ZeroHour
DashboardNewsCVEsExploitsIncidentsAIBriefAnalyticsEntitiesWatchlistIOCsAsk the feedSourcesFeeds & APIKiosk mode

Search: “security update”

14 stories in the last 7d

Searchkeywordsmart Sortlatesthotimportancerelevance
DomainAllCyberAIWindow24h3d7d30dAllIn the wildImportant onlyShow duplicates
CategoryAllAdvisory 74Vulnerability 68Exploit / PoC 56Malware 23Industry 21AI safety & security 21AI industry 16Phishing & fraud 15Tools 13Threat actor 13Research 10Data breach 8Policy & legal 6Model release 5
SeverityAllcritical 31high 122medium 85low 22info 93

Most Fraudulent Hires Receive Credentials Before Detection

HYPR report finds 42% of fraudulent hires pass screening and receive corporate credentials, averaging 5.73 days of unmonitored network access before detection.

A HYPR study of 500 US HR executives found 42% of fraudulent candidates pass pre-hire screening and get hired, with only 3% detected on their hire day and 20% remaining undetected up to three weeks. This gives fraudulent hires an average of 5.73 days of unmonitored corporate network access, and 98% of surveyed executives said they had experienced candidate fraud firsthand. The report follows a September 9 CISA update to its Insider Threat Mitigation Guide warning that malicious actors use AI tools to obtain remote IT jobs, a tactic long used by North Korean actors for data theft and extortion.

Infosecurity Magazine · 1d agoPhishing & fraud

Detect and disrupt AI-themed attacks with Microsoft Defender

Microsoft Threat Intelligence reports criminal campaigns impersonating ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, and DeepSeek in phishing, AiTM, and malvertising attacks reaching 100,000 emails daily.

Microsoft Threat Intelligence observed a growing set of campaigns that abuse trust in popular AI brands: a ChatGPT-themed phishing campaign sent up to 100,000 emails in one day to steal payment card data, and a Claude-themed campaign used adversary-in-the-middle techniques to harvest credentials and access tokens. Other campaigns included malvertising for a fake AI Windows plugin delivering the Vidar stealer and fraudulent DeepSeek installers distributed via GitHub. Initial access broker Storm-3075 used AI-themed malvertising to distribute payloads for multiple downstream actors, and Microsoft notes the AI services themselves were not compromised. Microsoft also details Defender protections such as Safe Links, Safe Attachments, and attack disruption against these multi-stage lures.

Microsoft Security Blog · 6d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild1

Smishing Hackers Can Watch Every Keystroke as Victims Enter Card Details and OTPs

Group-IB details the JWR smishing kit, used by the Outsider cluster, that streams keystrokes and OTPs to fraudsters in real time via WebSocket.

Group-IB linked the JWR phishing kit to an operator cluster it tracks as Outsider within the broader Smishing Triad ecosystem. Fake toll, parcel, and delivery messages lead to live phishing pages that capture card numbers, passwords, and one-time passcodes before victims submit forms. The kit supports up to 32 guided pages, AES-256-CTR wrapped traffic with keys embedded per message, rotating short links and domains, and WordPress or Shopify integration markers, enabling account takeover and unauthorized payments.

Cyber Security News · 1d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild 2 sources

ClickFix attacks infecting PCs and Macs are going viral

ClickFix social engineering attacks are spreading widely, delivering malware to Windows and macOS users by tricking them into running malicious terminal commands that bypass Gatekeeper.

BlueVoyant reports the Lorem Ipsum malware operation pivoted to ClickFix in late May 2026, dropping code-signing infrastructure and broadening its victim pool from Microsoft Teams searchers to anyone browsing a compromised website. Jamf and independent researchers documented macOS ClickFix variants that bypass Gatekeeper protections. Cisco Talos observed attackers abusing published Google Sheets for control traffic, while Netskope counted 5,400 sites beaconing to one campaign; Sandworm has separately hosted control infrastructure in blockchain smart contracts.

Ars Technica · Security · 6d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild1

Phishing Attacks Abuse Trusted Email Infrastructure and URL Cloaking to Evade Security Filters

VBSpam Q3 2026 test shows phishers abusing DKIM-aligned domains, Amazon SES, and multi-stage URL cloaking to defeat email filters.

