Remover, you can scan to find out which sites are exposing your personal information, and then delete that sensitive data from the internet.

Meta plans to test exclusive features that will be incorporated in paid versions of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. It confirmed these plans to TechCrunch.

But these plans are not to be confused with the ad-free subscription options that Meta introduced for Facebook and Instagram in the EU, the European Economic Area, and Switzerland in late 2023 and framed as a way to comply with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Digital Markets Act requirements.

From November 2023, users in those regions could either keep using the services for free with personalized ads or pay a monthly fee for an ad‑free experience. European rules require Meta to get users’ consent in order to show them targeted ads, so this was an obvious attempt to recoup advertising revenue when users declined to give that consent.

This year, users in the UK were given the same choice: use Meta’s products for free or subscribe to use them without ads. But only grudgingly, judging by the tone in the offer… “As part of laws in your region, you have a choice.”

That ad-free option, however, is not what Meta is talking about now.

The newly announced plans are not about ads, and they are also separate from Meta Verified, which starts at around $15 a month and focuses on creators and businesses, offering a verification badge, better support, and anti‑impersonation protection.

Instead, these new subscriptions are likely to focus on additional features—more control over how users share and connect, and possibly tools such as expanded AI capabilities, unlimited audience lists, seeing who you follow that doesn’t follow you back, or viewing stories without the poster knowing it was you.

These examples are unconfirmed. All we know for sure is that Meta plans to test new paid features to see which ones users are willing to pay for and how much they can charge.

Meta has said these features will focus on productivity, creativity, and expanded AI.

My opinion

Unfortunately, this feels like another refusal to listen.

Most of us aren’t asking for more AI in our feeds. We’re asking for a basic sense of control: control over who sees us, what’s tracked about us, and how our data is used to feed an algorithm designed to keep us scrolling.

Users shouldn’t have to choose between being mined for behavioral data or paying a monthly fee just to be left alone. The message baked into “pay or be profiled” is that privacy is now a luxury good, not a default right. But while regulators keep saying the model is unlawful, the experience on the ground still nudges people toward the path of least resistance: accept the tracking and move on.

Even then, this level of choice is only available to users in Europe.

Why not offer the same option to users in the US? Or will it take stronger US privacy regulation to make that happen?

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Microsoft issued an emergency patch for a high-severity zero-day vulnerability in Office that allows attackers to bypass document security checks and is being exploited in the wild via malicious files.

Microsoft pushed the emergency patch for the zero‑day, tracked as CVE-2026-21509, and classified it as a “Microsoft Office Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability” with a CVSS score of 7.8 out of 10.

The flaw allows attackers to bypass Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) mitigations that are designed to block unsafe COM/OLE controls inside Office documents. This means a malicious attachment could infect a PC despite built-in protections.

In a real-life scenario, an attacker creates a fake Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file containing hidden “mini‑programs” or special objects. They can run code and do other things on the affected computer. Normally, Office has safety checks that would block those mini-programs because they’re risky.

However, the vulnerability allows the attacker to tweak the file’s structure and hidden information in a way that tricks Office into thinking the dangerous mini‑program inside the document is harmless. As a result, Office skips the usual security checks and allows the hidden code to run.

As code to test the bypass is publicly available, increasing the risk of exploitation, users are under urgent advice to apply the patch.

How to protect your system

What you need to do depends on which version of Office you’re using.

The affected products include Microsoft Office 2016, 2019, LTSC 2021, LTSC 2024, and Microsoft 365 Apps (both 32‑bit and 64‑bit).

Office 2021 and later are protected via a server‑side change once Office is restarted. To apply it, close all Office apps and restart them.

Office 2016 and 2019 require a manual update. Run Windows Update with the option to update other Microsoft products turned on.

If you’re running build 16.0.10417.20095 or higher, no action is required. You can check your build number by opening any Office app, going to your account page, and selecting About for whichever application you have open. Make sure the build number at the top reads 16.0.10417.20095 or higher.

