Golden Chickens Back With Data-Stealing Malware - 1

Image by Max Bender, from Unsplash

Golden Chickens Back With Data-Stealing Malware

  • Written by Kiara Fabbri Former Tech News Writer
  • Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager

Golden Chickens’ new malware tools, TerraStealerV2 and TerraLogger, pose rising threats by stealing browser data and recording user keystrokes, researchers warn.

In a rush? Here are the quick facts:

  • TerraStealerV2 steals browser logins, crypto wallet data, and extensions.
  • TerraLogger records keystrokes but doesn’t transmit data yet.
  • Golden Chickens spreads malware using fake resumes or job offers.

The cybersecurity researchers at Insikt Group identified two new malicious tools which belong to the well-known hacker group Golden Chickens, also known as Venom Spider. The researchers identified TerraStealerV2 and TerraLogger as new malware strains.

Golden Chickens is a financially driven threat group that provides malware to cybercriminals as part of a service. Their tools have been used by major hacking groups like FIN6 and Evilnum, linked to damages of over $1.5 billion worldwide.

TerraStealerV2 is designed to steal data from victims’ computers, including browser login credentials, crypto wallet information, and browser extensions. It grabs this data from Chrome’s login database but can’t access information protected by Chrome’s latest security upgrades.

The malware sends stolen data to a Telegram channel and the website wetransfers[.]io. It spreads through multiple file types like LNK, MSI, DLL, and EXE, and uses built-in Windows tools to avoid detection.

The second tool, TerraLogger, functions as a keylogger which logs all keyboard entries from victim computers. The tool lacks data transmission capabilities which indicates it remains unfinished or serves as a component of a comprehensive malware system.

The researchers say that Golden Chickens, which has been around since at least 2018, usually tricks victims with fake job offers or resumes to install malware. The group’s earlier attacks have affected major companies like British Airways and Ticketmaster UK.

Insikt Group warns that both tools could evolve quickly and urges organizations to take steps to protect against them before they mature further.

FutureHouse Launches “AI Scientist,” An Agent To Accelerate Scientific Progress - 2

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

FutureHouse Launches “AI Scientist,” An Agent To Accelerate Scientific Progress

  • Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
  • Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager

The non-profit organization FutureHouse launched AI Scientist on Thursday, a program featuring four AI agents designed to help scientists accelerate research and make new scientific discoveries. The agents, Crow, Falcon, Owl, and Phoenix, have different specializations and were built for various purposes, and can help automate research.

In a rush? Here are the quick facts:

  • FutureHouse launched AI Scientist, a program featuring four specialized AI agents: Crow, Falcon, Owl, and Phoenix.
  • Each agent is designed for a specific purpose and performs different tasks, all aimed at accelerating scientific breakthroughs.
  • The platform is currently free and available for researchers to test the AI models.

FutureHouse’s CEO and co-founder, Sam Rodriques, shared more details about the new technology in a post on the social media platform X.

“We are launching the first publicly available AI Scientist, via the FutureHouse Platform,” wrote Rodriques. “Our AI Scientist agents can perform a wide variety of scientific tasks better than humans. By chaining them together, we’ve already started to discover new biology really fast. With the platform, we are bringing these capabilities to the wider community.”

Rodriques explained that Crow is a general-purpose agent that provides concise answers, Falcon automates literature reviews and offers deep analysis, and Owl helps scientists verify what studies or research have been conducted on a given topic. Phoenix is an experimental agent specializing in chemistry.

“The three literature search agents (Crow, Falcon, and Owl) have benchmarked superhuman performance,” added Rodriques. “They also have access to a large corpus of full scientific texts, which means that you can ask them more detailed questions about experimental protocols and study limitations that general-purpose web search agents, which usually only have access to abstracts, might miss.” The agents can also verify quality and avoid reliance on low-quality papers.

FutureHouse also released an API to help researchers and scientists integrate the AI agents into their workflows.

Rodriques clarified that the AI agents released by FutureHouse cannot yet operate autonomously, but they are capable of performing complex tasks. The organization expects to roll out further updates and improvements soon. The platform is currently free to use, although pricing plans may be introduced in the future. The team also shared a video demonstrating how to use the technology with applied examples.

Watch our team explain how you can use the FutureHouse Platform to come up with new hypotheses and make new discoveries. pic.twitter.com/2fA5Sne6DE — Sam Rodriques (@SGRodriques) May 1, 2025

Multiple companies and organizations are developing scientific advances boosted by artificial intelligence. Recently, Swiss researchers developed a system to detect planets that may harbor life in other planetary systems , and another study based on a Google AI model is attempting to decipher communications between dolphins .