This page may contain stale information. Last updated: 2026-06-12
Definition
Phishing is a social-engineering attack where attackers impersonate trusted entities to steal credentials, payment data, or personal information — typically via email, SMS (smishing), or fake websites.
Key Points
- PhaaS evolution: Criminal kits (e.g., Lighthouse 2025, outsider-enterprise 2026) lower technical barriers via templates, dashboards, and subscription pricing
- AI-assisted phishing: Frontier models like gemini allegedly used to generate convincing site code at scale — “phishing-as-a-service” meets generative AI (2026-06-12-google-gemini-outsider-phishing-thenextweb)
- Detection gap: Individual AI providers operate siloed abuse monitoring; attackers can split prompts, code generation, and delivery across tools
- Industry response: Platform litigation (Google vs Outsider), telecom blocking, 10B+ monthly malicious message interceptions on Android
2026 Developments
- June 2026: Outsider Enterprise — 2.5M scam texts, 9K fake sites, Gemini-assisted code generation (2026-06-12-google-outsider-enterprise-phishing-official-blog)
- Ongoing: AITM (adversary-in-the-middle) and quishing attacks bypass MFA; attackers host payloads on reputable cloud properties