As if working at Helldesk weren't bad enough, IT helpers now targeted by cybercrims

Red Canary's report highlights a rising trend of attackers targeting IT helpdesk personnel through phone-based social engineering and phishing to reset passwords and bypass MFA, enabling account takeover, data theft, cryptomining, or ransomware; examples include Scattered Spider operations and the MGM incident. The report recommends stronger helpdesk identity verification (e.g., serial numbers, shared passphrases, video checks, manager confirmation) and cautions that MFA, while essential, can be circumvented and must be chosen and monitored carefully.