As phishing-as-a-service goes industrial, Microsoft takes down a marketplace behind 1 billion messages

What happened

Working with international authorities and several tech and cybersecurity companies in a nearly year-long investigation, Redmond identified and took down Yam Store, a coordinated underground network dealing in commercial phishing (messages that impersonate someone to obtain passwords or money)-as-a-service (PhaaS). Microsoft said the takedown began as a simple investigation based on a tip from Japanese authorities. Microsoft is a software and software development company based in Redmond.

Microsoft says it has dismantled a criminal marketplace responsible for 1 billion malicious messages. The network allowed cybercriminals to readily purchase, and very quickly deploy, pre-made kits they could use in phishing attacks to steal data and credentials.

“What appears to be a simple scam message is often the visible end of a much larger transnational cybercriminal operation.” The evolving PhaaS marketplace Collectively, YAM Store and the kits and tools sold within it enabled the sending of more than 1 billion messages to 75,000-plus organizations worldwide.