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Ransomware and Phishing Threats Surge in 2025

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Ransomware and phishing attacks have surged in 2025, with AI significantly enhancing the scale and sophistication of these threats. Ransomware remains the primary digital threat to businesses, while phishing has become the most common initial point of failure. The cost of ransomware claims has increased by 17% over the previous year, and phishing-related losses have seen a dramatic rise. The 2025 Midyear Cyber Risk Report by Resilience highlights key trends and provides insights into the evolving threat landscape. Ransomware attacks increased by 73% in Q1 2025, driven by market turbulence and AI assistance. Phishing, aided by AI, has become more effective, with synthetic voice technology and infostealers playing significant roles. The report also notes the emergence of new ransomware groups and the resilience of existing ones, despite law enforcement actions. Recommendations include robust backup strategies, refusal to pay for data suppression, and enhanced awareness training to combat AI-driven phishing attacks.

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  1. 09.09.2025 16:28 1 articles · 20d ago

    Ransomware and Phishing Threats Surge in 2025

    In 2025, ransomware and phishing attacks have surged, with AI significantly enhancing their scale and sophistication. Ransomware remains the primary digital threat to businesses, while phishing has become the most common initial point of failure. The cost of ransomware claims has increased by 17% over the previous year, and phishing-related losses have seen a dramatic rise. The 2025 Midyear Cyber Risk Report by Resilience highlights key trends and provides insights into the evolving threat landscape. Ransomware attacks increased by 73% in Q1 2025, driven by market turbulence and AI assistance. Phishing, aided by AI, has become more effective, with synthetic voice technology and infostealers playing significant roles. The report also notes the emergence of new ransomware groups and the resilience of existing ones, despite law enforcement actions. Recommendations include robust backup strategies, refusal to pay for data suppression, and enhanced awareness training to combat AI-driven phishing attacks.

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Similar Happenings

RaccoonO365 Phishing Network Disrupted by Microsoft and Cloudflare

The RaccoonO365 phishing network, a financially motivated threat group, was disrupted by Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) and Cloudflare. The operation, executed through a court order in the Southern District of New York, seized 338 domains used by the group since July 2024. The network targeted over 2,300 organizations in 94 countries, including at least 20 U.S. healthcare entities, and stole over 5,000 Microsoft 365 credentials. The RaccoonO365 network operated as a phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) toolkit, marketed to cybercriminals via a subscription model on a private Telegram channel. The group used legitimate tools like Cloudflare Turnstile and Workers scripts to protect their phishing pages, making detection more challenging. The mastermind behind RaccoonO365 is believed to be Joshua Ogundipe, who received over $100,000 in cryptocurrency payments. The group is also suspected to collaborate with Russian-speaking cybercriminals. Cloudflare executed a three-day 'rugpull' against RaccoonO365, banning all identified domains, placing interstitial 'phish warning' pages, terminating associated Workers scripts, and suspending user accounts to prevent re-registration.

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Increased Browser-Based Attacks Targeting Business Applications

Browser-based attacks targeting business applications have surged, exploiting modern work practices and decentralized internet apps. These attacks, including phishing, malicious OAuth integrations, and browser extensions, compromise business apps and data by targeting users. The attacks leverage various delivery channels and evasion techniques, making them difficult to detect and block. Phishing attacks have evolved to use non-email channels such as social media, instant messaging apps, and malicious search engine ads. These attacks often bypass traditional email security controls and are harder to detect. Attackers exploit the decentralized nature of modern work environments, targeting users across multiple apps and communication channels. Non-email phishing attacks can result in significant breaches, as seen in the 2023 Okta breach. The rise in these attacks highlights the need for enhanced browser security measures and better visibility into user activities within the browser.

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Akira and Cl0p Lead Most Active Ransomware-as-a-Service Groups in 2025

The first half of 2025 saw a 179% increase in ransomware attacks compared to the same period in 2024. Akira and Cl0p are the most active ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) groups, targeting manufacturing, technology, and the US. The RaaS model enables lower-skilled actors to launch attacks, contributing to the surge. New tactics include pure extortion, AI-assisted phishing, and exploitation of SonicWall SSL VPN vulnerabilities. Akira has targeted SonicWall devices, exploiting a year-old security flaw (CVE-2024-40766) and misconfigurations, leading to increased threat activity and unauthorized access. The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) has acknowledged Akira's targeting of vulnerable Australian organizations through SonicWall devices. The recent increase in exploitation of CVE-2024-40766 has been linked to incomplete remediation and misconfigurations, with SonicWall advising immediate patching and security measures. Over the past three months, Akira ransomware attacks have led to a surge in the exploitation of CVE-2024-40766, an improper access control issue in SonicWall firewalls. Akira operators are targeting SSL VPN accounts that use a one-time password (OTP) as the multi-factor authentication (MFA) option. Arctic Wolf observed dozens of incidents tied to VPN client logins from VPS hosting providers, network scanning, Impacket SMB activity, and Active Directory discovery. Akira's dwell times are among the shortest recorded for ransomware, measured in hours. Akira affiliates leveraged pre-installed and legitimate utilities to evade detection, using the Datto RMM tool on a domain controller to execute a PowerShell script and gain full control over the server. The attackers modified registries to evade detection, turned off security features, and dropped various files, including scripts that modified firewall rules.

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UNC5518 Access-as-a-Service Campaign via ClickFix and Fake CAPTCHA Pages

The FileFix social engineering attack, a variant of the ClickFix family, impersonates Meta account suspension warnings to trick users into installing the StealC infostealer malware. The campaign has evolved over two weeks with different payloads, domains, and lures, indicating an attacker testing and adapting their infrastructure. The FileFix technique, created by red team researcher mr. d0x, uses the address bar in File Explorer to execute malicious commands. The campaign employs steganography to hide a second-stage PowerShell script and encrypted executables inside a JPG image, which is believed to be AI-generated. The StealC malware targets credentials from various applications, cryptocurrency wallets, and cloud services, and can take screenshots of the active desktop. The FileFix attack uses a multilingual phishing site to trick users into executing a malicious command via the File Explorer address bar. The attack leverages Bitbucket to host the malicious components, abusing a legitimate source code hosting platform to bypass detection. The attack involves a multi-stage PowerShell script that downloads an image, decodes it into the next-stage payload, and runs a Go-based loader to launch StealC. The attack uses advanced obfuscation techniques, including junk code and fragmentation, to hinder analysis efforts. The FileFix attack is more likely to be detected by security products due to the payload being executed by the web browser used by the victim. The FileFix attack demonstrates significant investment in tradecraft, with carefully engineered phishing infrastructure, payload delivery, and supporting elements to maximize evasion and impact. The MetaStealer attack, a variant of the ClickFix family, uses a fake Cloudflare Turnstile lure and an MSI package disguised as a PDF to deploy the MetaStealer infostealer malware. The attack involves a multi-stage infection chain that includes a DLL sideloading technique using a legitimate SentinelOne executable. The MetaStealer attack targets crypto wallets and other sensitive information, using a combination of social engineering and technical evasion techniques to deploy malware. Previously, threat actors tracked as UNC5518 leveraged a social engineering tactic called ClickFix to deploy the CORNFLAKE.V3 backdoor. The campaign used fake CAPTCHA pages to trick users into executing malicious PowerShell scripts, providing initial access to systems. This access was then monetized by other threat groups, including UNC5774 and UNC4108, which deployed additional payloads. The attack began with users interacting with compromised search results or malicious ads, leading them to fake CAPTCHA pages. Users were then tricked into running a malicious PowerShell command, which downloaded and executed the CORNFLAKE.V3 backdoor. This backdoor supported various payload types and could collect system information, which was transmitted via Cloudflare tunnels to evade detection. CORNFLAKE.V3 is an updated version of CORNFLAKE.V2, featuring host persistence and additional payload support. The campaign also involved the deployment of WINDYTWIST.SEA, a backdoor that supports lateral movement within infected networks.

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