What always helps:

• Don’t open unsolicited attachments without verifying them with a trusted sender.
• Treat all unexpected documents, especially those asking to “enable content” or “enable editing,” as suspicious.
• Keep macros disabled by default and only allow signed macros from trusted publishers.
• Use an up-to-date real-time anti-malware solution.
• Keep your operating system and software fully up to date.

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After the viral AI assistant Clawdbot was forced to rename to Moltbot due to a trademark dispute, opportunists moved quickly. Within days, typosquat domains and a cloned GitHub repository appeared—impersonating the project’s creator and positioning infrastructure for a potential supply-chain attack.

The code is clean. The infrastructure is not. With the GitHub downloads and star rating rapidly rising, we took a deep dive into how fake domains target viral open source projects.

The background: Why was Clawdbot renamed?

In early 2026, Peter Steinberger’s Clawdbot became one of the fastest-growing open source projects on GitHub. The self-hosted assistant—described as “Claude with hands”—allowed users to control their computer through WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, and similar platforms.

Anthropic later objected to the name. Steinberger complied and rebranded the project to Moltbot (“molt” being what lobsters do when they shed their shell).

During the rename, both the GitHub organization and X (formerly Twitter) handle were briefly released before being reclaimed. Attackers monitoring the transition grabbed them within seconds.

“Had to rename our accounts for trademark stuff and messed up the GitHub rename and the X rename got snatched by crypto shills.” — Peter Steinberger

That brief gap was enough.

Impersonation infrastructure emerged

While investigating a suspicious repository, I uncovered a coordinated set of assets designed to impersonate Moltbot.

Domains

• moltbot[.]you
• clawbot[.]ai
• clawdbot[.]you

Repository

• github[.]com/gstarwd/clawbot — a cloned repository using a typosquatted variant of the former Clawdbot project name

Website

A polished marketing site featuring:

• professional design closely matching the real project
• SEO optimization and structured metadata
• download buttons, tutorials, and FAQs
• claims of 61,500+ GitHub stars lifted from the real repository

Evidence of impersonation

False attribution: The site’s schema.org metadata falsely claims authorship by Peter Steinberger, linking directly to his real GitHub and X profiles. This is explicit identity misrepresentation.

Misdirection to an unauthorized repository: “View on GitHub” links send users to gstarwd/clawbot, not the official moltbot/moltbot repository.

Stolen credibility:The site prominently advertises tens of thousands of stars that belong to the real project. The clone has virtually none (although at the time of writing, that number is steadily rising).

Mixing legitimate and fraudulent links: Some links point to real assets, such as official documentation or legitimate binaries. Others redirect to impersonation infrastructure. This selective legitimacy defeats casual verification and appears deliberate.

Full SEO optimization: Canonical tags, Open Graph metadata, Twitter cards, and analytics are all present—clearly intended to rank the impersonation site ahead of legitimate project resources.

The ironic security warning: The impersonation site even warns users about scams involving fake cryptocurrency tokens—while itself impersonating the project.

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Code analysis: Clean by design

I performed a static audit of the gstarwd/clawbot repository:

• no malicious npm scripts
• no credential exfiltration
• no obfuscation or payload staging
• no cryptomining
• no suspicious network activity

The code is functionally identical to the legitimate project, which is not reassuring.

The threat model

The absence of malware is the strategy. Nothing here suggests an opportunistic malware campaign. Instead, the setup points to early preparation for a supply-chain attack.

The likely chain of events:

A user searches for “clawbot GitHub” or “moltbot download” and finds moltbot[.]you or gstarwd/clawbot.

The code looks legitimate and passes a security audit.

The user installs the project and configures it, adding API keys and messaging tokens. Trust is established.

At a later point, a routine update is pulled through npm update or git pull. A malicious payload is delivered into an installation the user already trusts.

An attacker can then harvest:

• Anthropic API keys
• OpenAI API keys
• WhatsApp session credentials
• Telegram bot tokens
• Discord OAuth tokens
• Slack credentials
• Signal identity keys
• full conversation histories
• command execution access on the compromised machine

What’s malicious, and what isn’t

Clearly malicious

• false attribution to a real individual
• misrepresentation of popularity metrics
• deliberate redirection to an unauthorized repository

Deceptive but not yet malware

• typosquat domains
• SEO manipulation
• cloned repositories with clean code

Not present (yet)

• active malware
• data exfiltration
• cryptomining

Clean code today lowers suspicion tomorrow.

