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14 stories in the last 30d

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DomainAll Cyber AIWindow24h 3d 7d 30d AllIn the wild Important only Show duplicates

CategoryAll AI research 90 Malware 67 Research 29 Threat actor 27 Model release 24 AI safety & security 21 Data breach 19 Phishing & fraud 16 AI industry 11 Policy & legal 8 Exploit / PoC 7 Vulnerability 6 Ransomware 6 Tools 6

SeverityAll critical 9 high 51 medium 93 low 8 info 189

PAPERMILL Hackers Abuse Signed Notepad++ to Deploy VenomRAT in Tax Audit Attacks

PAPERMILL phishing campaign abuses a signed Notepad++ copy and tax-audit lures to deploy VenomRAT against targets in India.

JUMPSEC tracks PAPERMILL as an emerging cluster whose emails pass SPF, DKIM, and DMARC and deliver tax-audit themed disk images. The mounted image pairs a legitimately signed, renamed executable with a rogue libcurl.dll for DLL sideloading, then uses a Donut shellcode loader to run VenomRAT 6.0.3 in memory with hidden VNC, data-stealing, and file-grabbing capabilities. The loader includes anti-analysis checks and RunOnce persistence, and lures plus China-connected infrastructure overlap with the Silver Fox ecosystem, though attribution remains unconfirmed.

Cyber Security NewsSep 16, 12:23 UTC · 1d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild 2 sources

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.

GBHackersSep 15, 13:04 UTC · 2d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild 2 sources

New Phishing Campaign Abuses Windows Mshta.exe to Steal Credentials and Secrets

Fortra researchers track an active phishing campaign targeting Spanish speakers that abuses mshta.exe to run HTA payloads for reconnaissance and credential theft.

Fortra's FIRE team says a phishing campaign active since June 2026 targets Spanish-speaking users with invoice ('Facturación') and judicial ('Aviso Judicial') lures, many sent via libero.it/italiaonline.it infrastructure with SCL:-1 markings to bypass anti-spam. Clicking embedded links delivers an HTA launcher executed via mshta.exe, which hides its window off-screen, builds dynamic C2 URLs, and performs reconnaissance using WMI, PowerShell, and environment-variable inspection. A second-stage JavaScript dropper uses HTML smuggling to reconstruct a Base64-encoded ZIP in the browser, delivering a 7-Zip self-extracting executable disguised as a Firefox installer; staged design allows later delivery of credential stealers or ransomware. Defenders are urged to block archivogratuito[.]online and shortener domains goo[.]su, abrir[.]link, and abre[.]ai, and to restrict mshta.exe execution via AppLocker or ASR rules.

GBHackersSep 12, 06:16 UTC · 5d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild1

Hackers Use AI-Assisted CEO Emails to Trick Finance Teams Into Sending $50,000 Payments.

Microsoft tracked a million-message AI-assisted BEC campaign impersonating executives with fake ServiceNow invoices to steal ~$50,000 ACH payments.

Microsoft detected over one million messages in a BEC campaign running August 3-5, using AI-assisted phishing templates, executive impersonation, and fabricated ServiceNow subscription invoices to trick finance teams into authorizing fraudulent ACH payments of roughly $50,000. The US received 87.7% of volume. Attackers used lookalike domains like service-nowinc[.]com registered just days before delivery, with no compromise of ServiceNow itself. Telltale signs included verbose HTML comments, uniform formatting, and inconsistent forwarded-message headers.

GBHackersupdated Sep 11, 13:38 UTC · 5d agofirst Sep 11, 07:43 UTC · 6d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild 2 sources

Protecting organizations from AI-assisted executive impersonation and invoice fraud

Microsoft tracked a campaign of over one million AI-crafted CEO-impersonation emails seeking ~$50,000 ACH payments with fabricated ServiceNow invoices.

Between August 3 and 5, Microsoft detected a campaign of more than one million fraud emails, 87.7% of them targeting US enterprise users, sent through multiple third-party email delivery service accounts. The actor impersonated CEOs, CFOs, and presidents of targeted companies, urging accounts payable staff to process an ACH payment of nearly $50,000. Lures layered executive impersonation, lookalike domains, a fabricated ServiceNow 'Annual Subscription' invoice personalized to the recipient, and forged forwarded email threads; Microsoft found no evidence ServiceNow or the referenced executives were compromised. Microsoft observed indicators consistent with generative AI-assisted template creation, while leftover inconsistencies such as missing forwarding headers and mismatched display names gave defenders detection cues.

