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Worldwide Phishing Attacks Ramped Up at the Peak of Working From Home ![Clock Icon](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/themes/unit42-v6/dist/images/icons/icon-clock.svg) 8 min read Related Products [![GlobalProtect icon](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/prisma_RGB_logo_Icon_Color.png)GlobalProtect](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/product-category/globalprotect/ "GlobalProtect")[![Next-Generation Firewall icon](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/strata_RGB_logo_Icon_Color.png)Next-Generation Firewall](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/product-category/next-generation-firewall/ "Next-Generation Firewall")[![Prisma Access icon](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/prisma_RGB_logo_Icon_Color.png)Prisma Access](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/product-category/prisma-access/ "Prisma Access") * ![Profile Icon](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/themes/unit42-v6/dist/images/icons/icon-profile-grey.svg) By: * [Lucas Hu](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/author/lucas-hu/) * ![Published Icon](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/themes/unit42-v6/dist/images/icons/icon-calendar-grey.svg) Published:August 25, 2021 * ![Tags Icon](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/themes/unit42-v6/dist/images/icons/icon-category.svg) Categories: * [Learning Hub](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/category/learning-hub/) * [Threat Research](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/category/threat-research/) * ![Tags Icon](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/themes/unit42-v6/dist/images/icons/icon-tags-grey.svg) Tags: * [COVID](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/covid/) * [Phishing](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/phishing/) * [Remote work](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/remote-work/) * [Scams](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/scams/) * [Work from home](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/work-from-home/) * [![Download Icon](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/themes/unit42-v6/dist/images/icons/icon-download.svg)](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/phishing-attacks/?pdf=download&lg=en&_wpnonce=279fa6c5e6 "Click here to download") * [![Print Icon](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/themes/unit42-v6/dist/images/icons/icon-print.svg)](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/phishing-attacks/?pdf=print&lg=en&_wpnonce=279fa6c5e6 "Click here to print") Share![Down arrow](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/themes/unit42-v6/dist/images/icons/down-arrow.svg) * ![Link Icon](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/themes/unit42-v6/dist/images/icons/icon-share-link.svg) * [![Link Email](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/themes/unit42-v6/dist/images/icons/icon-sms.svg)](mailto:?subject=Worldwide%20Phishing%20Attacks%20Ramped%20Up%20at%20the%20Peak%20of%20Working%20From%20Home&body=Check%20out%20this%20article%20https%3A%2F%2Funit42.paloaltonetworks.com%2Fphishing-attacks%2F "Share in email") * [![Facebook Icon](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/themes/unit42-v6/dist/images/icons/icon-fb-share.svg)](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Funit42.paloaltonetworks.com%2Fphishing-attacks%2F "Share in Facebook") * [![LinkedIn Icon](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/themes/unit42-v6/dist/images/icons/icon-linkedin-share.svg)](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Funit42.paloaltonetworks.com%2Fphishing-attacks%2F&title=Worldwide%20Phishing%20Attacks%20Ramped%20Up%20at%20the%20Peak%20of%20Working%20From%20Home "Share in LinkedIn") * [![Twitter Icon](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/themes/unit42-v6/dist/images/icons/icon-twitter-share.svg)](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Funit42.paloaltonetworks.com%2Fphishing-attacks%2F&text=Worldwide%20Phishing%20Attacks%20Ramped%20Up%20at%20the%20Peak%20of%20Working%20From%20Home "Share in Twitter") * [![Reddit Icon](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/themes/unit42-v6/dist/images/icons/icon-reddit-share.svg)](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com//www.reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Funit42.paloaltonetworks.com%2Fphishing-attacks%2F&ts=markdown "Share in Reddit") * [![Mastodon Icon](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/themes/unit42-v6/dist/images/icons/icon-mastodon-share.svg)](https://mastodon.social/share?text=Worldwide%20Phishing%20Attacks%20Ramped%20Up%20at%20the%20Peak%20of%20Working%20From%20Home%20https%3A%2F%2Funit42.paloaltonetworks.com%2Fphishing-attacks%2F "Share in Mastodon") ## Executive Summary With more and more companies choosing to allow for flexible (hybrid/remote) work environments post-pandemic, we investigated the unique cyberthreats employees working from home face. Our analysis focused primarily on trends in our firewall traffic and phishing pages detected by our [URL Filtering](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/network-security/url-filtering) service