A familiar pattern

This follows a well-known pattern in open source supply-chain attacks.

A user searches for a popular project and lands on a convincing-looking site or cloned repository. The code appears legitimate and passes a security audit.

They install the project and configure it, adding API keys or messaging tokens so it can work as intended. Trust is established.

Later, a routine update arrives through a standard npm update or git pull. That update introduces a malicious payload into an installation the user already trusts.

From there, an attacker can harvest credentials, conversation data, and potentially execute commands on the compromised system.

No exploit is required. The entire chain relies on trust rather than technical vulnerabilities.

How to stay safe

Impersonation infrastructure like this is designed to look legitimate long before anything malicious appears. By the time a harmful update arrives—if it arrives at all—the software may already be widely installed and trusted.

That’s why basic source verification still matters, especially when popular projects rename or move quickly.

Advice for users

• Verify GitHub organization ownership
• Bookmark official repositories directly
• Treat renamed projects as higher risk during transitions

Advice for maintainers

• Pre-register likely typosquat domains before public renames
• Coordinate renames and handle changes carefully
• Monitor for cloned repositories and impersonation sites

Pro tip: Malwarebytes customers are protected. Malwarebytes is actively blocking all known indicators of compromise (IOCs) associated with this impersonation infrastructure, preventing users from accessing the fraudulent domains and related assets identified in this investigation.

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Researchers discovered 16 malicious browser extensions for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge that steal ChatGPT session tokens, giving attackers access to accounts, including conversation history and metadata.

The 16 malicious extensions (15 for Chrome and 1 for Edge) claim to improve and optimize ChatGPT, but instead siphon users’ session tokens to attackers. Together, they have been downloaded around 900 times, a relatively small number compared to other malicious extensions.

Despite benign descriptions and, in some cases, a “featured” badge, the real goal of these extensions is to hijack ChatGPT identities by stealing session authentication tokens and sending them to attacker-controlled backends.

Possession of these tokens gives attackers the same level of access as the user, including conversation history and metadata.

In addition to your ChatGPT session token, the extensions also send extra details about themselves (such as their version and language settings), along with information about how they’re used, and special keys they get from their own online service.

Taken together, this allows the attackers to build a picture of who you are and how you work online. They can use it to keep recognizing you over time, build a profile of your behavior, and maintain access to your ChatGPT-connected services for much longer. This increases the privacy impact and means a single compromised extension can cause broader harm if its servers are abused or breached.

According to the researchers, this campaign coincides with a broader trend:

“The rapid growth in adoption of AI-powered browser extensions, aimed at helping users with their everyday productivity needs. While most of them are completely benign, many of these extensions mimic known brands to gain users’ trust, particularly those designed to enhance interaction with large language models.”

How to stay safe

Although we always advise people to install extensions only from official web stores, this case proves once again that not all extensions available there are safe. That said, installing extensions from outside official web stores carries an even higher risk.

Extensions listed in official stores undergo a review process before being approved. This process, which combines automated and manual checks, assesses the extension’s safety, policy compliance, and overall user experience. The goal is to protect users from scams, malware, and other malicious activity. However, this review process is not foolproof.

Microsoft and Google have been notified about the abuse. However, extensions that are already installed may remain active in Chrome and Edge until users manually remove them.