Microsoft Security BlogSep 10, 17:23 UTC · 6d agoPhishing & fraud1

ASCII smuggling crosses over from AI prompt injection to phishing evasion

Microsoft details high-volume phishing campaign using ASCII smuggling (Unicode tag chars) for filter evasion, peaking at 2.3M messages.

Microsoft researchers observed a high-volume finance-themed phishing campaign using invisible Unicode tag characters (U+E0000–U+E007F), a technique known from AI prompt injection research as ASCII smuggling, to split lure words like 'funding' and evade email filters. Telemetry from Microsoft Defender for Office 365 showed signature hits jump from roughly 21,000 messages on February 8, 2026 to more than 1.3 million on February 9, peaking above 2.3 million on February 11, with elevated weekday activity lasting approximately three months. The discovery emerged from prompt injection protection research, showing AI-era evasion techniques crossing into traditional phishing. Most messages were flagged by layered Defender protections rather than a single Unicode-specific signal.

Microsoft Security BlogSep 3, 16:00 UTC · 13d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild1

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 BlogSep 11, 13:33 UTC · 5d agoPhishing & fraud

ClickFix Moves into the Browser to Steal Cryptocurrency

Cisco Talos details a ClickFix campaign injecting browser JavaScript via Google Sheets to skim crypto deposits, stealing at least ~0.159 BTC since October 2025

Cisco Talos reported a months-long ClickFix campaign that shifted from OS command execution to injecting JavaScript through Chrome's address bar or the Tampermonkey extension into sessions on two cryptocurrency trading sites. Since March 2026 the operators fetch obfuscated payloads via the Google Visualization API from public Google Sheets, replacing displayed deposit addresses and amounts and overriding the fetch API, and the campaign survived two disruption attempts. Talos observed 49 Bitcoin addresses with 24 receiving at least 0.159 BTC (~$10,000) by early August, with proceeds routed through roughly 30 wallets and more than 3,000 addresses in apparent mixing. Lures posed as leaked vulnerability reports describing non-existent API flaws at crypto swap services, promising payouts up to 38% higher.

Infosecurity MagazineSep 9, 13:45 UTC · 7d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild

Hackers Abuse Google Sheets to Hijack Crypto Wallet Addresses in ClickFix Attacks

Cisco Talos details a crypto-theft ClickFix campaign abusing Google Sheets to swap wallet addresses, with about $10,000 in observed Bitcoin losses.

Cisco Talos tracks a ClickFix-style campaign that tricks cryptocurrency traders into pasting JavaScript into Chrome's address bar or a Tampermonkey extension, promising fake bonuses on SwapZone and SimpleSwap. The loader pulls obfuscated JavaScript from cells in a public Google Sheet via the Visualization API, then behaves like a web skimmer, rewriting deposit addresses on screen, in web responses, and in the clipboard. Researchers counted 49 attacker-controlled Bitcoin addresses, with 24 receiving a combined 0.159 BTC, roughly $10,000, by early August 2026. A Tampermonkey variant re-injects the payload on every return visit, giving the attackers persistence despite takedown efforts.

Cyber Security NewsSep 9, 10:57 UTC · 8d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild

Hackers Abuse Google Sheets as C2 in ClickFix Attacks to Steal Cryptocurrency

Cisco Talos tracks a ClickFix crypto-theft campaign using Google Sheets as C2 to swap deposit addresses in Chrome.

Cisco Talos uncovered a cryptocurrency theft campaign that abuses Google Sheets and the Google Visualization API as a covert C2 channel, delivering obfuscated JavaScript into victims' Chrome browser sessions via ClickFix-style social engineering. Victims are lured with a fake "API Logic Flaw" report promising 25-38% bonuses on SimpleSwap and SwapZone swaps; the injected payload acts as a browser-based web skimmer that replaces deposit addresses, overrides the fetch API, and hijacks the clipboard. Later variants use the legitimate Tampermonkey extension with a user script for persistence without OS-level compromise. Talos identified 49 Bitcoin wallets, with 24 reused addresses receiving about 0.159 BTC (~$10,000) before mixing through more than 3,000 addresses.

