Malwarebytes' researcher, Jérôme Segura, recently unveiled a malicious ad campaign impersonating the popular NordVPN on Bing, the Microsoft-owned search engine. Redirecting people to a fake website that looks almost identical to the provider's legit site, cybercriminals sought to trick people into installing the SecTopRAT malware on their devices. It isn't clear how many attacks have been successfully launched.
So-called malvertising is the practice of executing malware attacks through online advertisement—a lucrative activity that has already made its way to AI chatbots. To do so, attackers can either pay for or hack into a display ad campaign. Google is the most abused search engine for malicious search ads, with Microsoft Bing being the second-biggest target "due to its close ties to the Windows ecosystem and Edge browser," wrote Segura.