Malicious extensions

These are the browser extensions you should remove. They are listed by Name — Publisher — Extension ID:

• ChatGPT bulk delete, Chat manager — ChatGPT Mods — gbcgjnbccjojicobfimcnfjddhpphaod
• ChatGPT export, Markdown, JSON, images — ChatGPT Mods — hljdedgemmmkdalbnmnpoimdedckdkhm
• ChatGPT folder, voice download, prompt manager, free tools — ChatGPT Mods — lmiigijnefpkjcenfbinhdpafehaddag
• ChatGPT message navigator, history scroller — ChatGPT Mods — ifjimhnbnbniiiaihphlclkpfikcdkab
• ChatGPT Mods — Folder Voice Download & More Free Tools — jhohjhmbiakpgedidneeloaoloadlbdj
• ChatGPT pin chat, bookmark — ChatGPT Mods — kefnabicobeigajdngijnnjmljehknjl
• ChatGPT Prompt Manager, Folder, Library, Auto Send — ChatGPT Mods — ioaeacncbhpmlkediaagefiegegknglc
• ChatGPT prompt optimization — ChatGPT Mods — mmjmcfaejolfbenlplfoihnobnggljij
• ChatGPT search history, locate specific messages — ChatGPT Mods — ipjgfhcjeckaibnohigmbcaonfcjepmb
• ChatGPT Timestamp Display — ChatGPT Mods — afjenpabhpfodjpncbiiahbknnghabdc
• ChatGPT Token counter — ChatGPT Mods — hfdpdgblphooommgcjdnnmhpglleaafj
• ChatGPT model switch, save advanced model uses — ChatGPT Mods — pfgbcfaiglkcoclichlojeaklcfboieh
• ChatGPT voice download, TTS download — ChatGPT Mods — območbankihdfckkbfnoglefmdgmblcld (original: obdobankihdfckkbfnoglefmdgmblcld)
• Collapsed message — ChatGPT Mods — lechagcebaneoafonkbfkljmbmaaoaec
• Multi-Profile Management & Switching — ChatGPT Mods — nhnfaiiobkpbenbbiblmgncgokeknnno
• Search with ChatGPT — ChatGPT Mods — hpcejjllhbalkcmdikecfngkepppoknd

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WhatsApp is quietly rolling out a new safety layer for photos, videos, and documents, and it lives entirely under the hood. It won’t change how you chat, but it will change what happens to the files that move through your chats—especially the kind that can hide malware.

The new feature, called Strict Account Settings, is rolling out gradually over the coming weeks. To see whether you have the option—and to enable it—go to Settings > Privacy > Advanced.

Yesterday, we wrote about a WhatsApp bug on Android that made headlines because a malicious media file in a group chat could be downloaded and used as an attack vector without you tapping anything. You only had to be added to a new group to be exposed to the booby-trapped file. That issue highlighted something security folks have worried about for years: media files are a great vehicle for attacks, and they do not always exploit WhatsApp itself, but bugs in the operating system or its media libraries.

In Meta’s explanation of the new technology, it points back to the 2015 Stagefright Android vulnerability, where simply processing a malicious video could compromise a device. Back then, WhatsApp worked around the issue by teaching its media library to spot broken MP4 files that could trigger those OS bugs, buying users protection even if their phones were not fully patched.

What’s new is that WhatsApp has now rebuilt its core media-handling library in Rust, a memory-safe programming language. This helps eliminate several types of memory bugs that often lead to serious security problems. In the process, it replaced about 160,000 lines of older C++ code with roughly 90,000 lines of Rust, and rolled the new library out to billions of devices across Android, iOS, desktop apps, wearables, and the web.

On top of that, WhatsApp has bundled a series of checks into an internal system it calls “Kaleidoscope.” This system inspects incoming files for structural oddities, flags higher‑risk formats like PDFs with embedded content or scripts, detects when a file pretends to be something it’s not (for example, a renamed executable), and marks known dangerous file types for special handling in the app. It won’t catch every attack, but it should prevent malicious files from poking at more fragile parts of your device.

For everyday users, the Rust rebuilt and Kaleidoscope checks are good news. They add a strong, invisible safety net around photos, videos and other files you receive, including in group chats where the recent bug could be abused. They also line up neatly with our earlier advice to turn off automatic media downloads or use Advanced Privacy Mode, which limits how far a malicious file can travel on your device even if it lands in WhatsApp.

WhatsApp is the latest platform to roll out enhanced protections for users: Apple introduced Lockdown Mode in 2022, and Android followed with Advanced Protection Mode last year. WhatsApp’s new Strict Account Settings takes a similar high-level approach, applying more restrictive defaults within the app, including blocking attachments and media from unknown senders.

