Secretive Trojan Remcos RAT Targets Colombian Organizations at Large Scale

Cybersecurity Researchers Uncover Large-Scale Phishing Campaign Targeting Colombian Firms
Cybersecurity researchers from Check Point have recently exposed a widespread phishing campaign aimed at over 40 major companies in various sectors of the Colombian economy. The objective of the attackers was to secretly install the Remcos Rat malware on the employees’ computers of these organizations, enabling them to compromise systems and acquire valuable data [source]. Remcos Rat is a sophisticated remote access tool that grants cybercriminals complete control of infected systems, allowing them to carry out various cyber attacks and gather sensitive data. The distribution of Remcos often leads to the theft of critical information, installation of additional malware, and interception of user accounts. The Check Point investigation revealed that the attack commenced with a large-scale phishing email campaign, utilizing the names of prominent financial institutions and major corporations operating in Colombia. These emails were carefully designed to appear legitimate, often employing urgent notifications, reports of overdue debts, or attractive offers to entice recipients to take action. Each phishing email contained an attachment in the form of a seemingly harmless Zip, Rar, or TGZ archive. The message falsely claimed that the archive contained important documents, accounts, or other valuable information for the recipient, with the intention of coaxing them into opening the attachment. However, these archives harbored a highly dedicated BAT file that, once executed, initiated a PowerShell command. These commands were intentionally complex to evade analysis and detection by security measures. Upon decryption of the PowerShell command, two malicious platforms were loaded into the RAM, including the .NET execution environment, classes, and programming languages. .NET is widely used for developing applications, ranging from desktop and web to mobile applications, games, and web servers.

Cybersecurity Researchers Uncover Large-Scale Phishing Campaign Targeting Colombian Firms

Cybersecurity researchers from Check Point have recently exposed a widespread phishing campaign aimed at over 40 major companies in various sectors of the Colombian economy. The objective of the attackers was to secretly install the Remcos Rat malware on the employees’ computers of these organizations, enabling them to compromise systems and acquire valuable data [source].

Remcos Rat is a sophisticated remote access tool that grants cybercriminals complete control of infected systems, allowing them to carry out various cyber attacks and gather sensitive data. The distribution of Remcos often leads to the theft of critical information, installation of additional malware, and interception of user accounts.

The Check Point investigation revealed that the attack commenced with a large-scale phishing email campaign, utilizing the names of prominent financial institutions and major corporations operating in Colombia. These emails were carefully designed to appear legitimate, often employing urgent notifications, reports of overdue debts, or attractive offers to entice recipients to take action.

Each phishing email contained an attachment in the form of a seemingly harmless Zip, Rar, or TGZ archive. The message falsely claimed that the archive contained important documents, accounts, or other valuable information for the recipient, with the intention of coaxing them into opening the attachment.

However, these archives harbored a highly dedicated BAT file that, once executed, initiated a PowerShell command. These commands were intentionally complex to evade analysis and detection by security measures.

Upon decryption of the PowerShell command, two malicious platforms were loaded into the RAM, including the .NET execution environment, classes, and programming languages. .NET is widely used for developing applications, ranging from desktop and web to mobile applications, games, and web servers.

/Reports, release notes, official announcements.