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:
- FBI: BlackCat/ALPHV Ransomware Indicators of Compromise
April 20, 2022
This FLASH is part of a series of FBI reports to disseminate known indicators of compromise (IOCs) and tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) associated with ransomware variants identified through FBI investigations. As of March 2022, BlackCat/ALPHV ransomware as a service (RaaS) had compromised at least 60 entities worldwide and is the first ransomware group to do ...
- Ransomware gangs are getting a lot quicker at encrypting networks
April 20, 2022
A highly successful and aggressive ransomware gang is getting even faster at encrypting networks as they look to extort ransom payments from as many victims as possible. Researchers at Mandiant examined ransomware attacks by a cyber-criminal group they refer to as FIN12 – responsible for one in five attacks investigated by the cybersecurity company – and ...
- Five Eyes nations fear wave of Russian attacks against critical infrastructure
April 20, 2022
The Five Eyes nations’ cybersecurity agencies this week urged critical infrastructure to be ready for attacks by crews backed by or sympathetic to the Kremlin amid strong Western opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The joint alert, issued by cybersecurity authorities in the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, provides technical details on more than ...
- TraderTraitor: North Korean State-Sponsored APT Targets Blockchain Companies
April 18, 2022
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the U.S. Treasury Department (Treasury) are issuing this joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) to highlight the cyber threat associated with cryptocurrency thefts and tactics used by a North Korean state-sponsored advanced persistent threat (APT) group since at least 2020. This group is commonly ...
- US Treasury links North Korean hacker group Lazarus to $600M Axie Infinity heist
April 14, 2022
The US Treasury Department on Thursday linked a notorious North Korean hacking group to a massive $600 million cyber breach last month. The connection was clear when the Treasury Department updated its sanctions listing for the hacking group, called Lazarus Group. The federal agency added a cryptocurrency address that was used to steal $600 million from ...
- Emotet modules and recent attacks
April 13, 2022
Emotet was first found in the wild in 2014. Back then its main functionality was stealing user banking credentials. Since then it has survived numerous transformations, started delivering other malware and finally became a powerful botnet. In January 2021 Emotet was disrupted by a joint effort of different countries’ authorities. It took the threat actors ...