- The new fog ransomware asks the victims to justify their jobs
- The fog has been responsible for 173 attacks since June 2024
- The payload is initially delivered by e-mail / phishing
A new ransomware attack seems to channel Elon Musk’s energy by demanding that workers share a summary of their weekly achievements, as was Tesla CEO as part of his Doge efforts.
The note refers to the controversial note of Musk ‘Five Bullets’, asking the victims to justify their job or to spit 1 billion of dollars.
Musk’s original policy was issued under the administration of Trump and intended to stimulate responsibility in federal ministries. He quickly faced a backlash and later became an optional, but he now feeds the latest series of scams according to a new micro postponement trend.
Fog ransomware inspired by Musk’s loss of responsibility
TrendMicro found nine ransomware samples between March 27 and April 2, which he attributed to fog ransomware.
They “abandoned a note containing key names linked to the Ministry of Government (DOGE),” explains the report, which highlights Doge’s position in titles.
The recent cites report PK Press Club The report that discloses a DOGE technologue had already been involved in the provision of support for a cybercrime gang linked to stolen data traffic and the cyberstaling of an FBI agent.
The Ransomware of Brouillard has been linked to 173 Ransomware activity leaders since June 2024 and 53 in February 2025 only. Individuals and organizations in the technology, education, manufacturing and transport sectors are mainly at risk.
In the case of the current attack inspired by the DOGE, malicious software is delivered by e-mail or a phishing attempt using a zip file named “ payroll adjustment ”, which contains an LNK file disguised as PDF. By clicking on the file, a PowerShell script which recovers the useful loads of ransomware and plays YouTube political videos.
Although there are basic steps in cybersecurity hygiene that users can take to avoid attacks, such as not click on suspicious links, social engineering continues to be other most exploited attack vectors and humans are the lowest point of the cybersecurity strategy of any business, which is why Trend Micro also recommend companies to monitor compromise indicators.
