All news with #phishing tag

🛡️ Microsoft Defender Experts (DEX) observed a late-February 2026 campaign leveraging WhatsApp messages to deliver malicious Visual Basic Script (VBS) files. Executing the VBS creates hidden folders under C:\ProgramData, drops renamed legitimate Windows utilities, and uses them to download additional payloads from cloud services such as AWS, Tencent Cloud, and Backblaze B2. Attackers escalate privileges, tamper with UAC and registry settings, and install unsigned MSI packages to establish persistent remote access. Microsoft recommends hardening script hosts, monitoring cloud traffic and registry changes, and enabling Defender protections.

🧾Proofpoint researchers reported a surge of tax-themed campaigns in early 2026 delivering malware, remote access tools, fraud schemes and credential-phishing. The advisory published on March 30 notes increasing use of remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools and activity from newly identified threat actors. Attacks include BEC requests for W-2/W-9 forms and fake login pages targeting W-8BEN updates. Organisations are advised to educate users and monitor for topical tax lures during filing periods.

📞 The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) fined Birmingham-based monitored alarm provider TMAC £100,000 after staff used false identities on marketing sales calls and the firm made over 260,000 calls to numbers registered on the Telephone Preference Service. The ICO said TMAC deliberately targeted individuals over 60 between February and September 2024, impersonating local crime and fire prevention initiatives to trick recipients. The regulator stressed these actions breached the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations and highlighted the importance of public reporting in enabling enforcement.

🚨 A large-scale campaign is abusing GitHub Discussions to post fake Visual Studio Code security advisories that trick developers into downloading malware. The spam posts use realistic titles, fabricated CVE identifiers, impersonated maintainers, and mass tagging to trigger email notifications to watchers. Links often point to external hosts (commonly Google Drive) that redirect to a domain running JavaScript reconnaissance which profiles victims and forwards data to a command-and-control server. Security vendor Socket says the activity is automated and coordinated across thousands of repositories.

🔒 Push Security has observed a coordinated wave of Adversary-in-the-Middle (AiTM) phishing pages specifically targeting TikTok for Business accounts. The malicious domains were registered on March 24 in a rapid, nine-second window and are hosted behind Cloudflare using Nicenic International Group as registrar. Victims are redirected through legitimate Google Cloud Storage links, presented with TikTok- or Google-themed content, and ultimately confronted with a reverse-proxy AiTM login flow after completing an initial information form.

🔒 Push Security warns of an adversary-in-the-middle (AitM) phishing campaign that seizes control of TikTok for Business accounts by presenting victims with malicious credential-capture pages after a Cloudflare Turnstile check. Lures include lookalike TikTok for Business and fake Google Careers pages, sometimes offering scheduled calls to gain trust. The attackers host pages on multiple domains and use the Turnstile challenge to evade automated scanners. Separately, WatchGuard reported SVG attachments used to deliver a Go-based malware artifact linked to BianLian-style activity.

🔒 The Dutch National Police disclosed a security breach stemming from a successful phishing attack, saying the incident was detected quickly and access was blocked by its Security Operations Center. Officials describe the impact as limited and state that citizens' data and investigative information were not accessed. A criminal investigation and an internal probe into affected systems are ongoing.

🔒 Threat actors are targeting TikTok for Business accounts with Cloudflare-hosted phishing pages that evade bot detection by using Google Storage redirects and a Cloudflare Turnstile check. Victims first see fake forms that request business-email validation and are then shown a reverse-proxy login page that captures credentials and session cookies, allowing account takeover even with 2FA enabled. Push Security links the activity to a campaign that previously targeted Google Ad Manager and notes multiple NiceNIC-registered domains hosted in the same Google Storage bucket. Users should verify domains, treat unsolicited invites cautiously, and prefer passkeys for high-value accounts.

🔒 Threat actors are exploiting interest in OpenClaw with a GitHub phishing campaign that lures developers with fake 'CLAW' token airdrops promising thousands of dollars. Attackers open issues, tag developers, and redirect victims to cloned sites that prompt users to connect their crypto wallets. Researchers at OX Security found obfuscated wallet‑stealing code and a C2 server used to collect addresses and drain funds. Recommended actions include blocking the phishing domain and revoking suspicious wallet approvals.

⚠️ The UK's NCA, alongside the National Federation of Builders (NFB), has warned finance and accounts payable teams in construction about a rise in invoice fraud, a form of BEC that cost victims almost £4m in September 2025. Fraudsters impersonate or hijack supplier emails to change bank details on invoices, exploiting complex subcontractor networks and insecure email channels. The campaign urges staff to verify invoice changes by calling suppliers, delay payments until details are confirmed, and strengthen IT controls such as strong passwords, multi‑factor authentication and up‑to‑date anti‑malware.

