Search: “phishing-resistant”

New Phishing Attacks Use Trusted Email Infrastructure and URL Cloaking to Bypass Security Tools

Virus Bulletin Q3 2026 report details phishing using DKIM-aligned senders, Amazon SES delivery, and real-time URL cloaking to evade email security and scanners.

Virus Bulletin's Q3 2026 testing found phishing campaigns delivered through trusted infrastructure like Amazon SES with DKIM-aligned sender domains. Samples included a German overdue-invoice lure redirecting to OpenSea crypto fraud and a Romanian BCR-branded PSD2 banking credential-theft campaign. Cloaking pages used hidden iframes, browser fingerprinting, and time-zone checks to show different content to scanners versus victims. Defenders are urged to inspect full redirect chains rather than attachments or initial URLs alone.

Cyber Security News·updated Sep 15, 13:04 UTC · 1d ago·first Sep 15, 12:02 UTC · 1d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild 2 sources

Stop Telling People Not To Click Links

Tailscale CEO argues link-clicking is not the problem; deploying phishing-resistant authentication like passkeys and WebAuthn eliminates entire attack classes.

Tailscale CEO Avery Pennarun argues in an opinion piece that clicking links is a symptom, not the disease, and that weak authentication is the real failure behind phishing damage. He advocates phishing-resistant FIDO/WebAuthn, passkeys, and device-bound tokens, plus continuous identity-anchored network access so unexpected login prompts become suspicious signals. He argues this approach makes security less burdensome for users while neutralizing credential replay and fake login pages.

Lobsters · security·Sep 3, 21:56 UTC · 13d agoIndustry

New Passkey Attacks Can Recover Synced Private Keys or Bypass Phishing

Three research teams showed passkey bypasses: WebAuthn assertion replay in Microsoft Entra ID, synced-passkey key recovery in Google Password Manager, and Windows Hello key reuse.

SpecterOps' Pass-the-Passkey research showed Windows stored past YubiKey signatures in cleartext and chained this with Microsoft Entra ID passkey validation weaknesses to impersonate privileged users despite phishing-resistant MFA; the Windows Event Logging Service issue is tracked as CVE-2026-34348 (CVSS 6.5) and fixed in July 2026 updates. Unit 42's Golden Pass-ta-key attack recovered the 32-byte Security Domain Secret protecting Google Password Manager synced passkeys from Chrome on Windows via pre-existing malware. Dirk-jan Mollema showed in-session malware can use a hardware-bound Windows Hello for Business key without a fresh PIN or biometric check. Microsoft applied Entra-side mitigations for the relay assertion issue; no real-world exploitation has been reported.

The Hacker News·Aug 11, 12:45 UTC · Aug 11, 2026VulnerabilityCVE-2026-34348

UK Government Begins Moving 23 Million Users Away From Passwords

UK government rolls out passkeys for GOV.UK One Login, giving 23 million users phishing-resistant passwordless access to public services.

The UK government has begun deploying passkeys across GOV.UK One Login for more than 23 million users, replacing passwords and SMS one-time codes with FIDO2 cryptographic credentials. A trial saw over 300,000 people adopt passkeys, and nearly one in ten daily authentications already use them, cutting SMS verification costs by almost £600 per day. Passkeys remain optional, with password-based sign-in retained as a fallback, and the NCSC endorses the approach as phishing-resistant.

Cyber Security News·Sep 14, 16:52 UTC · 2d agoPolicy & legal

Top 10 Best Browser Isolation Solutions in 2026

A 2026 market overview ranks ten remote browser isolation tools, with Menlo Security as the pure-play reference as SSE vendors bundle isolation.

The article compares ten remote browser isolation (RBI) options, including Menlo Security, Zscaler, Cloudflare, Palo Alto Networks, Broadcom (Symantec), Forcepoint, Skyhigh Security, Ericom (Cradlepoint), Authentic8, and Garrison. It argues that RBI has become a bundled policy action inside SSE platforms from Zscaler, Cloudflare, Palo Alto, Broadcom, Forcepoint, and Skyhigh, compressing standalone pricing and driving consolidation such as Ericom's isolation moving under Cradlepoint (Ericsson). Enterprise browsers like Island and Chrome Enterprise Premium are reshaping the RBI-versus-browser decision for managed users, while selective policy-driven isolation of risky categories is described as the prevailing 2026 architecture. The piece is a buyer's guide with vendor positioning, not an incident or vulnerability report.

