Threats Tagged 'vishing'

UNC6671 continues conducting data theft extortion operations despite the alleged retirement of the BlackFile brand in May 2026. The threat actor has diversified across multiple extortion fronts including Redact, Pink, Helix, and Falcon. They employ voice phishing tactics, posing as IT helpdesk staff to contact employees on personal mobile devices, directing them to spoofed login portals with Adversary-in-the-Middle infrastructure that intercepts credentials and multi-factor authentication tokens. Once access is established, automated scripts exfiltrate data from enterprise cloud environments including Microsoft 365 and Okta. Infrastructure analysis reveals shared phishing panels, overlapping victim targeting, and connected domains across all brands. Recent targeting has evolved toward financial services, private equity, legal, and professional services sectors. Between January and May 2026, Bitcoin wallet analysis showed approximately $10.69 million USD in ransom payments, with demands typically ranging fr...

Since January 2026, a threat actor likely functioning as an initial access broker for ransomware operations has been targeting organizations through Microsoft Teams vishing attacks. Attackers impersonate IT helpdesk staff to convince victims to initiate Quick Assist remote sessions. Following initial compromise, PowerShell scripts deploy a Go-based backdoor called GoGRPC, which exists in four distinct variants: Lep, Giver, Pet, and Kind. These variants communicate with command-and-control infrastructure using gRPC over HTTP/2, an uncommon approach that helps blend malicious traffic with legitimate communications. Additional tools observed include BlindDoor backdoor, RevSocket and PyGRPC SOCKS proxies, S3Siphon data exfiltration utility, and RSOX Rust-based proxy relay. Recent campaigns show increased sophistication and selectivity, with heightened focus on corporate environments through enhanced PowerShell scripts capable of antivirus detection, domain controller fingerprinting, and system reconnaissance b...

During Q2 2026, Microsoft detected approximately 7.6 billion email-based phishing threats, with monthly volumes declining from 2.7 billion in April to 2.4 billion in June. The quarter was significantly shaped by the downstream effects of Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit disruption of the Tycoon2FA phishing-as-a-service platform in March, resulting in a 92% decline in associated phishing volume. QR code phishing attacks peaked at 18.7 monthly attacks in March before declining 48% by June, while CAPTCHA-gated phishing fell 81% from its March high. Credential phishing remained the dominant objective, accounting for 94-96% of all payload-based attacks. Business email compromise activity returned to historical norms after an anomalous April surge. Microsoft Teams-based threats grew substantially, with weekly malicious call attempts reaching nearly ten times the mid-2025 baseline by quarter end.

A data extortion group called Helix has been identified conducting multi-target campaigns using vishing, device code phishing, and automated SharePoint exfiltration. The group likely emerged from the BlackFile and ShinyHunters ecosystem after BlackFile shut down in April 2026. Helix uses sophisticated social engineering, impersonating managers by name during vishing calls to initiate device code authentication flows. The operation employs shared infrastructure including phishing domains registered through NICENIC with target-specific subdomains. After gaining access, attackers register MFA on compromised accounts, enumerate SharePoint using automated tools with python-requests user-agent, and conduct bulk data exfiltration. Infrastructure analysis reveals connections to BlackFile through hosting on the same autonomous system. The group demonstrates operational flexibility with varying dwell times and uses residential proxies geo-matched to targets to evade detection.

Since April 2026, threat actors operating under O-UNC-066 have deployed a sophisticated vishing campaign targeting Microsoft 365 passkey enrollment. Attackers register domains containing 'passkey' and call victims to convince them to register new passkeys. Victims are directed to operator-controlled phishing kits that mimic Microsoft's enrollment process while attackers simultaneously register their own passkeys in victim accounts. The kit uses real-time polling and adapts to various MFA requirements including TOTP, push notifications, and SMS OTP. Targeted organizations span food and beverage, technology, healthcare, automotive, construction, and aviation industries. The campaign leverages Microsoft's legitimate passkey registration campaigns as a pretext, with primary motivation being data extortion through the Pink data leak site. Infrastructure is hosted on DDoS-Guard and IQWeb FZ-LLC.

Between mid-2025 and mid-2026, threat actors using tradecraft associated with ShinyHunters targeted customer SaaS applications, particularly Salesforce instances, through three primary intrusion paths. Voice phishing campaigns impersonated IT support to trick employees into authorizing malicious OAuth applications. Supply chain compromises leveraged trusted integrations including Salesloft, Gainsight, and Klue to obtain OAuth tokens for downstream customer access. Misconfigured guest access enabled exploitation of Aura framework functionality for unauthorized data queries. These techniques abused legitimate OAuth relationships to inherit user and application privileges, enabling enumeration and exfiltration of CRM data while evading authentication detections. The campaigns targeted multiple industries including retail, education, and manufacturing, highlighting risks in OAuth-connected applications and third-party integrations.