Winter Olympics targeted with new custom-built fileless malware

Researchers have uncovered a campaign targeting organisations involved with next month’s Games in South Korea, with the aim of controlling infected machines.

Hackers are targeting the upcoming Winter Olympics with a phishing and malware campaign directed at the organisations that provide infrastructure and other support for the Games.

The campaign targets a number of organisations involved with the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, set to take place in Pyeongchang, South Korea next month. It uses a previously unseen form of malware designed to hand control of the victim’s machine over to the attackers.

Among those sent the messages are individuals associated with the ice hockey tournament at the Games. The attack has been dubbed ‘Operation PowerShell Olympics’ by the researchers at McAfee Labs, who uncovered it taking place in late December.

“This particular malware has not been seen before and it is something custom that was created by the attacker,” Ryan Sherstobitoff, senior analyst at McAfee Advanced Threat Research, told ZDNet.

Read more on ZDNet