Cyber Security News·Sep 11, 07:01 UTC · 5d agoIndustry

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.

GBHackers·updated Sep 10, 14:04 UTC · 6d ago·first Sep 10, 10:57 UTC · 6d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild 2 sources

Switching Password Managers in 2026

An Apple password-management engineer (writing personally) explains switching password managers via iOS direct app-to-app export, crediting FIDO Credential Exchange for passkey portability.

Ricky Mondello, an Apple engineer in password management and authentication (writing personally, not for Apple), demonstrates moving 100 items from 1Password to Apple Passwords via the iOS system export, which transfers passwords, passkeys, verification codes, and notes directly between apps with Face ID confirmation and no intermediate files. He credits the FIDO Alliance's Credential Exchange format (first draft May 2024, now an open spec) and iOS 26/macOS 26 for enabling phishing-resistant credential transfer between apps like 1Password, Bitwarden, Dashlane, DuckDuckGo, and Devolutions. The post is advice rather than news, recommending bulk transfer on the existing device, switching AutoFill to the new app, and treating the new manager as the source of truth.

Lobsters · security·Sep 8, 13:55 UTC · 8d agoIndustry1

How QR-code phishing can slip past corporate security measures

ESET explains how QR-code phishing (quishing) bypasses corporate security controls and offers guidance for defenders to close the gap.

ESET WeLiveSecurity published an analysis of quishing, describing QR-code phishing as an increasingly popular alternative to traditional phishing. Because QR codes push victims to scan and open links on personal devices, they often evade corporate email security gateways and URL inspection. The article outlines how businesses can close the resulting gap with appropriate security measures and user awareness.

ESET WeLiveSecurity·Aug 17, 09:00 UTC · Aug 17, 2026Phishing & fraud

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.

The Hacker News·Aug 25, 11:56 UTC · 22d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild1

A rant about phishing: It's not the user's fault (and not DNS either)

Opinion piece argues multi-domain login redirects make legitimate flows indistinguishable from phishing, urging organizations to standardize on one recognizable root domain.

The author shows a real-world login flow that chains through numerous third-party domains (identity providers, cloud auth endpoints, OAuth APIs, 2FA pages), none on the company's own domain, so credentials and 2FA prompts are trivially impersonable. The piece argues URLs are inherently confusing because the security-relevant second-level domain sits mid-string, and that users trained to ignore URLs cannot distinguish legitimate pages from scams. It proposes RFC 2119-style requirements: single recognizable root domain, internal services on its subdomains, emailed or SMS links on that domain, and local redirects instead of third-party hosted pages.

Lobsters · security·Sep 10, 15:14 UTC · 6d agoPhishing & fraud

What vulnerability prioritization looks like when KEV, EPSS, and CVSS disagree

Cohesity field CISO Joye Purser ranks KEV over EPSS over CVSS and urges 24-72 hour patching of exploited internet-facing systems.

In a Help Net Security interview, Cohesity Global Field CISO Joye Purser lays out a vulnerability prioritization framework that puts active exploitation (KEV) first, then exploit likelihood (EPSS), then technical severity (CVSS), adjusted for asset exposure, business criticality, and compensating controls. She endorses 24-72 hour remediation targets for critical exploited internet-facing vulnerabilities and describes the organizational tradeoffs and emergency procedures needed to hit them. The interview also covers honeypot failure modes when deception systems are over-connected or over-trusted, and budget guidance recommending OT/IT segmentation, phishing-resistant MFA, and tested recovery for a 400-person manufacturer.

