Cybersecurity analysts from Securonix have discovered a new malware variant hiding in the images produced by the James Webb Space Telescope. The malware is being dubbed as “Go#Webbfuscator” and has the potential to be spread through phishing emails loaded with a malicious deep image file in a Word document, apart from the James Webb Space Telescope generated images.
According to a source, the malware is written in the GOLANG language, which is commonly used by the Mustang Panda hackers’ group to develop malware that can cross platform OS systems such as Windows, Mac, and Linux.
For the past six months, the highly sophisticated telescope has detected many deep field images in the galaxy and was announced by Biden earlier this year. However, security researchers found that the recently released Webb images also contain malware that might be induced by hackers to target larger computer networks and take control of those victimized systems thereafter.
Technically, images embedded with malware are a common web affair these days, and that is what the memes trolling the big celebrities speak about. But using an image sourced from a telescope and made public by the honorable president seems suspicious. However, those tracking cybercrimes say that anything that becomes a craze or a trend on the web becomes an attractive target to cybercriminals who then start exploiting the trend/craze to trap more victims.
Note that the James Webb Space Telescope is a highly sophisticated device used to read and analyze space. It is equipped with high-resolution lenses that allow the viewing of too old, distant, or minute objects and is used in fields such as astronomy and cosmology, such as the detection of new galaxies. The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the owner and designer of the space telescope and received great support from the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
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