All news with #business email compromise tag

📍 Google has introduced a dedicated form for businesses on Google Maps to report extortion attempts where threat actors post inauthentic negative reviews and demand payment to remove them. The move targets review bombing schemes that flood profiles with fake one-star reviews and then coerce owners, often via third-party messaging apps. Google also highlighted related threats — from job and AI impersonation scams to malicious VPN apps and fraud recovery cons — and advised practical precautions for affected merchants and users.

🔒 Microsoft warns of an emerging scam targeting online payroll systems, in which attackers use social engineering to steal employee and administrator credentials. Those credentials are abused to reroute direct deposits into attacker-controlled accounts, and fraudsters may take extra steps such as changing contact details or suppressing notifications to delay detection. The advisory highlights how moving payroll online creates new avenues for account takeover and financial fraud, and urges employers and vendors to strengthen authentication, monitoring, and verification processes.

🔒 Check Point Research identified multiple vulnerabilities in Microsoft Teams that could let attackers impersonate executives, manipulate message content, and spoof in-app notifications. The flaws exploit trust mechanisms built into real-time collaboration features used by more than 320 million monthly active users, turning expectations of authenticity into an attack vector. Researchers emphasize that trust alone isn’t a security strategy and urge rapid remediation by vendors and mitigations by organizations. Administrators should prioritize updates, review messaging policies, and increase user awareness to reduce exposure.

🔐 Identity compromise is driving large-scale AWS abuse, with attackers leveraging stolen access keys to test accounts and weaponize Amazon SES for Business Email Compromise and invoice fraud. FortiGuard Labs attributes the reconnaissance layer to a campaign named TruffleNet that uses TruffleHog and automated AWS CLI/Boto3 requests to validate credentials and probe SES quotas. Fortinet recommends continuous monitoring, least-privilege access, MFA, and integrated detection via FortiCNAPP and related controls to detect and block these activities.

🔒 Hackers are exploiting LinkedIn direct messages to phish finance executives with messages claiming to invite recipients to an executive board and leading to credential-harvesting pages. Push Security says victims are redirected — including via a Google open redirect — to a Firebase-hosted 'LinkedIn Cloud Share' page that urges users to click a 'View with Microsoft' button. That flow then presents a Cloudflare Turnstile and a fake Microsoft sign-in used as an adversary-in-the-middle to capture credentials and session cookies; organizations should verify senders, avoid unsolicited links, and enforce MFA and conditional access.

🔒 LastPass warns customers of a sophisticated phishing campaign that uses fake inheritance emails claiming a family member uploaded a death certificate to request emergency access to a user's vault. The messages include an agent ID and a link that redirects victims to a fraudulent page on lastpassrecovery[.]com where the victim is prompted to enter their master password. In some incidents attackers also called victims while posing as LastPass staff. The campaign, active since mid‑October and attributed to financially motivated group CryptoChameleon (UNC5356), has expanded to target passkeys as well.

🛡️ Cisco Talos warns that Microsoft 365 Exchange Online’s Direct Send feature, intended for legacy devices and line‑of‑business appliances, is being abused to bypass standard authentication and content inspection. Attackers are leveraging these unauthenticated SMTP flows in phishing and BEC campaigns by impersonating internal users and embedding obfuscated lures such as QR codes and empty‑body messages. Talos recommends a phased approach — inventorying dependencies, migrating devices to authenticated SMTP or partner connectors, and validating mailflows before enabling RejectDirectSend — to reduce risk without disrupting critical workflows.

🛡️ Varonis introduces Interceptor, an AI-native email security solution that combines multimodal AI—visual, linguistic, and behavioral models—to detect advanced phishing, BEC, and social engineering. It augments or replaces API-based filters with a phishing sandbox that pre-analyzes newly registered domains and URLs and a lightweight browser extension for multichannel protection. Integrated with the Varonis Data Security Platform, Interceptor aims to reduce false positives, accelerate detection of zero-hour threats, and stop breaches earlier in the attack chain.

🔒 Microsoft warns that a financially motivated group tracked as Storm-2657 is hijacking employee accounts to redirect payroll by altering profiles in third-party HR SaaS platforms such as Workday. Attacks rely on AitM phishing, MFA gaps and SSO abuse rather than software vulnerabilities. Observed tactics include creating inbox rules to delete warning notifications and enrolling attacker-controlled phone numbers for persistent access. Microsoft reported compromises at multiple U.S. universities and recommends phishing-resistant, passwordless MFA such as FIDO2 keys, and reviews of MFA devices and mailbox rules to detect takeover.

🔐 Microsoft says the Storm-2657 gang has been targeting U.S. university HR employees since March 2025 in “payroll pirate” attacks that aim to hijack salary payments by compromising Workday accounts and Exchange Online mailboxes. Attackers use tailored phishing themes—campus illness, faculty misconduct, executive impersonation—and adversary‑in‑the‑middle (AITM) links to steal MFA codes and gain access. They then set inbox rules to hide warnings, adjust payroll SSO settings, and sometimes enroll attacker phone numbers as MFA devices; Microsoft urges deployment of phishing‑resistant MFA and offers investigative guidance.