from September 2019 to April 2021. We found that in early 2020, when employees were making the shift to working from home, there was a significant*drop* in traffic coming through our URL Filtering service, coinciding with a significant*increase* in the number of new phishing pages per week. This suggests that at the peak of remote work, right when the smallest percentage of end-user traffic was being protected by corporate firewalls, threat actors were putting out more phishing attacks than ever. By comparing the rate of phishing traffic coming from our on-prem firewalls versus our cloud-delivered security platform, Prisma Access, we discovered that remote employees might be especially vulnerable to a wide variety of phishing attacks. Specifically, we saw that the percentage of traffic coming from phishing pages was more than 2.4 times greater in Prisma Access traffic than in on-prem firewall traffic. This emphasizes the need to have the proper defenses in place for employees who are either fully remote or working from home. With phishing attacks continuing to rise globally, it's more important now than ever that all employees are able to safely and securely browse the web, regardless of whether they are working in the office or from home. Tools like [Prisma Access](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/prisma/access) and [GlobalProtect](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/products/globalprotect) can help shield remote and/or hybrid employees from these cyberthreats by ensuring that they have access to the same security services afforded by Palo Alto Networks [Next-Generation Firewalls](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/network-security/next-generation-firewall). ## Firewall Traffic Trends We began our analysis by investigating trends in our URL Filtering traffic from before the pandemic, starting in September 2019. We observed a sudden and significant drop in traffic from March-April 2020, just as COVID was beginning its initial spread throughout the U.S., forcing organizations to shift to remote work. ![We began our analysis by investigating trends in our URL Filtering traffic from before the pandemic, starting in September 2019. We observed a sudden and significant drop in traffic from March-April 2020, just as COVID was beginning its initial spread throughout the U.S., forcing organizations to shift to remote work.](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/total-weekly-firewall-traffic-normalized.png) Figure 1. Total observed URL Filtering traffic per week from September 2019-April 2021. We then investigated how changes in customer traffic differed between our on-prem Next-Generation Firewalls and our cloud-delivered security platform, Prisma Access. We saw that weekly traffic from our on-prem firewalls (blue in Figure 2 below) dropped quite significantly -- by about 45% -- from March-April 2020. In contrast, weekly traffic from Prisma Access (orange in Figure 2) *increased* by more than 200% as employees suddenly shifted to working remotely. (The dips in December 2020 and December 2021 correspond to holiday breaks.) This suggests that organizations relying solely on on-prem firewalls, without adjusting to increased remote work by deploying cloud-delivered security services, were far more vulnerable to a variety of cyberattacks since their now-remote employees were able to browse the web unprotected. ![We saw that weekly traffic from our on-prem firewalls (blue) dropped quite significantly – by about 45% – from March-April 2020. In contrast, weekly traffic from Prisma Access (orange) increased by more than 200% as employees suddenly shifted to working remotely. (The dips in December 2020 and December 2021 correspond to holiday breaks.)](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/on-prem-vs-prisma-access-traffic-normalized.png) Figure 2. On-prem firewall traffic versus Prisma Access (cloud) traffic from September 2019-April 2021. Normalized such that the maximum weekly traffic is represented with a value of 1.00. To further investigate this point, we looked into which industries experienced the greatest drops in total URL Filtering traffic from March-April 2020. We noticed that the education and high tech industries experienced especially large decreases in traffic during this period: education (~46% decrease), presumably due to school closures, and high tech (~35% decrease), presumably due to employers' willingness to let employees work remotely given the industry's [inherently digital nature](https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/whats-next-for-remote-work-an-analysis-of-2000-tasks-800-jobs-and-nine-countries). All in all, nearly every industry we studied experienced a significant drop in URL Filtering traffic of roughly 30% or more during this time. ![Total weekly URL Filtering traffic by industry from September 2019-April 2021. High tech and education (represented by blue and orange lines respectively) saw the largest drop at the start of the pandemic. Other affected industries were wholesale and retail (yellow), hospitality (green), telecommunications (red), healthcare (light blue), pharma and life sciences (periwinkle) and government (red-orange).](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/weekly-firewall-traffic-by-industry.png) Figure 3. Total weekly traffic by industry from September 2019-April 2021. These significant drops in observed URL Filtering traffic stress the importance of having access to security services regardless of where your employees or end users are physically located. Although our observed URL Filtering traffic dropped at the start of the pandemic, internet usage as a whole went *up* by ~25% in mid-March, according to the [Wall Street Journal](https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-lockdown-tested-internets-backbone-11597503600). (Total internet usage then dipped slightly in May, but still stayed higher than pre-pandemic levels). This suggests that despite the drop in traffic, people were not necessarily using the internet any less than before. Rather, people were on average using the internet *even* *more* than before, with a larger proportion of that internet traffic being unprotected by enterprise-grade firewalls, leaving end users more vulnerable than ever to a wide variety of cyberthreats. Since the hybrid work model is likely here to stay post-pandemic (according to [The Work Trend Index](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/hybrid-work), a report published by Microsoft, over 70 percent of employees across a variety of industries want flexible remote work options to continue), organizations must rethink how to protect their workforces moving forward, which starts by making digital security an integral part of their hybrid and/or remote work plans. ## Phishing-Related Trends To study how attackers may have responded to this increase in remote work, we investigated the number of phishing URLs detected by our ML-powered URL Filtering service from September 2019-April 2021. We observed an initial upward trend in new phishing URLs starting around February 2020, peaking around June 2020. Looking at Figure 4, we can see that the largest number of new phishing pages (orange) was observed just as URL Filtering traffic (blue) was at its lowest point (May-June 2020). This suggests that the high prevalence of remote work at this time coincided with a high rate of attempted phishing attacks. ![The largest number of new phishing pages (orange) was observed just as URL Filtering traffic (blue) was at its lowest point (May-June 2020). This suggests that the high prevalence of remote work at this time coincided with a high rate of attempted phishing attacks.](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/total-firewall-traffic-vs-new-phishing-urls.png) Figure 4. Total URL traffic versus number of new phishing URLs from September 2019-April 2021 Next, we used keyword matching to determine which URLs were business-related (targeting various business communication and/or collaboration tools) and which phishing URLs were consumer-related (targeting well-known social media brands, consumer banking sites, etc.). We found that business-related and consumer-related phishing attacks increased by roughly 100% from February 2020 to June 2020. This suggests that the *types* of phishing attacks responsible for the spike during this time period did not necessarily change -- but rather, the total *volume* of attempted phishing attacks increased across the board. In addition, we can see from the upward trend toward the right side of Figures 4 and 5 that the rate of new phishing attacks shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. ![We used keyword matching to determine which URLs were business-related (targeting various business communication and/or collaboration tools) and which phishing URLs were consumer-related (targeting well-known social media brands, consumer banking sites, etc.). We found that business-related and consumer-related phishing attacks increased by roughly 100% from February 2020 to June 2020. This suggests that the types of phishing attacks responsible for the spike during this time period did not necessarily change – but rather, the total volume of attempted phishing attacks increased across the board.](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/business-vs-consumer-related-phishing-urls.png) Figure 5. Business-related versus consumer-related phishing URLs per week from September 2019-April 2021. ![office365invoicea\[.\]xyz/ce: A typical example of a business phishing attack targeting Office365. This page requires that the user first interacts with the page to see the phishing form, possibly in an attempt to evade automated phishing detection engines.](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/word-image-53.png) Figure 6. office365invoicea\[.\]xyz/ce: A typical example of a business phishing webpage targeting Office365. This page requires that the user first interacts with the page to see the phishing form, possibly in an attempt to evade automated phishing detection engines. ![ww3ecure-authlogin4\[.\]ns02\[.\]info/Chase%20New/: A typical example of a consumer phishing attack targeting Chase bank.](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/word-image-54.png) Figure 7. ww3ecure-authlogin4\[.\]ns02\[.\]info/Chase%20New/: A typical example of a consumer phishing webpage targeting Chase bank. Finally, we investigated which industries are the most affected by these phishing attacks. We did this by calculating the percentage of total traffic for organizations in each industry that came from phishing webpages from September 2019-May 2021. ![Percentage of total traffic for organizations in each industry that came from phishing webpages from September 2019-May 2021. In order from highest to lowest percentage, the graph lists telectommunications, high tech, agriculture, state and local government, education, media and entertainment, transportation and logistics, wholesale and retail, professional and legal, hospitality, finance, construction, utilities and energy, manufacturing, pharma and life sciences, healthcare and real estate. Based on this data, the telecommunications industry seems to be the most heavily impacted by phishing attacks.](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/most-affected-industries.png) Figure 8. Percentage of phishing traffic relative to the total traffic by industry from September 2019-May 2021. We found that the telecommunications industry was by far the most heavily impacted by phishing attacks, with about 0.1% of total traffic coming from phishing webpages. Of note, the high tech and education industries (both of which experienced significant drops in firewall traffic during the pandemic) also happen to be among the top-five most heavily affected industries. ![We saw that the percentage of traffic coming from phishing pages was more than 240% times greater in Prisma Access traffic than in on-prem firewall traffic. While we can’t be certain of the underlying reasons behind this, one plausible explanation is that employees may be less on-guard against phishing links when working outside the office. If this is indeed the case, then that would make it doubly important that employees who are working remotely have access to adequate internet security like URL Filtering to protect them from online threats such as phishing attacks and other malicious webpages.](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/percent-phishing-traffic-on-prem-vs-prisma-acces.png) Figure 9. Percentage of phishing traffic relative to total traffic for on-prem firewalls versus Prisma Access from March 2020-April 2021. Furthermore, we saw that the percentage of traffic coming from phishing pages was more than 2.4 times greater in Prisma Access traffic than in on-prem firewall traffic. While we can't be certain of the underlying reasons behind this, one plausible explanation is that employees may be less on-guard against phishing links when working outside the office. If this is indeed the case, then that would make it doubly important that employees who are working remotely have access to adequate internet security like URL Filtering to protect them from online threats such as phishing attacks and other malicious webpages. ## Securing Your Remote/Hybrid Workforce With today's work environment shifting more and more to the virtual sphere, and with more and more work happening outside the physical boundaries of an office or corporate campus, it's often no longer enough to rely entirely on on-prem firewalls to keep end users protected while browsing the web. We can see that attackers tried to make the most of this sudden spike in remote work by ramping up their rate of phishing attacks, going after end users' corporate credentials, as well as their personal credentials. We are now observing more new phishing attacks per week now than ever before, and our findings suggest that remote employees may be especially vulnerable to these phishing attacks, emphasizing the importance of having the proper defenses in place. For end users who have access to Palo AltoNetworks URL Filtering services (e.g. via [Prisma Access](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/prisma/access) or [GlobalProtect](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/products/globalprotect)), it is likely that many of these phishing URLs would have been blocked before even being rendered in the user's web browser. For end users working from home without access to a Next-Generation Firewall or cloud-delivered security service, it is likely that more of these attacks would have been successful, and that many end users have been fooled into giving attackers either their business login credentials or sensitive personal information. With more companies looking to adopt remote and/or hybrid work models in the future, it is more important than ever to ensure that all employees have secure access to the internet, no matter where they happen to be physically located. ## Conclusion We have seen that threat actors ramped up their rate of phishing attacks at the same time as the number of employees who were working from home increased. If employers want to maintain a secure workforce in this new hybrid/remote environment, it is crucial that employees who are working from home have the same access to adequate coverage from cyberthreats that employees who are working in the office do. Palo Alto Networks [remote-work offerings](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/resources/secure-remote-workforce), including [cloud-delivered security services](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/network-security/security-subscriptions) such as URL Filtering and Threat Prevention, can protect employees from the latest phishing and malware attacks regardless of whether they are working from the office or remotely. In addition to these security services, best practices to protect yourself