Cyber Brief: AI phishing, healthcare resilience and cloud misconfigs

Today’s cyber landscape is shaped by three emerging themes: increasingly convincing AI-generated phishing activity, new resilience concerns within UK healthcare systems and a rise in cloud misconfigurations linked to rapid deployment practices. Each trend emphasises the need for strong identity controls, disciplined engineering processes and sector-specific resilience planning.

AI-driven phishing campaigns increase realism and bypass traditional filters

Threat intelligence teams have reported a rise in phishing campaigns generated using large language models to mimic internal communication styles. Attackers are blending organisational tone, formatting and timing patterns to create messages that closely resemble routine operational emails. These campaigns often imitate internal announcements, supplier updates or project notifications, making them difficult for employees to distinguish from legitimate communication.

Because messages are grammatically accurate and contextually consistent, traditional filter-based detection struggles to block them. Attackers then redirect users to cloned authentication pages or initiate staged credential capture flows that replicate familiar login experiences. Once access is gained, threat actors move quickly to establish persistence, often creating additional tokens or adjusting MFA settings to maintain long-term entry.

Why it matters

AI-generated phishing removes many of the tell-tale signs users rely on. Organisations should strengthen behavioural monitoring, expand phishing-resistant MFA and reinforce reporting routes for suspicious emails that appear legitimate on the surface.

Source

Global phishing and social engineering assessments

UK healthcare systems face renewed scrutiny over resilience and dependency risk

A recent review of UK healthcare cyber maturity has identified continued pressure on resilience due to ageing systems, siloed IT teams and heavy reliance on third-party clinical platforms. Several healthcare organisations experienced localised disruption during recent cyber incidents, with delays in restoring systems linked to fragmented infrastructure and limited testing of recovery pathways.

The report emphasises that while critical clinical systems are often prioritised, supporting infrastructure such as patient flow tools, diagnostics interfaces and internal communication systems receive less resilience attention. When these dependencies fail, frontline services experience operational friction even if core systems remain online. The review also highlights ongoing challenges with identity governance, particularly where temporary staff accounts accumulate without timely deprovisioning.

Why it matters

Healthcare organisations should treat resilience as a whole-system priority. Clear mapping of critical-to-supporting dependencies, improved identity hygiene and regular recovery testing significantly reduce patient-facing disruption.

Source

UK healthcare resilience and cyber capability reviews

Cloud misconfigurations continue to rise during rapid deployment cycles

Security specialists have identified an increasing number of cloud misconfigurations introduced during end-of-year deployment cycles. Common issues include unrestricted access to storage containers, default role assignments on new services and exposed development endpoints accidentally deployed to production. Many of these misconfigurations stem from compressed project timelines, parallel engineering work and lack of automated policy enforcement.

Attackers actively scan for these weaknesses, using automated discovery tools to locate public-facing resources with permissive access. Once identified, they attempt to access data, retrieve credentials from environment variables or pivot into internal systems via exposed service accounts. Misconfigurations are one of the most accessible entry points for attackers because they require no exploitation of vulnerabilities, only operational oversight.

Why it matters

Cloud misconfigurations often create high-impact risks that go unnoticed until late in an incident. Organisations should enforce configuration baselines, deploy automated policy checks and ensure review steps are mandatory during rapid release cycles.

Source

Cloud security configuration assessments

Today’s Key Actions

1. Strengthen protection against AI-generated phishing by enforcing phishing-resistant MFA and monitoring authentication anomalies.

2. Review healthcare or critical service dependencies to identify resilience gaps and untested recovery steps.

3. Enforce cloud configuration baselines and automated policy checks during rapid deployment periods.

4. Conduct identity hygiene reviews, removing dormant accounts and validating access roles.

5. Reinforce communication plans that support rapid detection and escalation during subtle compromise attempts.

Secarma Insight

Attackers increasingly exploit the spaces between technology and process. AI-enhanced phishing, operational missteps in cloud deployments and sector-specific resilience gaps all demonstrate how subtle weaknesses can escalate into major incidents. Organisations that focus on identity security, disciplined engineering practices and robust resilience planning will be best positioned to operate with confidence in an evolving threat landscape.