Social Engineering and Phishing-Driven Intrusions Targeting Identity and Remote Access
Multiple reports highlight social engineering and phishing as primary initial-access vectors, with attackers increasingly targeting identity systems rather than exploiting software vulnerabilities. Microsoft was again the most spoofed brand in phishing during Q4 2025 (22% of observed brand-impersonation attempts), reflecting how attackers abuse trust in major identity and productivity platforms to harvest credentials; examples cited include lures mimicking Netflix account recovery, Roblox-related pages, and Spanish-language Facebook scams. Separately, an incident response case described payroll fraud achieved without malware or a network breach: an attacker impersonated employees to help desks, reset passwords, re-enrolled MFA, and registered an external email as an authentication method in Azure Active Directory, then altered direct-deposit details to redirect paychecks—underscoring how help-desk processes and MFA reset workflows can be exploited for persistence and financial theft.
Targeted campaigns also show continued evolution in delivery tradecraft for remote access. A spear-phishing operation against Argentina’s judicial sector used ZIP attachments containing a weaponized Windows shortcut (.lnk) masquerading as a PDF plus scripts and a decoy court document to deploy a Remote Access Trojan while minimizing user suspicion. In parallel, research described Pulsar RAT (a Quasar RAT derivative) emphasizing stealth via memory-only execution and HVNC, with TLS-encrypted C2 and configuration retrieval from public paste sites, alongside persistence mechanisms such as scheduled tasks and UAC-bypass techniques. Another campaign attributed to Konni APT (“Operation Poseidon”) abused Google and Naver ad redirection (e.g., ad.doubleclick[.]net, mkt.naver[.]com) to launder clicks through trusted ad infrastructure before landing victims on compromised sites hosting malware, demonstrating how open-redirect and ad-tech trust can bypass reputation-based controls.
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Multi-stage phishing and supply-chain malware campaigns targeting credentials and long-term access
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1 months ago
Phishing and social-engineering campaigns increasingly abuse trusted channels and identities to deliver malware
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Inbound Social Engineering and Malware Delivery Campaigns Targeting Crypto, Web3, and Enterprises
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2 months ago