A cyber intelligence firm called CloudSEK has revealed that cybercriminals are exploiting the popularity of the language model ChatGPT to spread malware through hijacked Facebook accounts. The criminals are using these accounts to distribute malware via Facebook ads, which is putting users’ security at risk.
According to CloudSEK’s investigation, there are 13 compromised FB pages with over 500,000 followers, some of which have been hijacked since February 2023, that are being used to disseminate the malware. CloudSEK is urging users to be vigilant and aware of such malicious activities on the platform.
CloudSEK has also claimed to have uncovered at least 25 websites that are impersonating the OpenAI website, which are malicious sites that are duping individuals into downloading and installing harmful software. This poses a severe risk to their security and privacy.
The malicious malware is not only capable of stealing sensitive information such as PII, system information, and credit card details from the user’s device, but also has replication capabilities to spread across systems through removable media. With the ability to escalate privileges and persistently remain on the system, it poses a significant threat, according to CloudSEK cyber intelligence analyst Bablu Kumar.