🔍 Microsoft Threat Intelligence observed a financially motivated actor tracked as Storm-2657 conducting targeted 'payroll pirate' intrusions against US universities to divert salary payments. The actor used realistic phishing and adversary-in-the-middle (AiTM) links to harvest credentials and MFA codes, gained access to Exchange Online, abused SSO to reach Workday profiles, and created inbox rules to hide payroll notifications. Microsoft recommends adopting phishing-resistant, passwordless MFA and provides detections and remediation guidance.

🛫 Kaspersky researchers uncovered a widespread email fraud campaign impersonating major airlines and airports to solicit advance refundable deposits. Attackers use convincing business-style messages, registration forms and NDAs rather than malware, then request several-thousand-dollar payments to secure partnership consideration. Recipients are urged to verify sender domains against official corporate contacts and treat any deposit request as a major red flag. Organizations should deploy strong email-gateway defenses and provide targeted security awareness training for finance, sales and procurement teams.

🔒 The National Crime Agency and The Law Society have warned that UK house buyers faced average losses of £82,000 from payment diversion fraud over the past year. This form of payment diversion fraud (PDF) — a type of business email compromise — relies on hijacked or spoofed emails and lookalike domains to alter bank transfer instructions. The campaign urges solicitors and conveyancers to tighten checks and advises clients to verify bank details, use strong passwords, avoid public Wi‑Fi and transfer small initial amounts to confirm receipt.

🕵️‍♂️ In a five-month international campaign, Operation HAECHI VI led by Interpol and partner agencies recovered more than $439 million in cash and cryptocurrency tied to cyber-enabled financial crimes. Investigators from 40 countries across five continents targeted a broad range of scams — including voice phishing, investment fraud, BEC, sextortion and romance scams — freezing 400 crypto wallets and blocking over 68,000 bank accounts. The action included 45 arrests in Portugal and multimillion-dollar recoveries in Thailand, building on prior HAECHI phases that netted hundreds of millions and thousands of arrests.

📩 Attackers abused GitHub's notification system to send fake Y Combinator W2026 invitations by creating issues and tagging users so the platform would deliver legitimate-looking emails. The lure promised participation in a purported $15 million funding program and linked to a typo-squatted domain. That site ran obfuscated JavaScript and presented an EIP-712-style wallet verification prompt that, when signed, authorized draining transactions.

🔒 US and UK authorities have charged two UK-based teenagers linked to the Scattered Spider cybercrime group in connection with multiple high-profile intrusions. Thalha Jubair, 19, and Owen Flowers, 18, face US and UK charges including conspiracy to commit computer fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and offences under the UK Computer Misuse Act. Authorities allege extensive social engineering, ransomware extortion and transfers of victim cryptocurrency, with investigators attributing at least $115m in ransom payments to the group. The arrests follow a multinational probe and earlier detentions of other alleged members.

🤖 Security leaders report early wins from AI in detection, triage, and automation, but emphasize limits and oversight. Prioritizing high-value telemetry for real-time detection while moving lower-priority logs to data lakes improves signal-to-noise and shortens response times, according to Myke Lyons. Financial firms are experimenting with agentic AI to block business email compromise in real time, yet researchers and practitioners warn of missed detections and 'ghost alerts.' Organizations that treat AI as a copilot with governance, explainability, and institutional context see more reliable, safer outcomes.

🔐 Attackers affiliated with the Scattered Spider group exploited weak vendor phone procedures to obtain repeated password and MFA resets from Cognizant’s service desk, then used the access to escalate to domain-admin footholds at Clorox. Clorox says the intrusion caused roughly $380 million in damages, including remediation and extended business-interruption losses. The case highlights failure to follow agreed verification processes and the amplified risk of outsourced help desks. Organizations should enforce out-of-band caller verification, immutable reset logs, and automated containment to reduce the attacker window.

⚠️ Researchers at ANY.RUN have uncovered Salty2FA, a new phishing-as-a-service kit engineered to harvest credentials and bypass multiple two-factor authentication methods. First observed gaining momentum in mid-2025, the kit uses multi-stage redirects, Cloudflare checks and evasive hosting to slip past automated filters. Salty2FA intercepts push, SMS and voice codes, enabling account takeover across finance, energy and telecom sectors.

🚨 The U.S. Department of the Treasury has designated multiple cyber fraud networks in Burma and Cambodia that stole more than $10 billion from Americans, according to OFAC. The operations are linked to forced labor, human trafficking, and violent coercion and ran diverse scams from romance baiting to fake cryptocurrency schemes. The sanctions freeze U.S.-based assets and bar transactions with Americans, tightening these actors' access to international finance and platforms.