There truly is no honor among thieves – fake malware designed to lure would-be digital crooks into exposing their own devices has been detected by a cybersecurity firm.
HP Wolf Security said that it uncovered the ploy during a routine sweep of the darker corners of the web for its third-quarter report.
It exposed the attackers hosting fake remote access trojans (RATs) on GitHub, “attempting to trick inexperienced cybercriminals into infecting their own PCs.”
HP Wolf added: “The code repositories claim to contain full versions of a popular malware kit called XWorm that sells for up to $500, but instead downloads and runs malware on the aspiring hacker’s machine.”
So let that be a lesson to wannabe crooks everywhere – crime doesn’t pay unless you are exceptionally devious about it.
Other popular types of malware used to bait novice crooks that came up on HP Wolf’s radar included Coinminer, Redline Stealer, and ClipBanker.
“Since code repositories can be created under many names and descriptions, we expect there are other examples of fake RATs being used to spread malware,” said HP Wolf.
Other notable cybercriminal campaigns detailed by HP Wolf Security in its quarterly report included the use of infected PowerPoint presentations to target hotel businesses in Latin America.
“The presentations, sent via email, were disguised as information from a hospitality management software vendor,” said HP Wolf, which also reported “a surge in the abuse of Excel add-in files” to attack targets.
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