Summary: Cybercriminals are targeting the 2025 tax season with sophisticated phishing and malware campaigns, impersonating tax agencies and financial organizations to steal sensitive information. Notable campaigns include fake emails from the UK’s HM Revenue & Customs and Australia’s myGov portal, aimed at credential harvesting and direct financial fraud. Organizations are urged to educate employees on recognizing phishing tactics as threats increase during tax season.
Affected: Tax agencies, financial institutions, public organizations in the UK, Australia, and Switzerland
Keypoints :
- Phishing campaigns impersonating HM Revenue & Customs in the UK, targeting users with urgent account update messages.
- Significant incidents involving Intuit QuickBooks, with over 40,000 phishing messages sent to over 2,000 organizations.
- Australian campaigns exploiting the myGov portal, seeking to capture usernames, passwords, and multifactor authentication details.
- Emerging trends include QR-code-based phishing and campaigns delivering various forms of malware, such as Rhadamanthys and MetaStealer.
- Tax-related lures exploit urgency and fear, emphasizing the need for employee education on phishing recognition.