GBHackersSep 9, 06:22 UTC · 8d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild

Risky Bulletin: Ukraine's top prosecutor resigns amid scam call center scandal

Ukraine's top prosecutor Ruslan Kravchenko resigned after NABU arrested a deputy for taking bribes protecting scam call centers running fake investment platforms.

Ukraine's anti-corruption bureau NABU arrested Serhiy Kropyva, Deputy Head of International Cooperation at the Prosecutor General's Office, alleging officials took monthly protection fees from a network of 100-500 scam call centers luring victims into fake investment platforms, with bribes reportedly growing from $700,000 to $3.5 million per month. Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko resigned on Monday, calling it a political decision, while Kropyva was fired with bail set at 120 million hryvnias ($2.7 million) and over 100 call centers shut down in the past month. The newsletter also briefly covers a cyberattack crippling more than 80 Luxembourg medical practices via payment vendor BMS Engineering, ShinyHunters' claimed theft of 200,000 Florida DMV driver records, a cyberattack on the American Meteor Society, and school closures in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Risky Business NewsSep 9, 06:06 UTC · 8d agoPhishing & fraud

ClickFix moves into the browser: Cryptocurrency theft with Google-hosted C2

Talos tracks a crypto-theft campaign abusing the Google Visualization API for C2, using browser-based ClickFix lures to inject web-skimmer JavaScript.

Criminal actors convinced targets to paste JavaScript into Chrome's address bar or install it in the Tampermonkey extension, injecting a web skimmer into sessions on two cryptocurrency trading websites; Tampermonkey also provides persistence. Since March 2026 the campaign retrieved obfuscated scripts via the Google Visualization API from public Google Sheets documents, hooking the fetch API and replacing cryptocurrency deposit addresses in responses and the clipboard. Lures pose as leaked reports of a nonexistent API flaw at cryptocurrency swap services and spread via Telegram, DarkForums, and paste sites since early October 2025. Talos warns the legitimate-service-abuse techniques could enable wider supply-chain attacks on e-commerce and customer-facing systems.

Cisco TalosSep 8, 10:00 UTC · 9d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild

BigBear 2.0 Evilginx2 Phishing Campaign Bypasses Microsoft 365 MFA With Session Cookie Theft

CloudSEK identified BigBear 2.0, an Evilginx2-based AiTM phishing operation stealing Microsoft 365 MFA session cookies, hitting 461 organizations across 40-plus countries.

The campaign proxies Microsoft sign-in pages to capture credentials and authenticated session cookies, enabling session replay into email, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, and connected SSO applications. CloudSEK's June 2026 discovery found 5,137 stolen records, 1,032 passwords, and 4,148 session cookies tied to 3,331 victim IPs, linked to operator 'General Boss' across 42 VPS nodes. The operation targeted IT services and managed service providers, used country-matched residential proxies, and involved at least five affiliates.

Cyber Security NewsSep 8, 08:33 UTC · 9d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild1

ASCII smuggling isn't just an AI security risk

Microsoft tracked a phishing campaign peaking at 2.37 million daily messages that hid financial-lure keywords with invisible Unicode tag characters to evade filters.

Microsoft researchers uncovered a large phishing campaign that inserted invisible Unicode tag characters (e.g., U+E0020) inside common financial keywords like 'funding', splitting words so keyword, signature, and regex matches fail. The campaign peaked at more than 2.37 million messages in late February 2026, ran from about 150 finance-themed sender domains on a strict weekday-only schedule, and gradually declined to under 20% of peak weekday volume by late March, with residual spikes through mid-June. The technique repurposes ASCII smuggling, normally used for indirect prompt injection against AI assistants, for traditional email phishing evasion. Microsoft advises defenders to strip or fold invisible Unicode code points before content matching and to watch for bulk weekday spikes from churning finance-themed domains.

The Register · SecuritySep 4, 19:23 UTC · 12d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild1