TrendAI™ Research tracked a sustained malvertising campaign that abused Google Ads to deliver ClickFix social engineering attacks disguised as popular AI developer tools. The campaign impersonated at least six legitimate brand names, including ChatGPT Codex, Perplexity, Cursor IDE, JetBrains, Claude AI, and claude.ai, and simultaneously ran Mac utility scam lures.
By leveraging paid search ads targeting users actively seeking AI development tools, the attackers were able to target technically proficient users who are more likely to interact with command-line instructions without suspicion. This marks a sophisticated evolution of the ClickFix social engineering technique, where victims are tricked into manually executing malicious commands, typically by copying and pasting PowerShell or terminal commands under the guise of “fixing” a problem or completing a software installation.
Read more…
Source: Trend Micro
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Nissan says Oracle PeopleSoft break-in may have spilled payroll records, SSNs
June 29, 2026
Nissan has joined the growing list of Oracle customers cleaning up after a cyberattack, warning employees that payroll records, bank details, Social Security numbers, and other personal data may have been stolen. In a filing submitted to the California Attorney General on Friday, Nissan Americas said Oracle had informed it of “a cyber event” involving the personnel records ...
- Fake GTA VI beta keys are already draining cryptocurrency wallets worldwide
June 27, 2026
Grand Theft Auto VI is not due on consoles until November 19 2026, but official preorders open soon, and cybersecurity researchers have warned criminals are already exploiting the wait with a coordinated wave of fraudulent websites. Malwarebytes and NordVPN have both flagged sites promising “VIP early access” or exclusive beta keys to one of gaming’s most anticipated ...
- Russian Intelligence Services Continue to Target Commercial Messaging Applications
June 26, 2026
The FBI and CISA are issuing this update to the March 20, 2026, Public Service Announcement I-032026-PSA to provide additional information to the public and encourage device owners to take actions to protect themselves. The FBI has identified multiple clusters of Russian Intelligence Services (RIS) cyber threat actors responsible for an ongoing commercial messaging application (CMA) phishing campaign against individuals of high ...
- Russian hackers were behind $2.5B hack of Jaguar Land Rover
June 26, 2026
Last year, hackers attacked car giant Jaguar Land Rover (JPL), one of the U.K.’s biggest employers. The hack halted production for months and made a dent in the country’s economy. The damage was so severe that the U.K. government decided to bail out the company with a £1.5 billion (around $2 billion) payment, and estimates say the hack cost the British ...
- Polymarket says hackers stole users’ funds
June 25, 2026
Prediction market giant Polymarket confirmed that hackers stole funds from an unspecified number of users after a third-party breach. In an X post on Thursday, Polymarket said that a compromise at a third-party vendor allowed hackers to inject malicious code into its website “for some users.” The company said it has “contained” the incident and is ...
- Self-destructing Mistic backdoor linked to access broker selling corporate footholds to ransomware gangs
June 25, 2026
A new self-destructing backdoor called Mistic used in intrusions since April appears to be linked to a criminal gang that compromises corporate networks and then sells that access to ransomware groups, according to security researchers. This backdoor, also tracked as MLTBackdoor, was first documented by Zscaler earlier this month, with the security shop suggesting the novel malware is ...