⚠️ Kaspersky researchers have observed threat actors abusing Yandex Surveys to host phishing content and evade email filters by leveraging the platform's legitimate domain reputation. Attackers embed fraudulent pitches and malicious links in rich-text survey blocks, add official-looking logos, then hide interface elements with invisible padding; Kaspersky Premium blocked about 2,200 such messages in January and over 32,000 in February. Recipients who follow the links land on polished giveaway pages that harvest personal data, wallet addresses, or payments.

🔒 Threat actors are abusing the no-code Bubble AI app builder to host phishing pages that harvest Microsoft account credentials. Because apps are hosted under *.bubble.io, email security tools often treat the links as legitimate and fail to flag them. Kaspersky researchers found attackers use obfuscated JavaScript and Shadow DOM structures to redirect victims to Microsoft-like login forms, sometimes behind Cloudflare checks, to exfiltrate entered credentials.

🔐 Huntress is tracking an active device code phishing campaign targeting Microsoft 365 identities at over 340 organizations across the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Germany. The attackers use Cloudflare Workers redirects and Railway.com-hosted infrastructure to harvest OAuth access and refresh tokens that remain valid after password resets. Sectors hit include construction, non-profits, real estate, manufacturing, finance, healthcare, legal and government.

🔔 Unit 42 reports a targeted phishing campaign where attackers impersonate Palo Alto Networks talent acquisition staff to lure senior professionals. Adversaries use scraped LinkedIn data, company logos, and look-alike email domains to claim candidates’ resumes fail applicant tracking systems and pressure them into paid 'ATS alignment' services. Recipients are advised to verify sender domains, refuse payment requests, avoid suspicious attachments, and report incidents to corporate security and Unit 42 for assistance.

📄 A targeted phishing campaign leverages fake French-language resumes containing heavily obfuscated Visual Basic Script droppers to steal enterprise credentials and deploy a Monero miner. The operation, tracked as FAUX#ELEVATE by Securonix, abuses legitimate services including Dropbox, compromised WordPress sites in Morocco for C2 configuration, and mail[.]ru SMTP accounts for exfiltration. The dropper uses sandbox-evasion techniques, a domain-join gate, and a persistent UAC loop to obtain admin privileges, disable defenses and execute its multi-stage toolkit rapidly.

🔗 Phishers are exploiting the Bubble no-code app builder to host web apps whose URLs appear legitimate and thus evade email filters. The platform’s dense JavaScript and Shadow DOM output confuses automated scanners, masking simple redirects to credential-harvesting pages. These Bubble-hosted apps are embedded in phishing messages and lead victims to convincing Microsoft sign‑in clones. Organizations should combine user training with endpoint protections and gateway anti-phishing controls to reduce risk.

🔁 Tycoon2FA, a phishing-as-a-service platform disrupted by Europol and Microsoft on March 4, has returned to pre-takedown activity levels within days. CrowdStrike observed a brief decline to about 25% of normal volumes on March 4–5, 2026, before activity rebounded and cloud compromise remediations returned to early-2026 levels. The service continues to use similar TTPs targeting Microsoft 365 and Gmail, exploiting redirection, URL shorteners, and compromised domains. CrowdStrike warns that without arrests or physical seizures, operators can quickly recover and replace impacted infrastructure.

🛡️ Tycoon2FA, a subscription-based phishing-as-a-service platform, has resumed operations following a coordinated takedown that seized 330 domains. The service uses adversary-in-the-middle techniques to intercept live authentication sessions and bypass multifactor authentication, and it continues to deploy AI-generated decoy pages and malicious URLs. CrowdStrike reported multiple suspected Tycoon2FA-enabled incidents in early March. Organisations are urged to prioritise continuous detection, real-time signal correlation, and layered defences to counter this adaptive threat.

⚠️Microsoft reported large-scale IRS-themed phishing campaigns in February 2026 that targeted more than 29,000 users across 10,000 organizations, using tax refund, payroll and W‑2 lures to harvest credentials and deliver remote access tools. Attackers leveraged Phishing-as-a-Service kits (notably Energy365 and SneakyLog/Kratos) and abused legitimate RMM products such as ScreenConnect, Datto, and SimpleHelp to maintain persistent access. Microsoft advises enforcing 2FA, applying conditional access, and blocking malicious domains and payloads to reduce exposure.

⚠️ Microsoft Azure Monitor alerts are being abused to distribute callback phishing messages that impersonate billing and security notices. Attackers create alert rules with custom descriptions and configure them to send emails to lists they control, causing legitimate azure-noreply@microsoft.com messages to reach targets and pass SPF/DKIM/DMARC checks. Recipients are urged to call listed numbers, a tactic that can lead to credential theft, payment fraud, or remote access compromise.