and your organization from phishing attacks include: **For individuals:** * Exercising caution when clicking on any links or attachments contained in suspicious emails, especially those relating to one's account settings or personal information, or otherwise trying to convey a sense of urgency. * Verifying the sender's address for any suspicious emails in your inbox. * Double-checking the URL and security certificate of each website before inputting your login credentials. * Reporting suspected phishing attempts to your organization's IT or InfoSec department **For organizations:** * Implementing security awareness training to improve employees' ability to identify fraudulent emails. * Regularly backing up your organization's data as a defense against [ransomware attacks](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/ransomware-threat-report-highlights/)initiated via phishing emails. * Enforcing multi-factor authentication on all business-related logins as an added layer of security. Phishing emails can be the start of ransomware attacks. If you think you may have been impacted by ransomware, please email [unit42-investigations@paloaltonetworks.com](mailto:unit42-investigations@paloaltonetworks.com) or call (866) 486-4842 -- (866) 4-UNIT42 -- for U.S. toll free, (31-20) 299-3130 in EMEA or (65) 6983-8730 in JAPAC. The [Unit 42 Incident Response](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cortex/incident-response) team is available 24/7/365. You can also take preventative steps by requesting a [Ransomware Readiness Assessment](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/ransomware-readiness-assessment). #### Additional Resources [Fake Websites Used in COVID-19 Themed Phishing Attacks, Impersonating Brands Like Pfizer and BioNTech](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/covid-19-themed-phishing-attacks/) #### Acknowledgements The author would like to thank Wei Wang, Huagang Xie, Mayuresh Ektare, Vaishnavi Grudanti and Mike Jacobsen for helping to set the direction for this research; Claud Xiao, Russell Holloway and Eric Chen for helping to gather the data used in the analyses; and Laura Novak, Jen Miller Osborn, Jim Finkle and Lakshmi Kandadai for their help in publishing the blog. Back to top ### Tags * [COVID](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/covid/ "COVID") * [Phishing](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/phishing/ "phishing") * [Remote work](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/remote-work/ "remote work") * [Scams](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/scams/ "Scams") * [Work from home](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/work-from-home/ "work from home") [Threat Research Center](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com "Threat Research") [Next: Ransomware Groups to Watch: Emerging Threats](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/emerging-ransomware-groups/ "Ransomware Groups to Watch: Emerging Threats") ### Table of Contents * ### Related Articles * [Russian Global Webmail Espionage](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/russian-webmail-espionage/ "article - table of contents") * [Phantom Squatting: AI-Hallucinated Domains as a Software Supply Chain Vector](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/phantom-squatting-hallucinated-web-domains/ "article - table of contents") * [When "Hi, This Is IT" Comes Through Microsoft Teams](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/microsoft-teams-phishing/ "article - table of contents") ## Related Threat Research Resources ![Pictorial representation of post-exploitation identity misuse in SPIFFE/SPIRE. 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A close-up of a computer circuit board with a central microchip is depicted. Red digital data streams in the form of glowing binary numbers and arrows appear to flow in and out of the chip, symbolizing data processing and transfer. The scene is illuminated with a futuristic blue and red glow.](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/04_Malware_Category_1920x900-6-786x368.jpg) [![category icon](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/icon-threat-research.svg)Threat Research](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/category/threat-research/) September 9, 2026 [#### Untracked Nightmares: The Threats Hiding Behind Commodity Infrastructure](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/ppi-network-malware-campaign-analysis/) * [ARKTunnel](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/arktunnel/ "ARKTunnel") * [C2](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/c2/ "C2") * [CL-CRI-1171](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/cl-cri-1171/ "CL-CRI-1171") [Read now ![Right arrow](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/themes/unit42-v6/dist/images/icons/icon-right-arrow-withtail.svg)](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/ppi-network-malware-campaign-analysis/ "Untracked Nightmares: The Threats Hiding Behind Commodity Infrastructure") ![Pictorial representation of attackers using AI tools to target Latin American organizations. A vibrant cityscape with silhouettes of numerous people walking along a bustling street. The scene is illuminated by bright urban lights and digital-like particles, creating