Threat actors

Microsoft actively discovers and tracks threat actors across observed state-sponsored, ransomware, and criminal activities. Get insights from the 60 nation-state actors, 50 ransomware groups, and hundreds of other attackers we’ve tracked.

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September 29 20 min read

Star Blizzard refines phishing and malware delivery with the RedFlick technique

Since January 2026, Microsoft has observed Russian state threat actor Star Blizzard evolve their detection evasion capabilities through large-scale phishing campaigns, the use of accounts on compromised websites, and a novel malware delivery technique, tracked by Microsoft as “RedFlick”.
September 24 12 min read

Beyond the ransomware: Tracking Storm-2570’s consistent tradecraft across deployments

Storm-2570 is a ransomware affiliate that uses consistent post-compromise tools and techniques across deployments involving Qilin, DragonForce, Anubis, and BERT ransomware, and provides guidance to help defenders detect and disrupt this activity before ransomware deployment.
September 22 15 min read

Unmasking EvilTokens: Getting to the root of device code phishing

EvilTokens has quickly become one of the top PhaaS platforms, enabling device code phishing attacks through AI-assisted lures, automated infrastructure, and token theft.
July 31 20 min read

CaptiveCrunch: Midnight Blizzard targets travelers worldwide for malware delivery and credential theft

Storm-2945, a sub-cluster of the Russian threat actor Midnight Blizzard, has been observed compromising the sign-in portals of hospitality-related organizations such as hotels since May 2026 in order to deliver malware to travelers and steal credentials in an operation we call CaptiveCrunch.
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May 14 18 min read

Kazuar: Anatomy of a nation-state botnet

Kazuar, a sophisticated malware family attributed to the Russian state actor Secret Blizzard, has been under constant development for years and continues to evolve in support of espionage-focused operations.
April 16 29 min read

Dissecting Sapphire Sleet’s macOS intrusion from lure to compromise

The Microsoft Defender Security Research Team uncovered a sophisticated macOS intrusion campaign attributed to the North Korean threat actor Sapphire Sleet that abuses user driven execution and social engineering to bypass macOS security protections and steal credentials, cryptocurrency assets, and sensitive data.
April 9 12 min read

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.
April 7 9 min read

SOHO router compromise leads to DNS hijacking and adversary-in-the-middle attacks

Executive summary Forest Blizzard, a threat actor linked to the Russian military, has been compromising insecure home and small-office internet equipment like routers, then modifying their settings in ways that turn them into part of the actor’s malicious infrastructure.
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April 1 16 min read

Mitigating the Axios npm supply chain compromise

On March 31, 2026, the popular HTTP client Axios experienced a supply chain attack, causing two newly published npm packages for version updates to download from command and control (C2) that Microsoft Threat Intelligence has attributed to the North Korean state actor Sapphire Sleet.
March 12 9 min read

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.
March 6 21 min read

AI as tradecraft: How threat actors operationalize AI

Threat actors are operationalizing AI to scale and sustain malicious activity, accelerating tradecraft and increasing risk for defenders, as illustrated by recent activity from North Korean groups such as Jasper Sleet and Coral Sleet (formerly Storm-1877).
March 4 15 min read

Inside Tycoon2FA: How a leading AiTM phishing kit operated at scale

Tycoon2FA has become a leading phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) platforms, enabling campaigns that reach over 500,000 organizations monthly, prompting Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) to work with Europol and industry partners to facilitate a disruption of Tycoon2FA’s infrastructure and operations.

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