AI brands as bait: How threat actors are using the AI hype in social engineering
As threat actors operationalize AI to accelerate attacks, they are also leveraging the wider global interest around AI itself as a social engineering lure.
Cybercrime
The cybercriminal economy is a connected ecosystem of many players with different techniques, goals, and skillsets. Get insights on the industrialization of cybercrime and how cyberattackers use ready-made malware and other tools to perform their attacks.
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The Gentlemen ransomware: Dissecting a self-propagating Go encryptor
Microsoft Threat Intelligence presents a comprehensive analysis of The Gentlemen, a Go-based ransomware deployed by affiliates of Storm-2697 that combines per-file ephemeral key encryption with an aggressive self-propagation module to deploy itself across an entire network using series of simultaneous lateral movement techniques per target. -
Exposing Fox Tempest: A malware-signing service operation
Fox Tempest is a financially motivated threat actor operating a malware‑signing‑as‑a‑service (MSaaS) used by other cybercriminals, including Vanilla Tempest and Storm groups, to more effectively distribute malicious code, including ransomware. -
Email threat landscape: Q1 2026 trends and insights
In early 2026, email threats increased with a rise in credential phishing, QR code phishing, and CAPTCHA-gated campaigns, highlighted by Microsoft’s disruption of the Tycoon2FA phishing platform which led to a 15% volume decrease and shifts in threat actor tactics. Retain Microsoft Security Experts
Microsoft Security Experts are now available to strengthen your team with managed security services. Learn how to defend against threats with security experts.
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Investigating Storm-2755: “Payroll pirate” attacks targeting Canadian employees
Microsoft Incident Response – Detection and Response Team (DART) researchers observed an emerging, financially motivated threat actor, tracked as Storm-2755, compromising Canadian employee accounts to gain unauthorized access to employee profiles and divert salary payments to attacker-controlled accounts. -
Storm-1175 focuses gaze on vulnerable web-facing assets in high-tempo Medusa ransomware operations
The financially motivated cybercriminal threat actor Storm-1175 operates high-velocity ransomware campaigns that weaponize recently disclosed vulnerabilities to obtain initial access, exfiltrate data, and deploy Medusa ransomware. -
Storm-2561 uses SEO poisoning to distribute fake VPN clients for credential theft
Storm-2561 uses SEO poisoning to push fake VPN downloads that install signed trojans and steal VPN credentials. -
Investigating targeted “payroll pirate” attacks affecting US universities
Microsoft Threat Intelligence has identified a financially motivated threat actor that we track as Storm-2657 compromising employee accounts to gain unauthorized access to employee profiles and divert salary payments to attacker-controlled accounts, attacks that have been dubbed “payroll pirate”. Modernize your Security Operations Center with Microsoft Sentinel
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Jasper Sleet: North Korean remote IT workers’ evolving tactics to infiltrate organizations
Since 2024, Microsoft Threat Intelligence has observed remote IT workers deployed by North Korea leveraging AI to improve the scale and sophistication of their operations, steal data, and generate revenue for the North Korean government. -
Unveiling RIFT: Enhancing Rust malware analysis through pattern matching
As threat actors are adopting Rust for malware development, RIFT, an open-source tool, helps reverse engineers analyze Rust malware, solving challenges in the security industry. -
Defending against evolving identity attack techniques
Threat actors continue to develop and leverage various techniques that aim to compromise cloud identities. -
Lumma Stealer: Breaking down the delivery techniques and capabilities of a prolific infostealer
Over the past year, Microsoft Threat Intelligence observed the persistent growth and operational sophistication of Lumma Stealer, an info-stealing malware used by multiple financially motivated threat actors to target various industries.