Virus Bulletin's Q3 2026 VBSpam test (AMTSO-LS1-TP207) found phishing campaigns moving payloads past the email itself via browser-fingerprinting gates, redirect chains, and hidden POST requests. Examples include a Dutch McAfee/TotalAV scareware renewal scam, a German overdue-payment Web3 fraud delivered via Amazon SES from DKIM-aligned moolaah.com, and Romanian BCR PSD2 credential phishing embedding IPv6-mapped URLs resolving to 103.193.179.223. Net at Work NoSpamProxy ranked first with a 99.995 score while open-source Rspamd caught only 62.55% of phishing mail.

GBHackers · 2d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild 2 sources

HBO Max Reddit account compromised to serve ClickFix attacks

Attackers hijacked HBO Max's verified Reddit account to run 108 ClickFix malvertising ads delivering infostealers, loaders, and crypto clippers to Windows and macOS users.

Attackers compromised the verified HBO Max Reddit account (u/hbomax) to push 108 malicious ads in a 48-hour malvertising blitz named PasteSwitch, analyzed by Hudson Rock and ADAMnetworks. The ClickFix lures directed victims to fake landing pages instructing them to paste commands into Terminal, delivering OS-targeted infostealers, malware loaders, and cryptocurrency clippers. Lures included 46 HBO Max ads, 36 fake OpenAI Codex ads, 15 fake macOS disk utilities, and 11 developer-tool ads. The AnimateClipper and ZigClipper payloads use Binance Smart Chain contracts as resilient C2 fallback, with 36 mainnet changes observed between March and July 2026; Reddit paused the ads three days after discovery and is investigating.

The Register · Securityupdated · 2d agofirst · 2d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild 7 sources

Attackers Use Passkey Phishing to Hijack Microsoft Cloud Accounts and Exfiltrate Data

Microsoft details two campaigns: million-email CEO impersonation ACH fraud and passkey-themed vishing that hijacks Microsoft cloud accounts for data theft and extortion.

Microsoft disclosed a campaign that sent over one million CEO-impersonation scam emails between August 3-5, 2026, targeting U.S. accounts payable departments with fake ServiceNow subscription invoices to induce ACH transfers, using generative AI to tailor templates. A second campaign detected since May 2026 uses passkey/MFA-themed voice phishing posing as the IT help desk, redirecting victims via SMS to counterfeit Microsoft sign-in pages and adversary-in-the-middle or device-code flows to hijack accounts. Post-compromise activity includes adding attacker-controlled authentication methods, high-volume Microsoft Graph activity, SharePoint and OneDrive downloads, and mailbox collection via REST APIs. Microsoft attributes initial access to Storm-3121 (linked to ShinyHunters and Falcon extortion) and Storm-3032 (UNC6671, a BlackFile splinter operating the Helix extortion brand).

The Hacker News · 4d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild2

The Fraud Ecosystem: A Transition From Known Marketplaces to a Fragmented Environment

Rapid7 analyzes how fraud marketplaces are fragmenting into specialized shops after larger marketplaces were dismantled, aided by new MITRE F3 framework

Rapid7 reports a shift from large known fraud marketplaces to a fragmented environment of smaller specialized storefronts such as Xleet, Blackpass, Infodig, and Styx, operating across dark web channels, Telegram, and P2P options. These Fraud-as-a-Service shops sell stolen accounts, PII, synthetic identity generation, infrastructure, and money laundering support, supporting schemes like business email compromise. MITRE's Fraud Fighting Framework (F3), introduced in early 2026, aims to help security teams prioritize monitoring of fraud TTPs, particularly account takeover techniques. Fraud damages are anticipated to approach hundreds of billions of USD.

Rapid7 Blog · 6d agoPhishing & fraud

Passkey-themed phishing attacks lead to Microsoft 365 data theft

Microsoft links ShinyHunters- and Helix-affiliated actors to passkey-themed vishing and device-code phishing that compromises Microsoft 365 accounts and steals cloud data.

Microsoft attributes passkey- and SSO-themed social engineering activity, observed since May 2026, to Storm-3121 (linked to ShinyHunters and Falcon) and Storm-3032 (tied to BlackFile members now operating as Helix). Attackers impersonate corporate IT help desks by phone or SMS, urging fake passkey, MFA, or SSO updates and directing victims to adversary-in-the-middle phishing pages or device-code authentication flows that yield credentials, session tokens, and OAuth tokens. Post-compromise behavior includes Microsoft Graph enumeration of users, SharePoint, and OAuth grants, plus persistence via attacker-controlled MFA methods. Google Threat Intelligence tracks related activity as UNC6671, linked to the BlackFile, Helix, Falcon, Pink, and Redact extortion gangs.

