Credential theft continues to be the biggest threat facing organizations’ email inboxes, according to a new PhishLabs report.
According to data pulled from the firm’s Quarterly Threat Trends & Intelligence Report solutions, around 63.5% of attacks were by hackers looking to steal victims’ credentials. The attacks rely on social engineering to prompt users to interact with a malicious attachment or a link that will lead the victim to a phishing webpage that harvests credentials.
The report found that 22% of credential theft attacks contain malicious attachments, up 6% from Q1, and more than three-quarters of attacks contained a phishing link.
The data revealed that attacks on Office 365 (O365) accounts represented 51% of credential theft phishing attempts, making it the top corporate email threat. This was a 7.5-percentage-point increase from Q1.
PhishLabs previously reported that O365 phish represented more than half of all attacks reported by enterprises over two years.
“The consistently high volume is a clear indicator that security teams should make every effort to proactively detect and mitigate O365 phish,” said John LaCour, founder and CTO of PhishLabs.
The research also found that response-based threats, such as Business Email Compromise (BEC) and 419 (Advance-Fee) attacks, continued to increase, contributing to 33% of credential theft reports.
“Notably, vishing attacks have more than doubled, contributing to 15.9% of reports. The increase in vishing supports the fact that threat actors continue to use a wide-variety of attack methods to manipulate corporate users,” said LaCour.
However, malware threats were down, representing 3.5% of threats reported in corporate inboxes. LaCour said the decrease could be attributed to multiple factors, including the dismantling or disappearance of associated ransomware families.
In Q2, Qbot, also known as Qakbot, was reported most, contributing to more than half of all cases (54.1%). ZLoader (9.5%), FormBook (9.1%), IcedID (6.9%), and AsyncRAT (5.2%) made up the rest of the top five malware families. Together, these five families accounted for more than 84% of malware payloads found in corporate inboxes.
“Top malware families continue to fluctuate based on ransomware activity, reaching user inboxes the least among threat types but remaining a very real security risk to enterprises,” said LaCour.
-
Why Microsoft thinks diversity will keep security workers relevant in the age of agentic AINews Improved AI skills and a greater focus on ensuring agents are secure at point of deployment will be key for staying ahead of attackers
-
Microsoft: get used to working with AI-powered "digital colleagues"News Tech giant's report suggests we should get ready to work with AI, revealing future trends for the workplace
-
Ransomware attacks are rising — but quiet payouts could mean there's more than actually reportedNews Ransomware attacks continue to climb, but they may be even higher than official figures show as companies choose to quietly pay to make such incidents go away.
-
Cleo attack victim list grows as Hertz confirms customer data stolen – and security experts say it won't be the lastNews Hertz has confirmed it suffered a data breach as a result of the Cleo zero-day vulnerability in late 2024, with the car rental giant warning that customer data was stolen.
-
‘Phishing kits are a force multiplier': Cheap cyber crime kits can be bought on the dark web for less than $25 – and experts warn it’s lowering the barrier of entry for amateur hackersNews Research from NordVPN shows phishing kits are now widely available on the dark web and via messaging apps like Telegram, and are often selling for less than $25.
-
Healthcare systems are rife with exploits — and ransomware gangs have noticedNews Nearly nine-in-ten healthcare organizations have medical devices that are vulnerable to exploits, and ransomware groups are taking notice.
-
Alleged LockBit developer extradited to the USNews A Russian-Israeli man has been extradited to the US amid accusations of being a key LockBit ransomware developer.
-
February was the worst month on record for ransomware attacks – and one threat group had a field day
News February 2025 was the worst month on record for the number of ransomware attacks, according to new research from Bitdefender.
-
CISA issues warning over Medusa ransomware after 300 victims from critical sectors impactedNews The Medusa ransomware as a Service operation compromised twice as many organizations at the start of 2025 compared to 2024
-
Warning issued over prolific 'Ghost' ransomware groupNews The Ghost ransomware group is known to act fast and exploit vulnerabilities in public-facing appliances
