CyberheistNews Vol 15 #50 [NEW FEATURE] KnowBe4 Releases Deepfake Coaching to Fight AI Threats!

[NEW FEATURE] KnowBe4 Releases Deepfake Coaching to Fight AI Threats!

Deepfakes have formally moved from “sometime danger” to “proper now” menace. Within the final 12 months, greater than 62% of organizations have been focused by a deepfake assault. That is a social engineering drawback, as a result of these scams are designed to bypass your instruments and go straight to your customers.

That is why I am excited to share this KnowBe4 launch: Deepfake Coaching.

This is what makes it totally different. As an alternative of utilizing generic examples, you possibly can create a deepfake coaching video that includes a pacesetter from your individual group. Image an worker getting a “video message from the CFO” asking for an pressing wire switch or credentials.

When folks see how plausible AI impersonation could be, utilizing acquainted faces and voices, it sticks. That is the way you strengthen the human firewall and construct a tradition the place ‘assume earlier than you click on’ turns into muscle reminiscence.

This additionally helps you show ROI. A extremely personalised expertise drives increased engagement and completion, which makes it simpler to point out measurable enchancment and safe continued help on your safety program.

My suggestion: pilot it with finance and IT first, monitor completion, then broaden throughout your group.

Availability is straightforward:

• If you have already got AIDA, it is out there in the present day.
• Admins can entry it underneath Coaching → Deepfakes.
• Diamond-level clients may strive it by way of the AIDA Orchestration technical preview for 3 months.

If deepfakes are in your 2026 danger checklist, do not look ahead to the primary incident. Prepare for it now, earlier than “the CEO” calls.

Need the total walkthrough? Learn the AIDA Deepfakes Assist Information, attend the webinar under, or each!
https://help.knowbe4.com/hc/en-us/articles/46872935053459-Deepfakes-Coaching-Information

NEW! Deepfake Coaching: A Strategic Benefit Towards Rising Threats

Deepfake assaults have grow to be extra compelling and real looking than ever earlier than.

Attackers are impersonating trusted leaders with convincing movies and voice, making it more durable for workers to know what’s actual. Conventional consciousness coaching is an effective begin, however nothing replaces first-hand publicity to actual and artificial content material relating to telling deepfake movies from genuine ones.

That is why we’re introducing KnowBe4’s Deepfake Coaching Content material. This new functionality transforms summary danger into an unforgettable, high-engagement coaching second that demonstrates how convincing AI-powered social engineering has grow to be and delivers clear, actionable steerage on find out how to detect these assaults.

The way it Works

KnowBe4 makes it straightforward to generate deepfake coaching tailor-made to your group. In simply minutes you possibly can create hyper-realistic deepfakes that ship scalable, high-impact coaching experiences.

1. Select a Chief to Characteristic – Choose a CEO, govt or one other recognizable chief your workers belief.
2. Add a Brief Pattern – Present a quick video and audio clip of that particular person, then choose a deepfake state of affairs to generate.
3. Generate Your Customized Deepfake Coaching Expertise – KnowBe4’s system creates a hyper-realistic deepfake that your workers can expertise inside a managed coaching surroundings. These deepfakes reveal how convincing AI impersonation could be and educate workers what cues to look out for.
4. Deploy in Any Coaching Marketing campaign – Add the deepfake module to current coaching plans or use it as a high-impact standalone expertise.
5. Measure Enchancment – Observe completion, engagement and efficiency over time to point out actual conduct change.

Why it Issues

• Deepfake assaults are growing quick. Workers want coaching that displays in the present day’s menace panorama.
• Customized content material captures consideration. A customized deepfake coaching expertise that includes somebody your workers know drives increased engagement than generic materials.
• Safety groups want measurable impression. Deepfake coaching drives exceptionally excessive completion charges, making it straightforward for safety leaders to show measurable conduct change.
• It prepares your workers for what’s coming subsequent. Deepfakes have gotten an ordinary device for social engineering, and your KnowBe4 coaching now displays that actuality.

