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:
- Ryuk Ransomware Keeps Targeting Hospitals During the Pandemic
March 26, 2020
The Ryuk Ransomware operators to continue to target hospitals even as these organizations are overwhelmed during the Coronavirus pandemic. Last week BleepingComputer contacted various ransomware groups and asked if they would target hospitals and other healthcare organizations during the pandemic. With the amount of strain healthcare organizations are under during this pandemic, I was hoping that ransomware operators would ...
- Ransomware Maze
March 26, 2020
The Maze ransomware, previously known in the community as “ChaCha ransomware”, was discovered on May the 29th 2019 by Jerome Segura. The main goal of the ransomware is to crypt all files that it can in an infected system and then demand a ransom to recover the files. However, the most important characteristic of Maze is the ...
- Developing Story: Coronavirus Used in Malicious Campaigns
March 20, 2020
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is being used in a variety of malicious campaigns including email spam, BEC, malware, ransomware, and malicious domains. As the number of those afflicted continue to surge by thousands, campaigns that use the disease as a lure likewise increase. Trend Micro researchers are periodically sourcing for samples on coronavirus-related malicious campaigns. This report also includes ...
- New Variant of Paradise Ransomware Spreads Through IQY Files
March 18, 2020
Internet Query Files (IQY) were used to deliver a new variant of Paradise ransomware, as reported by Last Line. The said file type has not been associated with this ransomware family before. In the past, IQY files were typically used in other malware campaigns such as the Necurs botnet that distributes IQY files to deliver FlawedAmmy RAT. Bebloh and Ursnif also spreads ...
- New Ursnif Campaign Targets Users in Japan
March 17, 2020
Trend Micro researchers detected a new Ursnif campaign targeting users in Japan. The malware is distributed through infected Microsoft Word documents coming from spam emails. Ursnif, also known as Gozi, is an information stealer that collects login credentials from browsers and email applications. It has capabilities for monitoring network traffic, screen capturing, and keylogging. It is ...
- Hackers attacked a US health agency’s computer system in an attempt to slow down its COVID-19 response
March 16, 2020
As the US ramps up its response to the spread of COVID-19, the Health and Human Services Department was hit with a cyberattack, according to a new report from Bloomberg. Citing three unnamed sources familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported that the cyberattack aimed to slow down HHS computer systems Sunday night, but were unsuccessful in ...