Microsoft Teams Hack Report Shows Old-School Attacks Are Still a Thing
By impersonating help desk personnel, hackers were able to infiltrate corporate systems.
A recent report from Microsoft reveals that old-fashioned social engineering attacks still pose a significant threat to corporate systems. Despite the hype around AI-driven cyber threats, human hackers are still using traditional tactics to deceive employees into granting remote access to their systems. According to the report, hackers impersonated IT or help desk personnel through Microsoft Teams messages and calls to trick unsuspecting users into enabling remote access using Quick Assist.
Once granted access, the attackers were able to install malicious software and gain complete control over corporate networks. Microsoft is addressing this issue by introducing AI-powered phishing detection that analyzes conversation context to identify malicious activities in high-risk messaging scenarios. The company is also planning to add features for reporting suspicious guest invitations and blurring QR codes sent by external senders.
However, the responsibility ultimately falls on companies and their employees to remain vigilant and cautious when dealing with external connections and messages. Yu Cai, associate director of the Institute of Computing and Cybersystems at Michigan Tech, emphasizes that social engineering attacks remain a significant threat, even as AI cyber attacks dominate headlines.
He notes that AI can enhance the effectiveness of social engineering hacks by providing tools like voice cloning or deepfake videos. The Microsoft Teams hacks serve as a reminder that sophisticated attacks can occur through simple trust-based methods, as employees often place trust in the everyday tools they use for work.
Written by urgent.news from CNET's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