Be a part of our upcoming webinar, NEW Deepfake Coaching: Empowering Your Customers to Acknowledge What AI Can Pretend, to learn the way deepfake assaults work, find out how to prepare customers to establish them and find out how to create your individual customized deepfake coaching expertise with KnowBe4.

Date/Time: Wednesday, January 14 @ 2:00 PM (ET)

Save My Spot:
https://data.knowbe4.com/new-deepfake-training-na?partnerref=CHN1

[Beware] Microsoft Groups ‘Chat With Anybody’ Invitations Aren’t All the time Protected

Researchers at CyberProof warn that menace actors are launching phishing assaults by way of Microsoft Groups’ “Chat with Anybody” function, which lets exterior customers ship direct messages by way of e-mail addresses.

“Microsoft Groups now permits customers to ship direct chat invites to any e-mail handle, even when recipients aren’t a part of a Groups tenant,” the researchers clarify. “Customers can begin chats with exterior individuals who be a part of as visitors ruled by Entra B2B Visitor insurance policies.”

On this case, an attacker despatched direct messages to Groups customers, posing as IT help. A number of workers obtained these messages and had been tricked into becoming a member of distant help classes utilizing Home windows Fast Help.

“The attacker then contacted the person as IT Assist on the very subsequent day, began a Groups name and tricked the person into initiating Fast Help by sending a phishing URL, the place the person wanted to offer login credentials to obtain Fast Help,” CyberProof says. After the person entered their Microsoft credentials, the attacker put in an infostealer on their pc.

The researchers warn that organizations ought to put together for extra of those assaults because the “Chat with Anybody” function is absolutely launched within the coming weeks. Customers needs to be cautious of unsolicited messages, even when they seem to come back from recognized colleagues.

“Since its rollout, the MS Groups function, scheduled for early launch in November 2025 and the total world rollout deliberate by January 2026, has raised concern about information publicity and compliance dangers,” the researchers write. “We imagine this might depart the door open for a possible escalation in additional malware and phishing assaults.”

Weblog submit with hyperlinks:
https://weblog.knowbe4.com/social-engineering-campaign-targets-microsoft-teams-users

[Live Demo] Cease Inbound and Outbound E-mail Threats

With over 376 billion emails despatched every day, your group faces unprecedented dangers from Enterprise E-mail Compromise (BEC), misdirected delicate communications and complex AI-driven phishing assaults. The human component, concerned within the overwhelming majority of information breaches, contributes to email-based threats that value organizations like yours thousands and thousands yearly.

Uncover how one can cease as much as 97% extra assaults and uncover 10x extra potential information breaches in your Microsoft 365 surroundings earlier than they occur.

Be a part of our stay demo to see how KnowBe4’s Cloud E-mail Safety seamlessly integrates into Microsoft 365 to boost its native safety whereas offering the instruments wanted to establish dangerous communications earlier than they result in breaches.

See KnowBe4’s Cloud E-mail Safety in motion as we present you find out how to:

• Defend your group towards refined inbound threats together with BEC, provide chain assaults and ransomware
• Forestall expensive outbound errors with real-time alerts that cease misdirected emails and unauthorized file sharing
• Implement info boundaries that preserve you compliant with business rules
• Detect and block information exfiltration makes an attempt earlier than delicate info leaves your group
• Customise incident response workflows to match your safety crew’s wants

Strengthen your safety posture with AI-native clever e-mail safety that reduces human-activated danger and safeguards your group from inbound and outbound threats.

Date/Time: TOMORROW, Wednesday, December 17 @ 1:00 PM (ET)

Save My Spot:
https://data.knowbe4.com/ces-demo-month3?partnerref=CHN2

Report: Phishing Has Surged 400% 12 months-Over-12 months

Researchers at SpyCloud have noticed a 400% year-over-year improve in profitable phishing assaults, with a disproportionate variety of assaults focusing on company accounts.

“The corporate tracked a 400% year-over-year improve in efficiently phished identities, with practically 40% of the 28+ million recaptured phished data containing a enterprise e-mail handle – in comparison with simply 11.5% in recaptured malware information,” the researchers write.

“The result’s a warning to enterprises that their workforce is 3 times extra more likely to be focused with phishing assaults than infostealer malware.”

