Google has disclosed particulars of a financially motivated risk cluster that it mentioned “specialises” in voice phishing (aka vishing) campaigns designed to breach organizations’ Salesforce cases for large-scale information theft and subsequent extortion.
The tech big’s risk intelligence crew is monitoring the exercise beneath the moniker UNC6040, which it mentioned reveals traits that align with risk teams with ties to a web based cybercrime collective often known as The Com.
“Over the previous a number of months, UNC6040 has demonstrated repeated success in breaching networks by having its operators impersonate IT help personnel in convincing telephone-based social engineering engagements,” the corporate mentioned in a report shared with The Hacker Information.
This strategy, Google’s Menace Intelligence Group (GTIG) added, has had the advantage of tricking English-speaking staff into performing actions that give the risk actors entry or result in the sharing of invaluable info resembling credentials, that are then used to facilitate information theft.
A noteworthy side of UNC6040’s actions includes using a modified model of Salesforce’s Information Loader that victims are deceived into authorizing in order to hook up with the group’s Salesforce portal throughout the vishing assault. Information Loader is an utility used to import, export, and replace information in bulk inside the Salesforce platform.
Particularly, the attackers information the goal to go to Salesforce’s linked app setup web page and approve the modified model of the Information Loader app that carries a special title or branding (e.g., “My Ticket Portal”) from its authentic counterpart. This motion grants them unauthorized entry to the Salesforce buyer environments and exfiltrate information.
Past information loss, the assaults function a stepping stone for UNC6040 to maneuver laterally by way of the sufferer’s community, after which entry and harvest info from different platforms resembling Okta, Office, and Microsoft 365.
Choose incidents have additionally concerned extortion actions, however solely “a number of months” after the preliminary intrusions had been noticed, indicating an try and monetize and revenue off the stolen information presumably in partnership with a second risk actor.
“Throughout these extortion makes an attempt, the actor has claimed affiliation with the well-known hacking group ShinyHunters, seemingly as a way to extend strain on their victims,” Google mentioned.
UNC6040’s overlaps with teams linked to The Com stem from the focusing on of Okta credentials and using social engineering by way of IT help, a tactic that has been embraced by Scattered Spider, one other financially motivated risk actor that is a part of the loose-knit organized collective.
The vishing marketing campaign hasn’t gone unnoticed by Salesforce, which, in March 2025, warned of risk actors utilizing social engineering techniques to impersonate IT help personnel over the cellphone and trick its clients’ staff into giving freely their credentials or approving the modified Information Loader app.
“They’ve been reported luring our clients’ staff and third-party help employees to phishing pages designed to steal credentials and MFA tokens or prompting customers to navigate to the login.salesforce[.]com/setup/join web page so as to add a malicious linked app,” the corporate mentioned.
“In some instances, we have now noticed that the malicious linked app is a modified model of the Information Loader app printed beneath a special title and/or branding. As soon as the risk actor features entry to a buyer’s Salesforce account or provides a linked app, they use the linked app to exfiltrate information.”
The event not solely highlights the continued sophistication of social engineering campaigns, but in addition exhibits how IT help employees are being more and more focused as a option to achieve preliminary entry.
“The success of campaigns like UNC6040’s, leveraging these refined vishing techniques, demonstrates that this strategy stays an efficient risk vector for financially motivated teams looking for to breach organizational defenses,” Google mentioned.
“Given the prolonged timeframe between preliminary compromise and extortion, it’s doable that a number of sufferer organizations and doubtlessly downstream victims might face extortion calls for within the coming weeks or months.”
