Microsoft Threat Intelligence
Microsoft Security Researchers observed a high-volume phishing campaign using invisible Unicode tag characters, a technique popularized by AI prompt injection research as ASCII smuggling, to obscure financial lure words before email filters parsed them. https://msft.it/6017apIGx Microsoft telemetry linked the technique to a large-scale finance-themed phishing operation that persisted for months, using hundreds of rotating sender domains and consistent infrastructure patterns. The research shows how techniques popularized in AI security research can quickly cross into traditional phishing campaigns as threat actors adapt tradecraft across domains. Learn how to identify this activity and strengthen detection against similar tradecraft.