However, this is no reason to rush back to WhatsApp, or to treat these changes as a guarantee of safety. At the very least, Meta is showing that it is willing to invest in making WhatsApp more secure.

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Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your mobile devices by downloading Malwarebytes for iOS, and Malwarebytes for Android today.

WhatsApp is going through a rough patch. Some users would argue it has been ever since Meta acquired the once widely trusted messaging platform. User sentiment has shifted from “trusted default messenger” to a grudgingly necessary Meta product.

Privacy-aware users still see WhatsApp as one of the more secure mass-market messaging platforms if you lock down its settings. Even then, many remain uneasy about Meta’s broader ecosystem, and wish all their contacts would switch to a more secure platform.

Back to current affairs, which will only reinforce that sentiment.

Google’s Project Zero has just disclosed a WhatsApp vulnerability where a malicious media file, sent into a newly created group chat, can be automatically downloaded and used as an attack vector.

The bug affects WhatsApp on Android and involves zero‑click media downloads in group chats. You can be attacked simply by being added to a group and having a malicious file sent to you.

According to Project Zero, the attack is most likely to be used in targeted campaigns, since the attacker needs to know or guess at least one contact. While focused, it is relatively easy to repeat once an attacker has a likely target list.

And to put a cherry on top for WhatsApp’s competitors, a potentially even more serious concern for the popular messaging platform, an international group of plaintiffs sued Meta Platforms, alleging the WhatsApp owner can store, analyze, and access virtually all of users’ private communications, despite WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption claims.

How to secure WhatsApp

Reportedly, Meta pushed a server change on November 11, 2025, but Google says that only partially resolved the issue. So, Meta is working on a comprehensive fix.

Google’s advice is to disable Automatic Download or enable WhatsApp’s Advanced Privacy Mode so that media is not automatically downloaded to your phone.

And you’ll need to keep WhatsApp updated to get the latest patches, which is true for any app and for Android itself.

Turn off auto-download of media

Goal: ensure that no photos, videos, audio, or documents are pulled to the device without an explicit decision.

• Open WhatsApp on your Android device.
• Tap the three‑dot menu in the top‑right corner, then tap Settings.
• Go to Storage and data (sometimes labeled Data and storage usage).
• Under Media auto-download, you will see When using mobile data, when connected on Wi‑Fi. and when roaming.
• For each of these three entries, tap it and uncheck all media types: Photos, Audio, Videos, Documents. Then tap OK.
• Confirm that each category now shows something like “No media” under it.

Doing this directly implements Project Zero’s guidance to “disable Automatic Download” so that malicious media can’t silently land on your storage as soon as you are dropped into a hostile group.

Stop WhatsApp from saving media to your Android gallery

Even if WhatsApp still downloads some content, you can stop it from leaking into shared storage where other apps and system components see it.

• In Settings, go to Chats.
• Turn off Media visibility (or similar option such as Show media in gallery). For particularly sensitive chats, open the chat, tap the contact or group name, find Media visibility, and set it to No for that thread.

WhatsApp is a sandbox, and should contain the threat. Which means, keeping media inside WhatsApp makes it harder for a malicious file to be processed by other, possibly more vulnerable components.

Lock down who can add you to groups

The attack chain requires the attacker to add you and one of your contacts to a new group. Reducing who can do that lowers risk.

• ​In Settings, tap Privacy.
• Tap Groups.
• Change from Everyone to My contacts or ideally My contacts except… and exclude any numbers you do not fully trust.
• If you use WhatsApp for work, consider keeping group membership strictly to known contacts and approved admins.

Set up two-step verification on your WhatsApp account

Read this guide for Android and iOS to learn how to do that.

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TikTok may have found a way to stay online in the US. The company announced late last week that it has set up a joint venture backed largely by US investors. TikTok announced TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC on Friday in a deal valued at about $14 billion, allowing it to continue operating in the country.

This is the culmination of a long-running fight between TikTok and US authorities. In 2019, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) flagged ByteDance’s 2017 acquisition of Musical.ly as a national security risk, on the basis that state links between the app’s Chinese owner would make put US users’ data at risk.

