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 Hits U.S. Electric Utility
February 27, 2020
The Reading Municipal Light Department (RMLD) was infected with ransomware, as revealed in a statement by the electric utility. RMLD did not disclose the details on how their system was infected or the demands of the group behind the malware. There was also no indication of plans to pay ransom to the threat actors. RMLD is an electric utility in ...
- Ransomware Against the Machine: How Adversaries are Learning to Disrupt Industrial Production by Targeting IT and OT
February 24, 2020
Since at least 2017, there has been a significant increase in public disclosures of ransomware incidents impacting industrial production and critical infrastructure organizations. Well-known ransomware families like WannaCry, LockerGoga, MegaCortex, Ryuk, Maze, and now SNAKEHOSE (a.k.a. Snake / Ekans), have cost victims across a variety of industry verticals many millions of dollars in ransom and ...
- ObliqueRAT linked to threat group launching attacks against government targets
February 21, 2020
Researchers have uncovered a new Remote Access Trojan (RAT) that appears to be the handiwork of a threat group specializing in attacks against government and diplomatic targets. On Thursday, Cisco Talos researchers said the malware, dubbed ObliqueRAT, is being deployed in a new campaign focused on targets in Southeast Asia. The latest campaign started in January 2020 and ...
- Croatia’s largest petrol station chain impacted by cyber-attack
February 20, 2020
A security incident described as “a cyber-attack” has crippled some business operations at INA Group, Croatia’s biggest oil company, and its largest petrol station chain. The attack took place last Friday, on February 14, at 22:00, local time, the company said. Multiple sources have told ZDNet the cyber-attack is a ransomware infection that infected and then encrypted ...
- Details of 10.6 million MGM hotel guests posted on a hacking forum
February 19, 2020
The personal details of more than 10.6 million users who stayed at MGM Resorts hotels have been published on a hacking forum this week. Besides details for regular tourists and travelers, included in the leaked files are also personal and contact details for celebrities, tech CEOs, reporters, government officials, and employees at some of the world’s ...
- Assessment of Ransomware Event at U.S. Pipeline Operator
February 19, 2020
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) reported on 18 February 2020 on a ransomware incident impacting a natural gas compression facility at an unidentified U.S. pipeline operator. The ransomware event impacted both IT and ICS assets by causing loss of view and control impacts that caused the facility to implement controlled shutdown processes ...