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:
- Theoretical Ransomware Attack Could Lead to Global Damages Says Report
January 29, 2019
According to a speculative cyber risk scenario prepared by Cambridge University for risk management purposes, a ransomware strain that would manage to impact more than 600,000 businesses worldwide within 24 hours would potentially lead to damages of billions not covered by insurers. First of all, it is important to understand that although the numbers look very scary, this type of ...
- Users of illegal websites targeted in joint law-enforcement activity
January 29, 2019
The National Crime Agency, working with law enforcement partners from 14 countries, has taken action against a number of cyber criminals website users linked to four million attacks across the globe. This latest action is part of Operation Power Off, which pursues those individuals and services responsible for committing or facilitating DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) ...
- Police Shut Down xDedic – An Online Market for Cyber Criminals
January 29, 2019
In an international operation involving law enforcement authorities from the U.S. and several European countries, feds have shut down an online underground marketplace and arrested three suspects in Ukraine. Dubbed xDedic, the illegal online marketplace let cybercriminals buy, sell or rent out access to thousands of hacked computers and servers across the world and personally identifiable ...
- Global ransomware could cost almost $200bn
January 29, 2019
A global ransomware attack could cost $193 billion and affect more than 600,000 businesses worldwide, according to a new report. The report is called ‘Bashe Attack: Global infection by contagious malware’ and has been compiled by a Singapore-based public-private initiative called Cyber Risk Management. Lloyds of London is one of the initiatives founding members and posted ...
- Hackers are going after Cisco RV320/RV325 routers using a new exploit
January 27, 2019
Security researchers have observed ongoing internet scans and exploitation attempts against Cisco RV320 and RV325 WAN VPN routers, two models very popular among internet service providers and large enterprises. ttacks started on Friday, January 25, after security researcher David Davidson published a proof-of-concept exploit for two Cisco RV320 and RV325 vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities are: CVE-2019-1653 – allows a remote attacker to get sensitive device configuration details ...
- Malvertising campaign targets Apple users with malicious code hidden in images
January 24, 2019
Apple users continue to be some of the favorite targets of malvertising campaigns, according to a report published this week by cyber-security firm Confiant. The report describes a new malvertising group called VeryMal that’s been going after Apple users, with the latest campaigns employing steganography techniques to hide malicious code inside ad images to avoid detection. The Confiant report comes ...