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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.
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New N0va Phishkit Targets North America and EU: A Growing Identity Risk for SOCs
ANY.RUN researchers uncovered the N0va phishkit targeting government, technology, consulting, and healthcare organizations across North America and the EU via device code phishing.
The N0va phishkit uses lures imitating Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, DocuSign, Google Drive, Dropbox, Zoom, and Adobe Sign to draw victims into a device code authentication flow. After the user completes legitimate authentication, N0va captures access and refresh tokens and abuses token-exchange and device-registration mechanisms to establish persistent SSO access to corporate resources. Because the flow relies on real Microsoft authentication, it can evade MFA-focused detections, and token access can outlive takedown of the phishing page. ANY.RUN says it observed the campaign in sandbox sessions, with targeting spanning government, technology, consulting, and healthcare sectors.
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Mirage2FA Surge Hits 4,500 US and EU Companies, Abusing Microsoft 365 Login Flows
Mirage2FA phishing-as-a-service campaign hit ~4,500 organizations, mostly US, stealing Microsoft 365 passwords and session cookies to bypass 2FA.
ANY.RUN research links the Mirage2FA phishing-as-a-service toolkit to 4,532 unique organization email domains between 2024 and 2026, with the US accounting for 63.7% of victims. The kit uses adversary-in-the-middle login flows to harvest credentials and session cookies, bypassing MFA on Microsoft 365 accounts. Researchers recorded more than 9,000 potential compromise events and estimated 48% of targeted email addresses were potentially compromised. Hijacked sessions extend to SSO-connected services, enabling impersonation, fraud and further compromise.
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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).
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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.
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Attackers call employees’ personal phones to break into Microsoft 365 accounts
Microsoft tracks vishing campaigns by Storm-3121 and Storm-3032 that impersonate IT staff, phish Microsoft 365 credentials, and steal cloud data.
Microsoft Security Research has tracked a campaign since May 2026 in which attackers call or text employees' personal phones posing as IT staff, using passkey/MFA/SSO lures to run adversary-in-the-middle phishing or device-code authentication flows. Attackers register their own MFA methods for durable persistence, abuse Microsoft Graph for tenant discovery, and download SharePoint, OneDrive, and Exchange data below 1,000 files or emails per hour to avoid detection. Microsoft attributes initial access to actors including Storm-3121, which feeds ShinyHunters and Falcon extortion operations, and Storm-3032, the Helix extortion operation descended from BlackFile.
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New Phishing Attack Uses Blob URLs to Hide Malicious Pages From Security Scanners
Barracuda detailed a DocuSign-themed phishing campaign that renders credential-harvesting pages as browser blob URLs, evading URL reputation and blocklist defenses.
Barracuda researchers report a credential-harvesting phishing campaign that starts with a DocuSign-themed email containing a calendar invitation and routes victims through legitimate Microsoft OAuth endpoints and Microsoft Teams. A crafted redirect parameter leads Teams to load external content from cdn.bloom[.]io, which the browser renders as a blob URL — a session-only address held in local memory with no persistent public URL to crawl, categorize, or blocklist. The locally generated page registers a service worker, runs inside a sandboxed iframe, and is dynamically steered by backend infrastructure, indicating a centrally managed phishing platform. Barracuda recommends phishing-resistant MFA such as FIDO2 keys and passkeys, monitoring OAuth flows and redirect chains, and Teams malicious URL protection.
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Hackers Pose as IT Support to Hijack Microsoft 365 Accounts With Fake Passkey Alerts
Microsoft warns of vishing campaigns by Storm-3121 and Storm-3032 hijacking Microsoft 365 accounts via fake passkey alerts, adding attacker-controlled MFA and exfiltrating cloud data.
Microsoft Security Research has tracked the campaign since May 2026: callers posing as IT helpdesk staff tell employees to urgently update passkeys, MFA, or SSO settings via domains such as add-passkey[.]com and contoso[.]add-passkey[.]com. The lures lead to adversary-in-the-middle phishing or device-code authentication flows that yield credentials, session tokens, or OAuth tokens, after which attackers enroll their own MFA methods for persistence and run Microsoft Graph reconnaissance. They then collect SharePoint, OneDrive, and sometimes Exchange Online data at deliberately low rates (often under 1,000 files or messages per hour), with python-httpx seen in high-volume file access. Microsoft attributes initial access tradecraft to Storm-3121 and Storm-3032, linked respectively to ShinyHunters/Falcon and BlackFile/Helix extortion operations.
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The Money Mule Solution: What Every Scam Has in Common
CYBERA's money mule intelligence, now in Recorded Future's Payment Fraud Intelligence, targets the shared exit point of $450B-$1T annual scam losses.
Scams, especially authorized push payment fraud, do not require a breach; Global Anti-Scam Alliance estimated ~$450B in 2025 losses while CYBERA co-founder Claudio Staub puts the real figure near $1 trillion when underreporting is counted. Every scam needs a mule account to receive funds, so CYBERA uses agentic personas to engage active scammers and extract verified mule account details before payments occur, now available as an add-on to Recorded Future's Payment Fraud Intelligence. CYBERA collected over 16,000 confirmed mule accounts across 72 countries in H2 2025, finding 28% remained active 30 days or more after identification, including one account in 25 engagements. In Europe 51% of mule accounts sat at neobanks and fintechs, while outside Europe 69% were at major banks; regulatory pressure like the UK's APP reimbursement mandate is raising the stakes for institutions.
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AI is making fraud harder to spot and identity harder to prove
Experian's 2026 report finds AI-generated scams, deepfakes and synthetic identities spreading across digital channels, pushing businesses toward adaptive identity verification and 'Know Your Agent' checks.
Experian's 2026 US Identity & Fraud Report, based on consumer and business surveys, found 60% of consumers aware of AI-generated image/video scams, 53% of AI phishing, and 47% of deepfake voice impersonation. 80% of US businesses already use machine learning or generative AI in fraud management, while AI chatbot account openings rose from 16% in 2025 to 27%. The report highlights adaptive authentication, behavioral biometrics, and emerging 'Know Your Agent' controls as AI agents begin acting on behalf of customers.
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The Smishing Deluge: China-Based Campaign Flooding Global Text Messages
Unit 42 attributes a global smishing campaign with 194,000+ phishing domains impersonating tolls, banks, and couriers to the Smishing Triad.
Palo Alto Unit 42 attributes ongoing smishing texts about toll violations and package misdelivery to the Smishing Triad, targeting U.S. residents since April 2024. Researchers identified 194,345 FQDNs across 136,933 root domains registered since January 2024, mostly via Hong Kong registrar Dominet (HK) Limited with Chinese nameservers and hosting concentrated on U.S. cloud services. The decentralized campaign impersonates banking, cryptocurrency, e-commerce, healthcare, law enforcement, and social media services, and its scale points to a large phishing-as-a-service operation. Phishing pages harvest national ID numbers such as Social Security numbers, home addresses, payment details, and login credentials.
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