BENGALURU: Artificial Intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, which is developed by OpenAI, is now being exploited to attract users and trick them into downloading malware onto their devices.
CloudSEK, an AI company that predicts cyber threats, on Monday said its investigation has uncovered at least 25 websites engaging in the nefarious practice of impersonating the OpenAI.com website. “These malicious sites are duping individuals into downloading and installing harmful software, posing a severe risk to their security and privacy,” the report said.
It revealed the presence of 13 Facebook accounts (totalling over 500K followers) have been compromised and are being used to disseminate malware via Facebook ads. “Cybercriminals are capitalising on the popularity of ChatGPT, exploiting Facebook’s vast user base by compromising Facebook accounts to distribute malware via Facebook ads, putting users’ security at risk. We urge users to be vigilant and aware of such malicious activities on the platform,” said Bablu Kumar, Cyber Intelligence Analyst, CloudSEK.
The malicious malware, apart from stealing sensitive information such as PII, system information, and credit card details from user’s device, also has replication capabilities to spread across systems via removable media. “With the ability to escalate privileges and persistently remain on the system, it poses significant threat. Its malicious nature is evident from being flagged by 9 out of 61 security vendors on VirusTotal,” said Kumar.
“ChatGPT is an interesting experiment at the moment, but its wider availability appears to present new challenges. I have been playing with it since its public availability in November 2022 and it is quite easy to convince it to assist with creating phishing lures and responding in a way that could advance business email compromise attacks,” said Chester Wisniewski, field CTO applied research, Sophos.