Antivirus

Avast overhauls flagship antivirus service to shield against online scams

Audio player loading… The antivirus (opens in new tab) maker Avast has upgraded its all-in-one protection service Avast One (opens in new tab) with new features aimed at protecting users from online scams, fraud and other personal privacy threats.According to a recent study carried out by the company, the three most common ways consumers and…

Published 3 years ago in
Avast overhauls flagship antivirus service to shield against online scams
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The antivirus (opens in new tab) maker Avast has upgraded its all-in-one protection service Avast One (opens in new tab) with new features aimed at protecting users from online scams, fraud and other personal privacy threats.

According to a recent study carried out by the company, the three most common ways consumers and businesses are targeted by scammers include email (62%), text messages (52%) and through social media (29%). For this reason, Avast has decided to add scam and online fraud protection to its flagship antivirus offering.

The update to Avast One also includes a new feature launching on Windows and Android called Online Safety Score that provides users with regular feedback on their digital habits and gives them personalized tips to improve their online and device safety. Meanwhile, Privacy Advisor is an educational tool that offers simple step-by-step instructions to adjust and improve privacy settings on Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and other popular online platforms.

Chief product officer at Avast, Vita Santrucek explained in a press release (opens in new tab) how the company’s new additions to Avast One can help users feel safer and less at risk of online scams, saying:

“We know scams are a cause for concern for a lot of people so our goal with the new additions to the Avast One suite was to help them regain confidence and peace of mind when using the internet and their devices. Not only are scams and other forms of online fraud more pervasive, they’re also more sophisticated, to the extent it’s really hard to differentiate between content that’s benign and content designed to exploit. Scammers take advantage of current affairs to reel people in, for example, two years ago we saw a spike in Covid-related scams, and in February and March this year we saw scams related to the Ukraine war.”

Email Guardian, Scam Protection and Smart VPN 

In addition to Online Safety Score and Privacy Advisor, the free version of Avast One, Avast One Essential, is also getting another new feature in the form of Email Guardian.

Email Guardian blocks malicious attachments (opens in new tab) in emails and prevents users from sending these dangerous files to others. When a malicious attachment is detected, an alert is displayed and from here, a user can still choose to download a file if they think it is safe on Windows and Mac.

The paid versions of Avast One, Avast One Individual and Family, are getting two new features in the form of Scam Protection and Smart VPN. 

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As the name suggests, Scam Protection helps protect users from scams by notifying them when they receive a text or social media message where a potentially dangerous link (opens in new tab) has been identified. If the link is safe, it’s opened automatically in a user’s browser (opens in new tab) but if it’s

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Antivirus

Gamers at risk as scammers are using malware-infected cheats and mods to steal passwords and crypto — here’s how to stay safe

Cheats and mods are now frontlines for cybercrime targeting gamers’ wallets and private data Verified crypto wallets like MetaMask and Exodus are being drained through browser injection Trojan.Scavenger abuses overlooked flaws to disable browser safety and manipulate trusted extensions Gamers seeking performance enhancements or special abilities through third-party patches and mods may be unwittingly exposing

Published 4 days ago in
Gamers at risk as scammers are using malware-infected cheats and mods to steal passwords and crypto — here’s how to stay safe
  • Cheats and mods are now frontlines for cybercrime targeting gamers’ wallets and private data
  • Verified crypto wallets like MetaMask and Exodus are being drained through browser injection
  • Trojan.Scavenger abuses overlooked flaws to disable browser safety and manipulate trusted extensions

Gamers seeking performance enhancements or special abilities through third-party patches and mods may be unwittingly exposing themselves to sophisticated malware, experts have warned.

Recent findings from Dr.Web revealed a malware family known as “Trojan.Scavenger” which targets Windows users by disguising itself as cheats or enhancements for popular games.

This seemingly harmless mod can ultimately compromise crypto wallets, password managers, and web browsers, posing serious risks to user privacy and digital assets.

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When cheats become covert threats

The infection chain begins when users download ZIP archives claiming to improve performance in games including the likes of Grand Theft Auto 5 or Oblivion Remastered.

These archives contain modified dynamic libraries, sometimes renamed with extensions like .ASI to resemble legitimate plugin formats.

