'What appears to be a simple scam message is often the visible end of a much larger transnational cybercriminal operation': Microsoft leads global takedown of phishing network which sent over a billion messages

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Microsoft helped dismantle a cybercrime marketplace that sold phishing tools, accounts, and scam infrastructure

Platforms CoGUI and Iron Man enabled large-scale phishing campaigns targeting organizations worldwide

The operation drove over a billion phishing messages before domains and thousands of accounts were seized

Late last year, Microsoft set out to investigate what seemed to be yet another phishing campaign.

However, what it uncovered under the surface was a lot bigger - it was a sprawling…