The researchers warn that these findings present that attackers are more and more utilizing phishing as an preliminary entry vector into company networks.

“The findings reinforce a rising shift in cybercriminals’ technique: phishing is now the popular gateway into enterprise environments, and SpyCloud sees this development persevering with in 2026,” SpyCloud says.

“Risk actors are utilizing this entry as a launchpad for follow-on assaults, with SpyCloud reporting in its 2025 Id Risk Report that phishing is now the main entry level for ransomware, accounting for 35% of all ransomware infections.”

Trevor Hilligoss, SpyCloud’s Head of Safety Analysis, mentioned in a press release, “Phishing is now one of the scalable instruments cybercriminals use to breach enterprise environments.

“Cybercrime enablement companies, like phishing-as-a-service kits that automate convincing lures and adversary-in-the-middle ways that seize MFA tokens and session cookies, put superior ways into the arms of low-skilled actors, making it simpler than ever to compromise customers at scale.”

AI-powered safety consciousness coaching can provide your group a necessary layer of protection towards phishing and different social engineering assaults. KnowBe4 empowers your workforce to make smarter safety choices day-after-day.

Over 70,000 organizations worldwide belief the KnowBe4 HRM+ platform to strengthen their safety tradition and cut back human danger.

Weblog submit with hyperlinks:
https://weblog.knowbe4.com/report-phishing-has-surged-400-year-over-year

Clever E-mail Protection: Automate, Remediate and Prepare from One Platform

It isn’t a matter of if however when AI-powered assaults will breach your e-mail defenses. Phishing assaults have surged 1,265% since 2022. With 31% of IT groups taking on 5 hours to reply, each delayed minute retains energetic threats in your customers’ inboxes.

Throughout this demo, you will uncover how PhishER Plus may help you regain management over rising AI phishing dangers by:

• NEW! Creating customized menace detection guidelines immediately utilizing plain-English descriptions by means of AI-powered automation, no coding required
• Accelerating response occasions with AI-powered automation that reduces handbook e-mail evaluate by 85-99%
• Offering complete menace intelligence from a community of 13+ million world customers and third-party integrations
• Eradicating threats routinely from all mailboxes with PhishRIP earlier than customers can work together with them
• Changing actual assaults into focused coaching alternatives with PhishFlip

Uncover how PhishER Plus combines AI and human intelligence to remodel your customers from safety dangers into your most dear defenders.

Date/Time: TOMORROW, Wednesday, December 17 @ 2:00 PM (ET)

Save My Spot:
https://data.knowbe4.com/phisher-demo-3?partnerref=CHN2

Let’s keep protected on the market.

Heat regards,

Stu Sjouwerman, SACP
Government Chairman
KnowBe4, Inc.

PS: Try the Recent Content material Updates from November 2025:
https://weblog.knowbe4.com/fresh-content-updates-from-november-2025

PPS: [Favor Please? I’m hosting a webinar, forward to your CMO?] The Rise Of AI-Native Analysis Is Reshaping Enterprise Choices:
https://www.marketingaiinstitute.com/native-ai-research-readingmindsai

You possibly can learn CyberheistNews on-line at our Weblog
https://weblog.knowbe4.com/cyberheistnews-vol-15-50-new-feature-knowbe4-releases-deepfake-training-to-combat-ai-threats

Russian Spear Phishing Marketing campaign Targets European Governments

A Russian state-sponsored spear phishing marketing campaign is focusing on European and U.S. authorities staff, in addition to people engaged on European overseas coverage issues. The marketing campaign impersonated European safety conferences to breach customers’ Microsoft 365 accounts.

“In October 2025, Volexity labored an incident the place a person’s Microsoft 365 account had been recognized as compromised following the detection of anomalous login exercise,” the researchers write. “An investigation into the incident discovered the person had obtained a spear-phishing e-mail resulting in an OAuth authentication workflow.

“The e-mail had come from an account the person had just lately corresponded with, and it was a continuation of an current and legit thread associated to the upcoming Belgrade Safety Convention in Serbia.

“The attackers set up conversations with the focused customers as a way to construct rapport earlier than sending them something malicious.

“This methodology of phishing would additional require the focused person to ship to the attacker a code generated by Microsoft that might be discovered within the URL bar of the person’s browser,” the researchers write. “There was no e-mail correspondence indicating what to do with this code, so Volexity suspected the attacker was speaking with the sufferer outdoors of e-mail.

“Working with its buyer, Volexity discovered the menace actor had been actively speaking with this focused person on WhatsApp. The attacker had reached out underneath two totally different identities associated to the Belgrade Safety Convention, each of which had been compromised.”

Notably, the lures had been so efficient that victims forwarded the phishing emails to their colleagues. “Referencing upcoming occasions as a pretext to interact customers has additionally confirmed efficient,” the researchers write. “Volexity has noticed customers instantly forwarding occasion invites to different customers inside their group who could also be appropriate attendees.

“Successfully, customers assist the attacker construct a goal checklist for each that individual phishing marketing campaign and others sooner or later.” KnowBe4 empowers your workforce to make smarter safety choices day-after-day. Over 70,000 organizations worldwide belief the KnowBe4 HRM+ platform to strengthen their safety tradition and cut back human danger.

Volexity has the story:
https://www.volexity.com/weblog/2025/12/04/dangerous-invitations-russian-threat-actor-spoofs-european-security-events-in-targeted-phishing-attacks/

Warning: Phishing Marketing campaign Targets U.S. Universities

Risk actors are utilizing the open-source phishing framework Evilginx to focus on universities throughout america, in accordance with researchers at Infoblox.

The attackers have focused at the least 18 universities and academic entities since April 2025, utilizing phishing pages that spoofed scholar single sign-on (SSO) portals.

“Within the campaigns we analyzed, college students had been focused by way of personalised emails that contained TinyURL hyperlinks,” Infoblox says. “These brief hyperlinks redirected to phishing URLs dynamically generated from Evilginx phishlets—configuration recordsdata that outline how the proxy interacts between the sufferer’s system and the reputable website.

“Every phishing URL used a subdomain that impersonated the goal model and a URI with eight random alphabetic characters (case-insensitive). The URLs expired inside 24 hours, a tactic to restrict publicity and evade detection. When victims accessed the phishing URL, Evilginx proxied the reputable login flows in actual time, making site visitors seem regular and bypassing MFA.”

Notably, Evilginx has built-in measures that assist its assaults keep away from detection, permitting unskilled menace actors to launch refined, evasive phishing campaigns.

“The low detection charges throughout the cybersecurity group spotlight how efficient Evilginx’s evasion strategies have grow to be,” the researchers write. “Latest variations, reminiscent of Evilginx Professional, add options that make detection even more durable.

“These embrace default use of wildcard TLS certificates, bot filtering by means of superior fingerprinting like JA4, decoy internet pages, improved integration with DNS suppliers (e.g., Cloudflare, DigitalOcean), multi-domain help for phishlets and JavaScript obfuscation. As Evilginx continues to mature, figuring out its phishing URLs will solely grow to be more difficult.”

AI-powered safety consciousness coaching provides your group a necessary layer of protection towards phishing and different social engineering assaults. KnowBe4 empowers your workforce to make smarter safety choices day-after-day.

Infoblox has the story:
https://blogs.infoblox.com/threat-intelligence/dns-uncovers-infrastructure-used-in-sso-attacks/

What KnowBe4 Prospects Say

“Blissful Friday! I wished to ship you a fast message to let you understand that I’ve had a really constructive expertise working with Caveeta B. I joined my firm 3 months in the past, and Caveeta was so gracious in serving to me onboard to KnowBe4. She was thorough, clear, affected person, supportive and to prime it off, genuinely personable and pleasant to work together with. I simply wished to let you understand how appreciative I’m of Caveeta’s partnership over the previous few months.”

– W.C., Workplace Supervisor

“Hey Bryan, it has been an distinctive expertise to date. I’m bought on the system; and Alan A. was instrumental in getting us up and operating, in addition to foundational understanding of the system. Trying ahead to reconnecting with him after we get a while with the system.

“Respect you checking in, have a terrific weekend!”

– M.C., IT Supervisor