Hackers use phone scams to breach top US financial firms, stealing data for ransom threats.

Unknown hacker groups are targeting major US financial and investment firms using voice phishing, where they call employees pretending to be coworkers or IT staff to steal login credentials. These groups, identified by Google as Falcon, Helix, Pink, and Redact, then threaten to leak stolen sensitive data to extort ransoms, often demanding between $750,000 and $3 million. The attacks focus on firms involved in mergers, acquisitions, and capital deployment to maximize the value of stolen information. Google suspects these groups may be part of a larger coordinated collective, UNC6671, and notes that one cryptocurrency wallet linked to them received about $10 million in Bitcoin this year. This ongoing cybercrime highlights the persistent risk of social engineering tactics despite advances in AI-driven attacks.