Cyber Brief: Cloud patching urgency and rising credential theft

Today’s cyber activity highlights two clear themes: urgent cloud patching across major platforms and an uptick in credential-theft campaigns targeting UK organisations. Both developments show that attackers are increasing pressure as the year closes, exploiting weak identity practices and configuration gaps.

Critical cloud platform updates prompt urgent patching across enterprises

Several global cloud providers issued high-severity security advisories over the last 24 hours relating to privilege escalation risks within core identity and automation services. Although the specific issues differ between vendors, the pattern is consistent: a mismanaged permission pathway or overlooked system process that could, in certain conditions, allow an attacker with limited access to elevate privileges or interact with resources beyond their intended scope.
These updates have been released alongside guidance urging organisations to patch immediately, review conditional access configurations and validate any custom automation that interacts with cloud identity frameworks. While no widespread exploitation has been confirmed, researchers warned that the ease of chaining privilege paths makes these weaknesses valuable to attackers.
The timing also matters. End-of-year change freezes often slow patching cycles, yet attackers frequently intensify scanning and reconnaissance at this time of year. Cloud environments with legacy role structures, inherited permissions or poorly documented service accounts are particularly vulnerable.

Why it matters
Privilege escalation in cloud environments enables attackers to bypass key controls and pivot quickly. Organisations should prioritise fast deployment of updates, review identity roles, reduce legacy permissions and ensure monitoring captures anomalous access attempts.

Source
Global cloud security advisories

Rise in credential-theft campaigns targeting UK organisations

Security teams across multiple sectors have reported an increase in credential-harvesting attempts aimed at employees using single sign on and cloud productivity suites. Unlike traditional phishing, these campaigns rely on clean infrastructure and realistic behavioural cues to avoid detection. Attackers are mimicking internal service messages, routine login prompts and collaboration notifications to trick users into entering credentials.
Recent analysis highlights that attackers are also using credential replay techniques minutes after harvesting details, often targeting remote access portals or cloud administrative dashboards. Some operations combine low volume MFA fatigue techniques with credential theft to gain reliable access without triggering alert thresholds.
For organisations with distributed teams and supply-chain connected environments, this trend increases the likelihood of silent compromise. Because the aim is stealth rather than disruption, attackers often spend days or weeks exploring environments, identifying high value systems and preparing lateral movement pathways before acting.

Why it matters
Credential compromise remains one of the fastest routes to meaningful access. Organisations should strengthen MFA to phishing resistant methods, monitor for unusual authentication patterns, and reduce the number of accounts with broad access rights.

Source
UK and global threat intelligence reporting

Today’s Key Actions

1. Apply critical cloud patches without delay and validate identity configuration baselines.
2. Review access roles and remove legacy or overly permissive permissions.
3. Strengthen MFA with phishing resistant options and tighten conditional access policies.
4. Monitor for unusual authentication timing and low volume login anomalies.
5. Reassess incident response processes for credential theft and cloud compromise scenarios.

Secarma Insight

Identity and cloud governance continue to define cyber resilience. As attackers refine their techniques, the organisations that stay ahead are those that maintain strong permission hygiene, rapid patching cycles and continuous monitoring. If you would like help validating your cloud posture or strengthening identity routes, our consultants can support with actionable guidance.

Get in touch with us to prioritise your next steps and strengthen your security posture.