BleepingComputer · 5d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild 4 sources3

T-Mobile rewards points expiry texts are a phishing scam

Malwarebytes tracks an SMS phishing campaign, active since May 2026, impersonating T-Mobile rewards expiry with 1,000+ templates and 81 rotating domains to lure victims.

Malwarebytes Labs has monitored a large smishing campaign since early May 2026 that falsely claims recipients' T-Mobile Rewards points are expiring, using invented balances like 18,400 points and imminent deadlines to create urgency. Researchers identified more than 1,000 semantically similar message templates (199 scoring at least 0.95 similarity) that vary only in salutation, headline, expiry date, and point balance. The links resolve to rotating domains such as t-mobile.biktpw[.]top, with at least 81 short-lived domains observed over four months, pushing victims to fake redemption pages where they may enter credentials or payment details. Activity peaked in two large spikes and has since declined, though messages are still circulating.

Malwarebytes Labs · 3h agoPhishing & fraud in the wild

Search results are sending people to fake Bitrefill checkouts

Scam sites impersonating Bitrefill's crypto checkout appear in search results, tricking victims into sending up to $1,990 in crypto directly to scammers.

Malwarebytes documents a cluster of lookalike domains copying Bitrefill's gift card checkout, surfaced via search engine results rather than email. Victims choose an amount up to $1,990 and pay in Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDC, USDT, Solana, or Litecoin to scammer-controlled addresses, with no recourse since crypto payments are irreversible. Domains use typosquatting and Punycode/IDN homoglyph tricks, and the fake sites run commercial analytics software to measure and optimize victim conversion. Bitrefill's security team is working with takedown specialists to remove the sites.

Malwarebytes Labs · 2d agoPhishing & fraud

Google Play Early Access Abused to Push Thousands of Deceptive Android Apps

Bitdefender found abuse of Google Play's review-free Early Access program to push thousands of deceptive casino and reward apps promoted with AI deepfake ads.

Bitdefender reports threat actors are abusing Google Play's Early Access program, which blocks public reviews and ratings, to distribute thousands of deceptive casino, reward, and utility apps. A GTA imitator, 'Vice Streets: Open World,' surpassed 1 million downloads before disappearing, with apps promoted via AI celebrity deepfake ads on TikTok and Facebook and monetized through endless ad serving and payouts that never arrive. The report coincides with disclosures on Android malware families Hagaseca, Mantax Otax, StreamRat, and GoldFactory's Gigabud banking trojan with its Vwork companion app used for cloned-app financial fraud.

The Hacker Newsupdated · 6d agofirst · 6d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild 7 sources

I Hijacked a Real Artist's Spotify with AI Music. It Was Disturbingly Easynew

A journalist used DistroKid's loophole to publish an Udio-generated song on Lathe of Heaven's verified Spotify page, exposing a widespread AI music royalty scam.

A 404 Media reporter generated a punk song with Udio and, via a $3.75-per-month DistroKid account, released it under the name of Brooklyn punk band Lathe of Heaven without any identity verification by the distributor or streaming platforms. The AI-generated track appeared a day later on the band's Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon Music and Deezer pages, with royalties flowing to the uploader. Similar abuse has hit deceased musicians such as Blaze Foley, and Spotify says artist profiles that are not actively managed are especially vulnerable.

404 Media · 23m agoPhishing & fraud in the wild

The sexy AI-powered dating app scams are here

Anthropic exposed a network of roughly 28 AI-driven dating apps using autonomous personas and gig workers to defraud paying users.

Anthropic threat intelligence uncovered a fraud network of around 28 dating apps after a prepaid account sent over 100,000 Claude API requests daily, with most chats run by autonomous AI personas and no human agent. Researchers Matthew Gore-Kormanik and Anthropic's Chris Cronbaugh documented apps including Dora, Romi, and Doni, which monetize conversations via coins; gig workers were hired only to pass liveness checks and select pregenerated replies. An operations manual written in Chinese was found inside the Doni app, and Anthropic published findings in its September 2026 AI misuse report.

The Verge · AI · 23h agoPhishing & fraud in the wild