Bruce Schneier examines fake CAPTCHA scams that abuse human-verification prompts as social engineering lures against users.
Bruce Schneier's blog post covers fake CAPTCHA scams, a social engineering technique in which attackers pose as CAPTCHA verification checks to manipulate users. The available page text is largely site navigation, and no specific campaign, victim, or malware family is named in the source.
Hackers stole over €35 million from 500+ French notary offices in a four-year BEC campaign; ANSSI spent two years helping evict the attackers.
A business email compromise campaign breached more than 500 French notary offices — about 7% of all French notaries per the Conseil Supérieur du Notariat — over four years, stealing more than €35 million by phishing initial access and silently modifying wire transfer details. France's cybersecurity agency ANSSI worked for two years behind the scenes to help notaries remove the persistent attackers, who had deep access; officials also feared hackers could issue fake notarized acts such as marriage certificates or forged real estate deals. No forged documents have been found so far, but notaries have added two-factor authentication and in-person requirements for banking details, and banks added extra checks in 2024. The newsletter also notes other incidents, including a $320 million Bitcoin extraction from Blockstream's Liquid Network and a JetBrains Cadence breach via TeamCity servers.
SOCRadar details AnonyMousKIT, a phishing-as-a-service platform using AI voice agents posing as Apple Support to steal passcodes and 2FA codes.
SOCRadar's Threat Research Unit documented AnonyMousKIT, a credit-metered phishing-as-a-service platform that strips Activation Lock from stolen Apple devices across email, SMS, WhatsApp, recorded calls and AI voice agents. The 'Alice from Apple Support' personas request the device passcode, Apple ID credentials and a live 2FA code, with lures citing the handset's model identifier and live Find My status. Of 200 recovered AI calls made between August 31, 2025 and May 30, 2026, 179 targeted Brazil, and the calls cost $19.24 total via voice platform Vapi. Exposed log paths revealed 30 kit installations on 42 domains and 6,092 send attempts family-wide between March and July 2026.