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:
- Ransomware gangs are using virtual machines to disguise their attacks
June 24, 2021
Cyber criminals are increasingly using virtual machines to compromise networks with ransomware. By using virtual machines as part of the process, ransomware attackers are able to conduct their activity with additional subtlety, because running the payload within a virtual environment reduces the chances of the activity being discovered – until it’s too late and the ransomware ...
- Malicious spam campaigns delivering banking Trojans
June 24, 2021
In mid-March 2021, we observed two new spam campaigns. The messages in both cases were written in English and contained ZIP attachments or links to ZIP files. Further research revealed that both campaigns ultimately aimed to distribute banking Trojans. The payload in most cases was IcedID (Trojan-Banker.Win32.IcedID), but we have also seen a few QBot ...
- REvil Ransomware Code Ripped Off by Rivals
June 23, 2021
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery: The LV ransomware, a strain that cropped up just this spring, turns out to be based on what is most likely pirated REvil ransomware code, according to researchers. A malware analysis of LV from Secureworks Counter Threat Unit (CTU) found that its operators (which it calls Gold ...
- Tulsa warns of data breach after Conti ransomware leaks police citations
June 23, 2021
The City of Tulsa, Oklahoma, is warning residents that their personal data may have been exposed after a ransomware gang published police citations online. In early May, Tulsa suffered a ransomware attack that led to the City shutting down its network to prevent the spread of the malware. The attack disrupted Tulsa’s online bill payment systems, utility ...
- Russia to work with US on identifying hackers as part of an agreement, FSB chief says
June 23, 2021
Russia will cooperate with the United States in the field of identifying ransomware hackers as part of an agreement between the two countries’ presidents, Director of Russia’s Federal Security Service Alexander Bortnikov said in his opening remarks at the IX Moscow Conference on International Security. “We are carrying out steps as part of the agreements reached ...
- Ever101 ransomware payment traced to a sensual massage site
June 22, 2021
A ransomware targeting an Israeli company has led researchers to track a portion of a ransom payment to a website promoting sensual massages. The attack was conducted by a more recent ransomware operation known as Ever101 who compromised an Israeli computer farm and proceeded to encrypt its devices. Read more… Source: Bleeping Computer