A threat group called “Golden Chickens” is targeting professionals on LinkedIn with fake job offers with the intent to infect respondents with malware.

As detailed today by cybersecurity firm eSentire Inc., the campaign is “spear-phishing” victims with a sophisticated backdoor Trojan virus that, when installed, gives the hacking group remote control over the victim’s computer. That allows hackers to send, receive, launch and delete files.

In one example, if the LinkedIn member’s job is listed as “Senior Account Executive – International Freight,” the malicious file would be specifically targeted to the target with “position” added to the end of the job title. Upon opening the file attached to the fake job offer, the victim initiates the installation of what the researchers describe as “fileless backdoor, more_eggs.”

The Golden Chickens hackers are also selling the “more_eggs” Trojan on the dark web on a malware-as-a-service basis. The malware is being pitched as a way to gain access to a victim’s system to install other types of malware such as ransomware, banking malware and credential stealers.

“While there is no specific information, the report identifies the target as being in the healthcare technology industry,” Chris Hazelton, director of security solutions at endpoint to cloud security company Lookout Inc., told SiliconANGLE. “It is likely the target was chosen by an attacker interested in gaining access to an organization’s cloud infrastructure, with a potential goal of exfiltrating sensitive data related to intellectual property or even infrastructure controlling medical devices.”

With vaccinations being rolled out in some countries at an impressive rate, he added, companies are looking to increase staff as the economy recovers. “This increase in LinkedIn messaging traffic means users are receiving more messages since the pandemic started, so they are spending less time vetting each message,” he said.

Chris Morales, chief information security officer at digital information technology transformation company Netenrich Inc., noted that targeting LinkedIn is not rocket science. “It is social media for the corporate world with a description of the key players in every industry,” he said. “I assume that I am a target too and always look for that.”

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