a dynamic and futuristic atmosphere.](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/AdobeStock_768915868-2-1-786x373.jpg) [![category icon](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/icon-threat-research.svg)Threat Research](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/category/threat-research/) September 3, 2026 [#### Attackers Expose Ongoing AI Tool Use Targeting Organizations in Latin America](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/ai-tool-use-targeting-latam-orgs/) * [Agentic AI](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/agentic-ai/ "Agentic AI") * [ChatGPT](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/chatgpt/ "ChatGPT") * [CL-CRI-1131](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/cl-cri-1131/ "CL-CRI-1131") [Read now ![Right arrow](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/themes/unit42-v6/dist/images/icons/icon-right-arrow-withtail.svg)](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/ai-tool-use-targeting-latam-orgs/ "Attackers Expose Ongoing AI Tool Use Targeting Organizations in Latin America") ![Pictorial representation of a woman in glasses viewing a reflection of a monitor screen. The reflection features multicolored numbers, arrows, and graphs.](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/07_Opinion_Overview_1920x900-1-786x368.jpg) [![category icon](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Insights-icon-white.svg)Insights](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/category/insights/) September 2, 2026 [#### An AI-Assisted Cyber Attack: Inside a Unit 42 Investigation](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/ai-assisted-cyber-attack-inside-a-unit-42-investigation/) * [Agentic AI](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/agentic-ai/ "Agentic AI") * [Frontier AI](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/frontier-ai/ "Frontier AI") [Read now ![Right arrow](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/themes/unit42-v6/dist/images/icons/icon-right-arrow-withtail.svg)](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/ai-assisted-cyber-attack-inside-a-unit-42-investigation/ "An AI-Assisted Cyber Attack: Inside a Unit 42 Investigation") ![Pictorial representation of vishing campaigns in Microsoft Teams. A digital image of a skull formed by blue binary code on a black background, with scattered ones and zeros and digital noise, symbolizes how stealthy prompt injection attacks can exploit AI logic to bypass security controls.](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/01_Malware_Category_1920x900-5-786x368.jpg) [![category icon](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/icon-threat-research.svg)Threat Research](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/category/threat-research/) August 31, 2026 [#### Spring Ring: An Inside Look at Voice Phishing Campaigns in Microsoft Teams](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/spring-ring-voice-phishing-campaigns/) * [Cloaked Ursa](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/cloaked-ursa/ "Cloaked Ursa") * [Entra ID](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/entra-id/ "Entra ID") * [Microsoft Teams](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/microsoft-teams/ "Microsoft Teams") [Read now ![Right arrow](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/themes/unit42-v6/dist/images/icons/icon-right-arrow-withtail.svg)](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/spring-ring-voice-phishing-campaigns/ "Spring Ring: An Inside Look at Voice Phishing Campaigns in Microsoft Teams") ![Pictorial representation of AI-enabled malware. A vibrant digital interface displaying various icons and graphs, resembling a futuristic network or data analysis dashboard. The scene is illuminated with glowing lights and patterns.](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AdobeStock_1270203474-2-1-786x368.png) [![category icon](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/icon-threat-research.svg)Threat Research](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/category/threat-research/) August 25, 2026 [#### The State of AI-Enabled Malware August 2026: From Brand Abuse to Agentic Execution](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/ai-enabled-malware-analysis/) * [Backdoor](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/backdoor/ "backdoor") * [Bitcoin](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/bitcoin/ "Bitcoin") * [DLL hijacking](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/dll-hijacking/ "DLL hijacking") [Read now ![Right arrow](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/themes/unit42-v6/dist/images/icons/icon-right-arrow-withtail.svg)](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/ai-enabled-malware-analysis/ "The State of AI-Enabled Malware August 2026: From Brand Abuse to Agentic Execution") ![Pictorial representation of identity abuse through trusted communication channels. Close-up view of a digital screen displaying a glitched and pixelated image of a skull-like shape.](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/02_Malware_Category_1920x900-2-786x368.jpg) [![category icon](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/icon-threat-research.svg)Threat