In his first term, President Trump issued an executive order demanding that ByteDance sell the business or face a ban. That was order was blocked by courts, and President Biden later replaced it with a broader review process in 2021.

In April 2024, Congress passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA), which Biden signed into law. That set a January 19, 2025 deadline for ByteDance to divest its business or face a nationwide ban. With no deal finalized, TikTok voluntarily went dark for about 12 hours on January 18, 2025. Trump later issued executive orders extending the deadline, culminating in a September 2025 agreement that led to the joint venture.

Three managing investors each hold 15% of the new business: database giant Oracle (which previously vied to acquire TikTok when ByteDance was first told to divest), technology-focused investment group Silver Lake, and the United Arab Emirates-backed AI (Artificial Intelligence) investment company MGX.

Other investors include the family office of tech entrepreneur Michael Dell, as well as Vastmere Strategic Investments, Alpha Wave Partners, Revolution, Merritt Way, and Via Nova.

Original owner ByteDance retains 19.9% of the business, and according to an internal memo released before the deal was officially announced, 30% of the company will be owned by affiliates of existing ByteDance investors. That’s in spite of the fact that PAFACA mandated a complete severance of TikTok in the US from its Chinese ownership.

A focus on security

The company is eager to promote data security for its users. With that in mind, Oracle takes the role of “trusted security partner” for data protection and compliance auditing under the deal.

Oracle is also expected to store US user data in its cloud environment. The program will reportedly align with security frameworks including the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework. Other TikTok-owned apps such as CapCut and Lemon8 will also fall under the joint venture’s security umbrella.

Canada’s TikTok tension

It’s been a busy month for ByteDance, with other developments north of the border. Last week, Canada’s Federal Court overturned a November 2024 governmental order to shut down TikTok’s Canadian business on national security grounds. The decision gives Industry Minister Mélanie Joly time to review the case.

Why this matters

TikTok’s new US joint venture lowers the risk of direct foreign access to American user data, but it doesn’t erase all of the concerns that put the app in regulators’ crosshairs in the first place. ByteDance still retains an economic stake, the recommendation algorithm remains largely opaque, and oversight depends on audits and enforcement rather than hard technical separation.

In other words, this deal reduces exposure, but it doesn’t make TikTok a risk-free platform. For users, that means the same common-sense rules still apply: be thoughtful about what you share and remember that regulatory approval isn’t the same as total data safety.

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We don’t just report on data privacy—we help you remove your personal information

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. With Malwarebytes Personal Data Remover, you can scan to find out which sites are exposing your personal information, and then delete that sensitive data from the internet.

Loyal readers and other privacy-conscious people will be familiar with the expression, “If it’s too good to be true, it’s probably false.”

Getting paid handsomely to scroll social media definitely falls into that category. It sounds like an easy side hustle, which usually means there’s a catch.

In January 2026, an app called Freecash shot up to the number two spot on Apple’s free iOS chart in the US, helped along by TikTok ads that look a lot like job offers from TikTok itself. The ads promised up to $35 an hour to watch your “For You” page. According to reporting, the ads didn’t promote Freecash by name. Instead, they showed a young woman expressing excitement about seemingly being “hired by TikTok” to watch videos for money.

The landing pages featured TikTok and Freecash logos and invited users to “get paid to scroll” and “cash out instantly,” implying a simple exchange of time for money.

Those claims were misleading enough that TikTok said the ads violated its rules on financial misrepresentation and removed some of them.

Once you install the app, the promised TikTok paycheck vanishes. Instead, Freecash routes you to a rotating roster of mobile games—titles like Monopoly Go and Disney Solitaire—and offers cash rewards for completing time‑limited in‑game challenges. Payouts range from a single cent for a few minutes of daily play up to triple‑digit amounts if you reach high levels within a fixed period.

The whole setup is designed not to reward scrolling, as it claims, but to funnel you into games where you are likely to spend money or watch paid advertisements.