Help Net Security·Aug 31, 00:00 UTC · 17d agoIndustry

Phishers are hijacking legitimate cloud infrastructure

Kaspersky Securelist·Aug 4, 12:00 UTC · Aug 4, 2026Threat actor1

BigBear 2.0 phishing campaign hijacks Microsoft 365 sessions after MFA

CloudSEK uncovered BigBear 2.0, a PhaaS operation that captured 4,148 Microsoft 365 session cookies, hijacking authenticated sessions after MFA via AiTM proxy.

CloudSEK infiltrated the BigBear 2.0 phishing-as-a-service panel in June, finding 5,137 credential records tied to 461 organizations in over 40 countries, including 4,148 captured session cookies and 474 completed post-MFA logins. The operation, built on Evilginx2, uses an attacker-controlled reverse proxy to steal authenticated session cookies and residential proxies to defeat location-based Conditional Access checks, while custom code disables FIDO2/WebAuthn on phishing pages. At least five affiliates operated 42 VPS nodes, with IT services and managed service providers the most targeted sector.

CSO Online·Sep 8, 10:48 UTC · 8d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild1

iAuthFlow v2: The $10,000 Phishing Toolkit That Survives Your Password Reset

Abnormal Security details iAuthFlow v2, a $10,000 phishing kit that enrolls attacker-controlled passkeys on Google accounts, persisting through password resets.

Abnormal Security analyzed iAuthFlow v2, a phishing toolkit sold on a Russian-language cybercrime forum for a $10,000 base price with additional capability modules sold separately. Using a browser-in-the-middle relay behind a trycloudflare.com subdomain with valid TLS, it captures Google logins and uses the authenticated session to enroll an attacker-controlled passkey within six seconds of login. Because the passkey persists after password changes and session revocation, operators regain mailbox access even after victims reset credentials. The build examined targets Google, while the seller advertises versions for Microsoft, iCloud, and LinkedIn.

Security Affairs·Aug 24, 07:17 UTC · 23d agoPhishing & fraud1

UNC6671 Vishing Attacks Target Personal Phones to Steal SaaS Data

Google and Mandiant attribute vishing-based SaaS data extortion attacks to UNC6671, now operating under the Redact, Pink, Helix, and Falcon brands.

Google Threat Intelligence Group and Mandiant track extortion group UNC6671, which uses vishing calls impersonating IT help desks to lure employees to adversary-in-the-middle phishing pages that capture credentials, MFA tokens, and session tokens. The group then registers adversary-controlled MFA devices, pivots through identity providers into Microsoft 365, Okta, and other SaaS applications, and runs automated Python and PowerShell exfiltration scripts. UNC6671 has rotated through extortion brands including BlackFile, Redact, Pink, Helix, and Falcon, and Google tracked over $10.6 million in Bitcoin payments between January 7 and May 12, 2026, with initial demands exceeding $3 million. The actor has hit dozens of organizations in North America, Australia, and the UK, shifting toward high-value financial and legal firms in July 2026.

The Hacker News·updated Sep 7, 15:51 UTC · 9d ago·first Sep 7, 15:39 UTC · 9d agoThreat actor in the wild 2 sources1

Dissecting the JWR phishing framework

Cisco Talos uncovered an undocumented phishing framework branded JWR that impersonates checkout and login pages of major payment and shopping platforms.

Cisco Talos researchers identified an undocumented phishing framework internally branded JWR by its developer. The framework is built to convincingly impersonate checkout and login pages across major payment and shopping platforms, likely to harvest credentials and payment details. Talos's analysis details the framework's infrastructure and impersonation capabilities, giving defenders indicators to detect campaigns using it.

Cisco Talos·Aug 13, 10:00 UTC · Aug 13, 2026Phishing & fraud

CISA Warns of Chromium Type Confusion 0-Day Vulnerability Actively Exploited in Attacks

CISA added the actively exploited Chromium V8 type confusion zero-day CVE-2026-85046 to its KEV catalog, urging patching of Chrome, Edge, and Opera.

CISA added CVE-2026-85046, a V8 type confusion flaw (CWE-843) in Chromium-based browsers, to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. A remote attacker can trigger arbitrary code execution inside the browser sandbox via a specially crafted HTML page. Google Chrome is directly affected, and Microsoft Edge, Opera, and other Chromium-based browsers may also be impacted depending on their V8 version. Google has released a Stable channel Chrome update, and CISA directs mitigations under Binding Operational Directive 26-04.