Research](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/category/threat-research/) August 20, 2026 [#### Identity Abuse Through Trusted Communication Channels](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/communication-channel-identity-risks/) * [Authentication](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/authentication/ "authentication") * [Identity theft](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/identity-theft/ "identity theft") * [Malware](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/malware/ "malware") [Read now ![Right arrow](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/themes/unit42-v6/dist/images/icons/icon-right-arrow-withtail.svg)](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/communication-channel-identity-risks/ "Identity Abuse Through Trusted Communication Channels") ![Pictorial representation of Kimwolf botnet malware family. Digital screen with a warning sign reading "Malware." The background features lines of computer code and graphics, creating a sense of cybersecurity threat.](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/07_Malware_Category_1920x900-3-786x368.jpg) [![category icon](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/icon-threat-research.svg)Threat Research](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/category/threat-research/) August 11, 2026 [#### Kimwolf v7: An Evolution of the Kimwolf Botnet](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/kimwolf-v7-botnet-malware/) * [Android APK](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/android-apk/ "Android APK") * [Ethereum](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/ethereum/ "Ethereum") * [HTTP](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/http/ "HTTP") [Read now ![Right arrow](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/themes/unit42-v6/dist/images/icons/icon-right-arrow-withtail.svg)](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/kimwolf-v7-botnet-malware/ "Kimwolf v7: An Evolution of the Kimwolf Botnet") ![Pictorial representatiom pf Aeternum's blockchain C2. A close-up of a computer circuit board with a central microchip is depicted. Red digital data streams in the form of glowing binary numbers and arrows appear to flow in and out of the chip. The scene is illuminated with a futuristic blue and red glow.](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/04_Malware_Category_1920x900-4-786x368.jpg) [![category icon](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/icon-threat-research.svg)Threat Research](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/category/threat-research/) August 10, 2026 [#### The Permanent Threat: Analyzing Aeternum's Blockchain-Based C2 Operations and Communications](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/aeternum-blockchain-c2-analysis/) * [Aeternum](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/aeternum/ "Aeternum") * [Infection chain](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/infection-chain/ "infection chain") * [JSON](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/json/ "JSON") [Read now ![Right arrow](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/themes/unit42-v6/dist/images/icons/icon-right-arrow-withtail.svg)](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/aeternum-blockchain-c2-analysis/ "The Permanent Threat: Analyzing Aeternum’s Blockchain-Based C2 Operations and Communications") ![Pictorial representation of Token-jacking. A person types on a laptop with multiple digital interface elements projected, including an "AI" icon](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AdobeStock_1246251272-2-786x369.jpg) [![category icon](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/icon-threat-research.svg)Threat Research](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/category/threat-research/) August 6, 2026 [#### Token Jacking: Cybercriminals Could Be Stealing Your AI Resources](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/ai-token-jacking/) * [AI API](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/ai-api/ "AI API") * [AI gateway](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/ai-gateway/ "AI gateway") * [API keys](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/tag/api-keys/ "API keys") [Read now ![Right arrow](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/themes/unit42-v6/dist/images/icons/icon-right-arrow-withtail.svg)](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/ai-token-jacking/ "Token Jacking: Cybercriminals Could Be Stealing Your AI Resources") * ![Slider arrow](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/themes/unit42-v6/dist/images/icons/slider-arrow-left.svg) * ![Slider arrow](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/themes/unit42-v6/dist/images/icons/slider-arrow-left.svg) ![Close button](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/themes/unit42-v6/dist/images/icons/close-modal.svg) ![Enlarged Image]() ![Newsletter](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/unit42-footer-subscribe-desktop.png) ![UNIT 42 Small Logo](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/wp-content/themes/unit42-v6/dist/images/palo-alto-logo-small.svg) Get updates from Unit 42 ## Peace of mind comes from staying ahead of threats. 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