Beware weaponized Google Ads

Cybercriminals are exploiting a previously unseen backdoor to substitute ‘malvertizing’, weaponized bogus ads to push them to the top of Google searches. The attacks are particularly dangerous to corporations of all sizes, as they are aimed squarely at in-house IT professionals, who invariably hold the keys to the organization’s digital kingdom

The unknown threat actor(s) ‘ selection of spoofed software evidences that cybercriminals’ targets primarily consist of IT professionals, particularly those in IT security and network administration roles, according to research from Zscaler ThreatLabz.

“Beginning in March of 2024, Zscaler ThreatLabz observed a threat actor weaponizing a cluster of domains masquerading as legitimate IP scanner software sites to distribute a previously unseen backdoor. The threat actor registered multiple look-alike domains…and leveraged Google Ads to push these domains to the top of search engine results targeting specific search keywords,” says Zscaler ThreatLabz.