Cyber Security News·Sep 8, 16:25 UTC · 8d agoExploit / PoC in the wildCVE-2026-85046

Def Con Attendees Targeted by Persistent Phishing Campaign

Huntress reports a persistent and elaborate phishing campaign targeting attendees following the Def Con security conference.

A Huntress researcher documented being targeted by an elaborate and persistent phishing scam after attending Def Con. The campaign specifically went after conference attendees, suggesting deliberate targeting of the security community. Details of the social engineering approach and persistence were shared.

Infosecurity Magazine·Aug 20, 09:30 UTC · 27d agoPhishing & fraud

Impersonating IT support: how threat actors turn a remote session into enterprise-wide access

Microsoft details Teams IT-support impersonation campaigns deploying Node.js implants, AD reconnaissance, and WinRM lateral movement toward domain controllers.

Microsoft Threat Intelligence describes a human-operated campaign where attackers impersonate IT/helpdesk staff via Microsoft Teams external collaboration, talk users into granting remote sessions, and use RMM tools for interactive access. During the session they run PowerShell to silently install a malicious MSI that stages a portable Node.js runtime and obfuscated JavaScript implant for C2, executing follow-on payloads via rundll32. Operators then perform host and Active Directory reconnaissance, capture desktop screenshots, and pivot via WinRM on port 5985 to domain controllers and certificate authorities. The hands-on-keyboard chain, which can precede data theft and ransomware, blends into normal operations by relying on Teams, Quick Assist, msiexec, and Node.js; Microsoft shares hunting and mitigation guidance.

Microsoft Security Blog·Sep 2, 22:51 UTC · 14d agoThreat actor in the wild

Recent Trends in Internet Threats: Common Industries Impersonated in Phishing Attacks, Web Skimmer Analysis and More

Unit 42 analyzed 67 million malicious URLs and domains in H2 2022, a 52% increase, highlighting phishing impersonation and web skimmer trends.

Unit 42 observed more than 67 million unique malicious URLs, domains and IPs between July and December 2022, a 52% increase over the first half of the year. Malicious JavaScript detections grew 99.3%, with over 4 million malicious JS samples hosted on 4.8 million URLs. Over 85% of hosting infrastructure was concentrated in eight countries, led by the United States, Brazil and China. The report also analyzes industries spoofed in phishing pages and includes a web skimmer case study on a Tranco top 1 million website.

Palo Alto Unit 42·Aug 17, 13:04 UTC · Aug 17, 2026Research

BigBear phishing crew nets thousands of Microsoft 365 credentials

CloudSEC accessed the BigBear 2.0 phishing panel, finding 5,137 stolen Microsoft 365 records across 461 organizations, including 474 MFA-bypassed sessions.

CloudSEC researchers got inside the admin panel of BigBear 2.0, an Evilginx2-based phishing-as-a-service operation run by someone known as 'General Boss'. The panel contained 5,137 records tied to 461 organizations: 1,032 plaintext passwords and 4,148 session cookies, with 474 complete MFA-bypassed authentications. The adversary-in-the-middle proxy captures Microsoft 365 session cookies that can be replayed to access email, Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive, potentially pivoting into Entra ID and federated SaaS. The operation was still active, used custom JavaScript to disable FIDO2/WebAuthn on phishing pages, and routed logins through a residential proxy pool spanning 69 countries.

The Register · Security·Sep 8, 13:26 UTC · 8d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild1

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.

GBHackers·Sep 12, 06:16 UTC · 4d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild1

The Top 4 Threats We Found by Investigating Every Alert for a Quarter

Prophet Security's quarterly threat report finds identity attacks made up roughly half of confirmed malicious activity, with stolen authenticated sessions bypassing conditional access controls.

