Microsoft reports a first-quarter rise in QR-code phishing

Microsoft reported on 30 April that it detected approximately 8.3 billion email-based phishing threats during the first quarter. Monthly observed volume declined slightly, but QR-code phishing more than doubled over the period. Links accounted for most of the email threats in the company’s dataset.

The report described attackers moving between hosted phishing infrastructure, attachments and CAPTCHA-gated pages. A fall in the total therefore did not mean every delivery method declined. Microsoft also reported reduced activity associated with Tycoon2FA after the March disruption, followed by a partial recovery using changed infrastructure. These figures describe its telemetry and the quarter examined; they are not a count of unique affected people.