Freecash’s parent company, Berlin‑based Almedia, openly describes the platform as a way to match mobile game developers with users who are likely to install and spend. The company’s CEO has spoken publicly about using past spending data to steer users toward the genres where they’re most “valuable” to advertisers. 

Our concern, beyond the bait-and-switch, is the privacy issue. Freecash’s privacy policy allows the automatic collection of highly sensitive information, including data about race, religion, sex life, sexual orientation, health, and biometrics. Each additional mobile game you install to chase rewards adds its own privacy policy, tracking, and telemetry. Together, they greatly increase how much behavioral data these companies can harvest about a user.

Experts warn that data brokers already trade lists of people likely to be more susceptible to scams or compulsive online behavior—profiles that apps like this can help refine.

We’ve previously reported on data brokers that used games and apps to build massive databases, only to later suffer breaches exposing all that data.

When asked about the ads, Freecash said the most misleading TikTok promotions were created by third-party affiliates, not by the company itself. Which is quite possible because Freecash does offer an affiliate payout program to people who promote the app online. But they made promises to review and tighten partner monitoring.

For experienced users, the pattern should feel familiar: eye‑catching promises of easy money, a bait‑and‑switch into something that takes more time and effort than advertised, and a business model that suddenly makes sense when you realize your attention and data are the real products.

How to stay private

Free cash? Apparently, there is no such thing.

If you’re curious how intrusive schemes like this can be, consider using a separate email address created specifically for testing. Avoid sharing real personal details. Many users report that once they sign up, marketing emails quickly pile up.

Some of these schemes also appeal to people who are younger or under financial pressure, offering tiny payouts while generating far more value for advertisers and app developers.

So, what can you do?

• Gather information about the company you’re about to give your data. Talk to friends and relatives about your plans. Shared common sense often helps make the right decisions.
• Create a separate account if you want to test a service. Use a dedicated email address and avoid sharing real personal details.
• Limit information you provide online to what makes sense for the purpose. Does a game publisher need your Social Security Number? I don’t think so.
• Be cautious about app installs that are framed as required to make the money initially promised, and review permissions carefully.
• Use an up-to-date real-time anti-malware solution on all your devices.

Work from the premise that free money does not exist. Try to work out the business model of those offering it, and then decide.

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We don’t just report on threats – we help protect your social media

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Last week on Malwarebytes Labs:

• Spammers abuse Zendesk to flood inboxes with legitimate-looking emails, but why?
• Fake LastPass maintenance emails target users
• Under Armour ransomware breach: data of 72 million customers appears on the dark web
• Can you use too many LOLBins to drop some RATs?
• Malicious Google Calendar invites could expose private data
• Fake extension crashes browsers to trick users into infecting themselves
• Google will pay $8.25m to settle child data-tracking allegations
• Firefox joins Chrome and Edge as sleeper extensions spy on users

On the ThreatDown blog:

• How to prevent a rootkit attack

Stay safe!

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Short answer: we have no idea.

People are actively complaining that their mailboxes and queues are being flooded by emails coming from the Zendesk instances of trusted companies like Discord, Riot Games, Dropbox, and many others.

Zendesk is a customer service and support software platform that helps companies manage customer communication. It supports tickets, live chat, email, phone, and communication through social media.

Some people complained about receiving over 1,000 such emails. The strange thing ais that so far there are no reports of malicious links, tech support scam numbers, or any type of phishing in these emails.

The abusers are able to send waves of emails from these systems because Zendesk allows them to create fake support tickets with email addresses that do not belong to them. The system sends a confirmation mail to the provided email address if the affected company has not restricted ticket submission to verified users.

In a December advisory, Zendesk warned about this method, which they called relay spam. In essence it’s an example of attackers abusing a legitimate automated part of a process. We have seen similar attacks before, but they always served a clear purpose for the attacker, whereas this one doesn’t.