Between May 1 and July 31, 2026, Prophet Security investigated every alert in customer environments immediately on arrival; about 7% of completed investigations were confirmed malicious. Direct account/session attacks made up roughly 18% of confirmed activity, with replayed authenticated sessions bypassing conditional access since no re-authentication occurs. Infostealer activity affected about a quarter of investigated organizations, mostly delivered via browsers through compromised websites, malicious ads, sponsored search results and ClickFix fake CAPTCHA gates, with payloads including Lumma Stealer, Vidar, HijackLoader and AsyncRAT. Credential phishing was the largest category at about 28%, with adversary-in-the-middle relays revealed by seconds-long MFA approvals from distant countries and MFA fatigue attacks exploiting automatic unlock policies.

BleepingComputer·Sep 10, 14:00 UTC · 6d agoThreat actor in the wild

Cybercriminals are building phishing pages that exist only inside victims’ browsers

Barracuda details a DocuSign-themed phishing campaign that renders login pages locally via blob URLs, abusing genuine Microsoft OAuth and Teams infrastructure.

Barracuda researchers describe a phishing campaign that starts with DocuSign-themed emails carrying calendar invites pointing to genuine Microsoft OAuth endpoints, then routes victims through Microsoft Teams to a resource hosted on cdn.bloom[.]io. The login page is assembled entirely inside the victim's browser from a blob URL, registers a service worker, and runs inside a sandboxed iframe that receives live instructions from the attacker's backend. Hidden command-and-control configuration indicates the page is part of a centrally managed phishing platform that can be updated and steered across many victims. Barracuda recommends phishing-resistant MFA such as FIDO2 keys or passkeys, monitoring of OAuth flows and redirect chains, and behavior-based identity controls rather than URL blocklisting.

Help Net Security·Sep 10, 05:00 UTC · 7d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild

Microsoft Entra ID is removing an extra MFA hurdle for Windows Hello and macOS PSSO users

Help Net Security·Aug 10, 00:00 UTC · Aug 10, 2026Phishing & fraud1

JavaScript obfuscation: From party trick to phishing kit

Cisco Talos explains JavaScript obfuscation techniques used by phishing kits and the approaches researchers use to reverse them.

Cisco Talos published an educational walkthrough of JavaScript obfuscation as used in modern phishing kits. The piece covers why analysts deobfuscate malicious scripts and outlines several practical approaches to reversing obfuscated code. The techniques help defenders unpack phishing kit payloads during investigations.

Cisco Talos·Aug 27, 10:00 UTC · 20d agoResearch

IT Help Desk Impersonation Lets Hackers Bypass MFA

Arctic Wolf tracks PREY-0058 posing as IT help desk to steal Microsoft 365 sessions via AiTM panels, then extorting executives after SaaS data theft.

Arctic Wolf documented a threat cluster tracked as PREY-0058 that impersonates internal IT help desk staff by phone, luring Directors, VPs, and executives to authentication-themed URLs formatted as victim-organization lure domains. Adversary-in-the-middle panels intercept credentials and MFA approvals, and stolen sessions are replayed through residential proxies such as NodeMaven from IPs matching the victim's geo-location and ASN, defeating impossible-travel alerts. Attackers perform discovery against SharePoint and Entra ID, then harvest data from OneDrive, Exchange, and Box before issuing extortion demands. Defenders are advised to require managed devices, use phishing-resistant MFA like FIDO2, enable Continuous Access Evaluation, and monitor sign-ins, SharePoint SearchQueryPerformed, and MailItemsAccessed events.

Security Affairs·Sep 8, 07:41 UTC · 8d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild1

Nebulon Enterprise Simulated Threats for Phishing Research (NEST-Phish): A Synthetic Enterprise Phishing Email Dataset for Behavioral and Machine-Learning Research

Researchers release NEST-Phish, a synthetic enterprise phishing email dataset with matched legitimate and phishing emails and cue annotations for detection research.

