US and British government websites have been advertising hacking services for years

For several years, cybercriminals have been using the websites of US government agencies and universities, as well as some European companies, to spread advertisements for hacking services.

The attackers uploaded PDF files with advertising texts and links to the websites, exploiting vulnerabilities in CMS. The timing of the spam campaigns has not yet been established. Experts believe that either a single hacker or a small group may be behind the attacks.

Among the victims of the campaign are the websites of government agencies in some US states, including California and Washington, as well as the official websites of the city of Johns Creek (Georgia) and the Federal Administration for Community Living. The incident also affected educational institutions. PDFs advertising hacker services were found on the websites of many US universities.

The attackers also placed their ads on the website of the University of Buckingham in the UK. In addition, cybercriminals infiltrated the website of the Spanish branch of the Red Cross and the website of a travel company in Ireland.

However, the main focus of the hackers was still on the United States. According to TechCrunch, the fraudsters published ads on the website of Rockwell Collins, an American defense company and aerospace manufacturer, a subsidiary of the military-industrial giant Raytheon.

The PDF files that the attackers uploaded to the websites of various organizations did not pose a threat in themselves. However, these documents contained links to various sites where users were offered to use hacking tools to hack popular web services, including ShapChat, Facebook, and Instagram.

The source code of the fraudulent websites showed that the advertised hacking services were fake.

Last week, OpenAI CTO Mira Murati’s Twitter account was hacked by hackers to advertise a fake cryptocurrency giveaway. The attackers posted a phishing link and the address of a fake crypto wallet. However, the tweet was deleted an hour after it was posted.