Technology Advisor Blog

Though it may be the beginning of a new year, the holiday remnants are evident when it comes to relentless cybercriminal activity. During the holidays, you had to be extra vigilant in managing your finances, buying gifts for friends/family, monitoring any unauthorized transactions, maintaining subscriptions, ensuring purchases came from legitimate websites and gift cards that were not tampered with. It’s understandable to feel fatigued in attempts to avoid being a potential target for cyber criminals. As hackers become more proficient with using AI tools and understanding your fears to enhance their phishing campaigns, the Ekaru team is here to help spread awareness of their evolving tactics, to prevent you from becoming their next victim.

Smishing Messages Of 'Lost' Packages

With E-Commerce being one of the main routes in purchasing gifts at abundant value, hackers recognize the heightened use of shipping carriers to deliver their goods. That’s where the phishing SMS messaging comes in. Have you received an text claiming your package is having issues and needs additional information to proceed? This is called Smishing, where scammers impersonate shipping carriers like Amazon, FedEx, USPS and more to trick you into submitting personal information for the hope of receiving your order with no issue.

When you click the link, and hand over your info, following will begin to install malicious malware onto your devices. According to the FBI, cyber crooks have ranked $300 million in hijacking accounts through their attempts.

Why Smishing Campaigns Continue To Rise After The Holidays:

• Extended delivery windows: Returns, backorders, and late shipments remain common weeks after peak shopping season.
• Increased trust in shipping notifications: Repeated exposure to legitimate tracking messages lowers user skepticism.
• Personal and corporate overlap: Employees often use the same mobile devices for work and personal use, increasing organizational risk.

How This Impacts Individuals:

• Stolen credentials can lead to email compromise, financial fraud, and lateral movement within business networks.
• Malware installed via smishing links can enable keylogging, remote access, and ransomware deployment.

This ongoing wave of post-holiday smishing reinforces the need for continuous user awareness training, mobile security controls, and multi-factor authentication, not just seasonal cybersecurity reminders.

DocuSign Trust On The line

When you think of DocuSign's, the terms 'verification', 'legitimacy', and 'trust' pop into mind. DocuSign is a major part of everyday workflows, commencing on project operation, HR onboarding, contracts and approvals. Attackers are taking advantage of the credible reputation surrounding DocuSign, tricking users into clicking fake “Review Document” buttons. These phishing emails include convincing branding and familiar language, but they originate from suspicious domains rather than legitimate DocuSign servers.

Why DocuSign Phishing is Effective:

• High Trust Factor: Users rarely question DocuSign requests due to frequent legitimate use in business environments.
• Workflow Fatigue: End-of-year approvals, contracts, and audits increase the likelihood of rushed clicks.
• Brand Impersonation: Emails replicate DocuSign branding, tone, and layout with near-perfect accuracy.
• Domain deception: Attackers use subtly altered sender domains that bypass casual inspection.
• Multi-stage redirection: Chained URLs obscure the final malicious destination, helping evade security filters.

The Risk For Businesses:

• Stolen email credentials can lead to business email compromise (BEC), unauthorized document access, and financial fraud.
• Compromised accounts may be used to spread internal phishing, increasing blast radius across the organization.
• Business credibility in jeopardy if an individual were to unintentionally fall for the phishing attempt. Leading to losses financially and the risk of going under in terms of reputational damage.

According to Forcepoint analysts, they identified this sophisticated threat within the last week of December. Providing observation to how these attacks can be structured and even coming across another campaign that also targets personal financial information rather than corporate information to DocuSign. The next sophisticated fraudulent attempt created by cybercriminals is holiday spam emails as fake loan applications.

Fake Loan Applications

This phishing campaign often begins with fraudulent loan application emails designed to prey on financial stress, seasonal expenses, and urgency. These messages promise fast and easy access to money while lowering the victim’s guard through familiar financial language and professional presentation.

Common Tactics Found Within These Applications:

• Quick cash
• Low interest rates
• Urgent language

All to capture your sensitive data in a multi-layered identity theft.

How Does Identity Theft Happen in This Scenario?

• The phishing attempt begins with asking the unsuspecting victim how much money they need. The range of money they can ask for can be between as low as $100 or as high as $50,000.
• Asks for your basic information such as name, email, phone number which comes off as standard procedure for any loan application.
• Then even more personal information including home ownership, vehicle ownership, employer details, income information. Then in the final form ask for your bank routing information to begin stealing funds from your bank account.
• If an individual unsuspectedly provides all this information to cybercriminals, they are then redirected to other fraudulent sites that ask to submit all personal information again. As an effect, their information is compromised where criminals can open accounts with their name and further information.

How We Help Protect Your Business

At Ekaru, we work proactively to reduce risk before an attack ever reaches your users. With phishing campaigns becoming more sophisticated and multi-layered, we implement tools and strategies designed to protect both your staff and business data.

Our Specialties Include:

• Advanced email security to detect and block phishing attempts, spoofed domains, and malicious links before they reach inboxes.
• Multi-factor authentication (MFA) enforcement to prevent stolen credentials from being used to access business systems.
• User security awareness training focused on real-world threats like smishing, DocuSign impersonation, and fake financial offers.
• Endpoint protection and monitoring to detect malicious activity triggered by phishing links or downloads.
• Ongoing threat monitoring and response, allowing us to quickly contain incidents and limit business impact if a user does click.

By combining technology, training, and continuous oversight into your everyday life, we help businesses stay resilient against phishing threats that target both human behavior and technical vulnerabilities.

Bottom Line

Phishing campaigns are evolving into complex, multi-stage attacks that exploit trusted brands, financial stress, and everyday business workflows. From smishing delivery notices to fake DocuSign requests and fraudulent loan applications, attackers are adapting faster than ever.

The post-holiday surge in phishing activity serves as a reminder that cybersecurity isn’t seasonal (though sometimes heightened by stressful times or events throughout the year). By partnering with Ekaru for your cybersecurity needs, we ensure your organization has proactive protection, rapid response, and expert guidance designed to keep your business secure in an increasingly hostile digital landscape.

If you’re looking to increase your cybersecurity needs and prevent becoming a target for cybercriminals, lets connect to see if Ekaru is the right fit for you!