Academic researchers introduce NEST-Phish, a publicly released synthetic enterprise phishing email dataset built around a fictitious organization named Nebulon. It contains matched synthetic legitimate and phishing emails across a broad set of workplace communication themes, each with interpretable phishing-cue annotations. Human-subject categorizations and supervised classifier evaluations indicate the dataset supports meaningful variation in phishing judgments and provides learnable signal for detection models. It is intended to support work on phishing detection, human susceptibility, explainability, and benchmark development.

arXiv cs.CR·Sep 3, 20:58 UTC · 13d agoResearch

Iranian cyber targeting of dissidents, activists and journalists

UK NCSC, FBI, and Dutch AIVD expose CHOSEN BRICK spyware used by Iranian state actors against dissidents, activists, and journalists worldwide.

A joint advisory from the UK NCSC, FBI, and Dutch AIVD details CHOSEN BRICK, a Windows spyware family used by Iranian state cyber actors since at least 2025 against dissidents, activists, and journalists in the UK, US, and Netherlands. Actors build rapport on WhatsApp and Telegram impersonating known contacts or platform support, then deliver disguised payloads resembling apps such as Telegram, Norton, RunwayML, or fake MRI results. The malware persists via HKCU Run registry keys, adds Microsoft Defender exclusions, and uses a unique Telegram bot C2 per victim. Capabilities include screen capture, microphone recording, process enumeration, email and messaging data theft, file deletion, and system wiping; victim data has appeared on pro-Iranian leak sites.

NCSC UK·Sep 15, 12:00 UTC · 1d agoThreat actor in the wild2

Gaming the system: how a Chinese-speaking actor turned Brazilian government sites into an SEO weapon

Check Point identifies Chinese-speaking group Gambling Goblin hijacking Brazilian government domains via malicious Apache modules for SEO-manipulated gambling phishing.

Check Point Research tracks a sustained campaign since mid-2025 against Brazilian government and educational organizations by Gambling Goblin, a Chinese-speaking cybercrime cluster linked to Earth Berberoka. Attackers compile and install malicious Apache modules that silently reverse-proxy visitors to phishing pages impersonating Google Play, Microsoft Store, and Amazon, chaining compromised high-reputation domains to inflate search rankings. The group deploys a heavily obfuscated Linux toolkit including DownPro, AlphaAgent, oRAT, a 3snake-based credential stealer, and SSH brute-forcers, with parallel phishing networks localized for Vietnamese, Spanish, and English victims.

Check Point Research·Sep 2, 10:16 UTC · 14d agoThreat actor

UK.gov begins killing off passwords for 23 million users

UK government rolls out passkeys to 23 million GOV.UK One Login users, saving £600 daily in SMS costs and resisting phishing.

The UK government is expanding passkey sign-in across GOV.UK One Login for more than 23 million users after a trial with over 300,000 people. Nearly one in ten daily One Login sign-ins already use passkeys, which the government says are up to eight times faster than password plus 2FA code. The switch saves taxpayers nearly £600 per day in SMS costs, and the NCSC is encouraging adoption while passwords remain optional.

The Register · Security·Sep 14, 09:16 UTC · 2d agoPolicy & legal

Attackers are going after prominent individuals through OAuth phishing, FBI warns

FBI IC3 warns of ongoing OAuth consent phishing since late 2025 targeting prominent individuals to gain persistent, password-free account access.

Attackers register malicious applications with legitimate OAuth providers, impersonate journalists, academics, event organizers, or government officials on messaging apps and email, and lure targets into approving permission requests on real Microsoft or Google login pages. Once approved, the attacker's application can read and send emails and access sensitive files within granted permissions, bypassing both passwords and MFA. The FBI notes password changes do not revoke this access; victims must invalidate the OAuth token in application security settings, and no attribution or victim list has been disclosed.

Help Net Security·Sep 2, 00:00 UTC · 15d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild

What the Fortibleed campaign means for organizations running FortiGate firewalls

Help Net Security·Aug 3, 13:19 UTC · Aug 3, 2026Threat actor

Phishing Powers 80% of Attacks on US Companies: How SOCs Can Detect It Early

Phishing drives 80% of attacks on US companies; FBI recorded 158,436 BEC victims and over $20B in losses from 2013-2023.