When the user follows the installation instructions, the malicious library is placed in the same folder as the target game. If the game does not properly validate its libraries, the trojan loads automatically at startup.

In some cases, flaws in library search priorities are essential to the malware’s success, allowing it to hijack execution within the host application.

Once loaded, the malware establishes contact with a command-and-control server using encrypted communication. This process includes verifying encryption keys and checking timestamp consistency, which is meant to evade analysis and block antivirus detection.

The malware doesn’t stop with the initial payload. In more complex infections, it deploys additional trojans that embed themselves in Chromium-based browsers like Chrome, Edge, Opera, and Yandex.

These troj

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Antivirus

Major new malware strain targets crypto users via malicious ads – here’s what we know, and how to stay safe

Check Point finds thousands of ads promoting fake crypto apps The apps come with an infostealer malware targeting users The infostealer can bypass most antivirus protections Cryptocurrency users are being targeted by a highly sophisticated, widespread cybercriminal campaign with the goal of deploying malware capable of grabbing exchange and wallet information, essentially robbing the people

Published 7 days ago in
Major new malware strain targets crypto users via malicious ads – here’s what we know, and how to stay safe
  • Check Point finds thousands of ads promoting fake crypto apps
  • The apps come with an infostealer malware targeting users
  • The infostealer can bypass most antivirus protections

Cryptocurrency users are being targeted by a highly sophisticated, widespread cybercriminal campaign with the goal of deploying malware capable of grabbing exchange and wallet information, essentially robbing the people of their tokens, experts from Check Point have warned.

Apparently active since March 2024, what makes this campaign, dubbed JSCEAL by the researchers, unique is the use of compiled JavaScript files (JSC), which allows the malware to remain hidden from most traditional antivirus solutions.

The criminals created fake cryptocurrency exchange and wallet apps, which come with an infostealer. They also created websites to host these apps, and managed to purchase thousands of advertisements on the internet to promote the scam. Check Point says that just in the European Union (EU), 35,000 malicious ads were served between January and June 2025.

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JSCEAL malware

“The use of Facebook’s Ad Library enabled us to estimate the campaign’s reach, while in a very conservative approach we can estimate the total reach of the malvertising campaign at 3.5 million users within the EU alone, and likely above 10 million users worldwide,” the researchers explained.

People who fall for the scam download an MSI installer which triggers “a sequence of profiling scripts” that gather critical system information. These scripts also use PowerShell commands to collect and exfiltrate data, in preparation of the final payload deployment.

This final payload is the JSCEAL malware, which steals crypto-related data such as credentials and private keys. The payload is executed through Node.js, it was said.

What makes this malware particularly dangerous is the use of compiled JavaScript files.

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Antivirus

From breached to bulletproof: The new rules of cybersecurity are about survival

Listen up, IT professionals. If you’re still treating cybersecurity like a checkbox exercise, you’re already three steps behind the attackers. The digital battlefield has changed, and the old rules no longer apply. Gone are the days when a firewall and antivirus software were enough to keep your organization safe…

Published 4 weeks ago in
From breached to bulletproof: The new rules of cybersecurity are about survival

Listen up, IT professionals. If you’re still treating cybersecurity like a checkbox exercise, you’re already three steps behind the attackers. The digital battlefield has changed, and the old rules no longer apply. Gone are the days when a firewall and antivirus software were enough to keep your organization safe…
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Antivirus

Nearly 8,500 small and medium businesses faced cyberattacks through mimic AI tools in 2025: Kaspersky

Global cybersecurity company Kaspersky said on Wednesday that nearly 8,500 users from small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) faced cyberattacks in the year so far, where “malicious or unwanted software” was disguised as popular online productivity tools. In April, Kaspersky — a cybersecurity company that provides antivirus and other security software for computers and mobile devices

Published 1 month ago in
Nearly 8,500 small and medium businesses faced cyberattacks through mimic AI tools in 2025: Kaspersky

Global cybersecurity company Kaspersky said on Wednesday that nearly 8,500 users from small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) faced cyberattacks in the year so far, where “malicious or unwanted software” was disguised as popular online productivity tools.
In April, Kaspersky — a cybersecurity company that provides antivirus and other security software for computers and mobile devices — said that widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies in recent years has provided “threat actors with sophisticated new tools to perpetrate attacks”…
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