Even though some of the titles in use definitely are of a clickbait nature. Some examples:

• FREE DISCORD NITRO!!
• TAKE DOWN ORDER NOW FROM CD Projekt
• TAKE DOWN NOW ORDER FROM Israel FOR Square Enix
• DONATION FOR State Of Tennessee CONFIRMED
• LEGAL NOTICE FROM State Of Louisiana FOR Electronic
• IMPORTANT LAW ENFORCEMENT NOTIFICATION FROM DISCORD FROM Peru
• Thank you for your purchase!
•  Binance Sign-in attempt from Romania
• LEGAL DEMAND from Take-Two interactive

So, this could be someone testing the system, but it just as well might be someone who enjoys disrupting the system and creating disruption. Maybe they have an axe to grind with Zendesk. Or they’re looking for a way to send attachments with the emails.

Either way, Zendesk told BleepingComputer that they introduced new safety features on their end to detect and stop this type of spam in the future. But companies are advised to restrict the users that can submit tickets and the titles submitters can give to the tickets.

Stay vigilant

In the emails we have seen the links in the tickets are legitimate and point to the affected company’s ticket system. And the only part of the emails the attackers should be able to manipulate is the title and subject of the ticket.

But although everyone involved tells us just to ignore the emails, it is never wrong to handle them with an appropriate amount of distrust.

• Delete or archive the emails without interacting.
• Do not click on the links if you have not submitted the ticket or call any telephone number mentioned in the ticket. Reach out through verified channels.
• Ignore any actions advised in the parts of the email the ticket submitter can control.

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We don’t just report on threats – we help protect your social media

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Protect your social media accounts by using Malwarebytes Identity Theft Protection.

Other noteworthy stories that might have slipped under the radar: Cloudflare WAF bypass, Canonical Snap Store abused for malware delivery, Curl terminating bug bounty program

The post In Other News: €1.2B GDPR Fines, Net-NTLMv1 Rainbow Tables, Rockwell Security Notice appeared first on SecurityWeek.

The LastPass Threat Intelligence, Mitigation, and Escalation (TIME) team has published a warning about an active phishing campaign in which fake “maintenance” emails pressure users to back up their vaults within 24 hours. The emails lead to credential-stealing phishing sites rather than any legitimate LastPass page.

The phishing campaign that started around January 19, 2026, uses emails that falsely claim upcoming infrastructure maintenance and urge users to “backup your vault in the next 24 hours.”

“Scheduled Maintenance: Backup Recommended

As part of our ongoing commitment to security and performance, we will be conducting scheduled infrastructure maintenance on our servers.
Why are we asking you to create a backup?
While your data remains protected at all times, creating a local backup ensures you have access to your credentials during the maintenance window. In the unlikely event of any unforeseen technical difficulties or data discrepancies, having a recent backup guarantees your information remains secure and recoverable. We recommend this precautionary measure to all users to ensure complete peace of mind and seamless continuity of service.

Create Backup Now (link)

How to create your backup
1 Click the “Create Backup Now” button above
2 Select “Export Vault” from you account settings
3 Download and store your encrypted backup file securely”

The link in the email points to mail-lastpass[.]com, a domain that doesn’t belong to LastPass and has now been taken down.

Note that there are different subject lines in use. Here is a selection:

• LastPass Infrastructure Update: Secure Your Vault Now
• Your Data, Your Protection: Create a Backup Before Maintenance
• Don’t Miss Out: Backup Your Vault Before Maintenance
• Important: LastPass Maintenance & Your Vault Security
• Protect Your Passwords: Backup Your Vault (24-Hour Window)

It is imperative for users to ignore instructions in emails like these. Giving away the login details for your password manager can be disastrous. For most users, it would provide access to enough information to carry out identity theft.

Stay safe

First and foremost, it’s important to understand that LastPass will never ask for your master password or demand immediate action under a tight deadline. Generally speaking, there are more guidelines that can help you stay safe.

• Don’t click on links in unsolicited emails without verifying with the trusted sender that they’re legitimate.
• Always log in directly on the platform that you are trying to access, rather than through a link.
• Use a real-time, up-to-date anti-malware solution with a web protection module to block malicious sites.
• Report phishing emails to the company that’s being impersonated, so they can alert other customers. In this case emails were forwarded to abuse@lastpass.com.

Pro tip: Malwarebytes Scam Guard  would have recognized this email as a scam and advised you how to proceed.

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