A vendor-authored analysis claims phishing powers roughly 80% of attacks on US companies, citing FBI statistics of 158,436 business email compromise victims and more than $20 billion in reported losses between 2013 and 2023. It describes modern phishing using compromised infrastructure, redirect chains, dynamic pages, and adversary-in-the-middle techniques, including a recent campaign targeting tens of thousands of primarily US users. The piece promotes ANY.RUN Threat Intelligence Feeds and TI Reports, claiming 99% unique high-confidence IOCs, 21-minute faster MTTR, and 30% fewer Tier 2 escalations.

Cyber Security News·Sep 8, 17:54 UTC · 8d agoPhishing & fraud

Infostealer Logs Expose Replayable AI Tokens That Can Bypass MFA

Okta finds infostealer logs contain thousands of replayable AI session tokens and API keys, letting criminals bypass MFA and access services from Google, Anthropic and OpenAI.

Okta analyzed a 7 GB infostealer dump from August 2, 2026 covering 5,871 infected machines in 162 countries and found 555 of 44,791 JWTs related to AI services, plus 1,843 unexpired JWTs and JWEs (largely set by OpenAI via NextAuth.js) and 24 still-valid API keys for Google Gemini, OpenAI, Groq and OpenRouter. Valid session tokens and API keys can be replayed with anti-detect browsers like Camoufox to bypass credential and MFA checks, fueling an underground market for AI account access known as LLMjacking, where attackers rack up victims' AI compute bills. Some 17.7% of the JWTs contained plaintext PII usable for social engineering. Google's GTIG reported growing buyer demand for Claude, Gemini, Cursor and Devin credentials, and Mandiant handled an incident where an actor used an exposed GitHub PAT to deploy unauthorized AI infrastructure and scale high-performance compute.

The Hacker News·Sep 9, 14:23 UTC · 7d agoThreat actor in the wild1

Attackers conceal phishing lures using invisible Unicode characters

Threat actors use invisible Unicode characters (ASCII smuggling) to hide phishing lures and evade email security filters.

Threat actors have adopted the ASCII smuggling technique in phishing campaigns, embedding invisible Unicode characters in emails to conceal malicious lures. The approach is designed to evade email security filters that scan for visible phishing indicators. The report gives no victim counts or named campaigns.

BleepingComputer·Sep 6, 14:23 UTC · 10d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild

The exploit gap is closing, and your patch cycle wasn't built for this

Help Net Security·Aug 5, 10:23 UTC · Aug 5, 2026Vulnerability

Cybercriminals Hack Brazilian Government Servers to Host Phishing Sites

A Chinese-language cybercriminal group is compromising Brazilian government and education servers to host gambling-themed phishing sites via a reverse-proxy network.

Dark Reading reports that a Chinese-language cybercriminal group is hacking Brazilian government and education websites to build a reverse-proxy network used to serve gambling-themed phishing sites. The available text gives limited detail on the number of compromised servers or specific victim organizations.

Dark Reading·Sep 8, 12:00 UTC · 8d agoThreat actor in the wild

Google Links Redact Extortion Group to BlackFile Rebrand

Infosecurity Magazine·Aug 7, 09:40 UTC · Aug 7, 2026Ransomware

Phishing Campaign Sends Millions of Emails Using Invisible Unicode to Evade Filters

Microsoft warns of a high-volume phishing campaign using invisible Unicode characters to split keywords like 'funding' and evade filters, peaking at 2.37 million daily messages.

Microsoft's Security Research team documented a high-volume phishing operation inserting deprecated Unicode Tags characters (U+E0000-U+E007F) inside financial keywords such as 'funding' so literal-string and regex email filters stop matching them. The campaign ran on a weekly cadence with 1-2.37 million weekday messages between February and May 15, 2026, peaking on February 26, 2026. It used hundreds of disposable finance-themed sender domains and relayed mail through ActiveCampaign's click-tracking infrastructure (acemlnd[.]com, activehosted[.]com), lending legitimate platform reputation. Microsoft ties the activity to an AI-assisted SBA loan phishing campaign that Fortra's FIRE team disclosed in September 2025.

The Hacker News·Sep 4, 15:57 UTC · 12d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild