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 situations for large-scale information theft and subsequent extortion.
The tech large’s risk intelligence crew is monitoring the exercise below the moniker UNC6040, which it mentioned displays traits that align with risk teams with ties to an internet cybercrime collective referred to 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 Risk Intelligence Group (GTIG) added, has had the good thing about 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 facet of UNC6040’s actions includes the usage of a modified model of Salesforce’s Knowledge Loader that victims are deceived into authorizing in order to connect with the group’s Salesforce portal through the vishing assault. Knowledge Loader is an utility used to import, export, and replace information in bulk throughout the Salesforce platform.
Particularly, the attackers information the goal to go to Salesforce’s related app setup web page and approve the modified model of the Knowledge Loader app that carries a distinct title or branding (e.g., “My Ticket Portal”) from its reliable 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 via 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 to 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, possible as a technique to extend stress on their victims,” Google mentioned.
UNC6040’s overlaps with teams linked to The Com stem from the focusing on of Okta credentials and the usage of 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 telephone and trick its prospects’ staff into making a gift of their credentials or approving the modified Knowledge Loader app.
“They’ve been reported luring our prospects’ 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 related app,” the corporate mentioned.
“In some instances, now we have noticed that the malicious related app is a modified model of the Knowledge Loader app printed below a distinct title and/or branding. As soon as the risk actor positive factors entry to a buyer’s Salesforce account or provides a related app, they use the related app to exfiltrate information.”
The event not solely highlights the continued sophistication of social engineering campaigns, but in addition reveals how IT help employees are being more and more focused as a method 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.”
