Quote:A malware that until now has gone undocumented has been quietly hijacking online accounts of advertisers and users of Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Google and other web giants since July 2019 and then using them for nefarious activity, researchers have found.
 
Dubbed CopperStealer, the malware acts similarly to previously discovered, China-backed malware family SilentFade, according to a report from Proofpoint researchers Brandon Murphy, Dennis Schwarz, Jack Mott and the Proofpoint Threat Research Team published online this week.
 
“Our investigation uncovered an actively developed password and cookie stealer with a downloader function, capable of delivering additional malware after performing stealer activity,” they wrote.
 
CopperStealer is in the same class not only as SilentFade—the creation of which Facebook attributed to Hong Kong-based  ILikeAD Media International Company Ltd–but also other malware such as StressPaint, FacebookRobot and Scranos. Researchers have deemed Stressfade in particular responsible for compromising accounts of social-media giants like Facebook and then using them to engage in cybercriminal activity, such as running deceptive ads, to the tune of $4 million in damages, researchers noted.