Targeted Phishing Campaigns by Scripted Sparrow and BlindEagle
Two distinct threat actor groups, Scripted Sparrow and BlindEagle, have been identified conducting highly targeted phishing campaigns against organizations across different regions. Scripted Sparrow, tracked by Fortra analysts, has executed persistent business email compromise (BEC) operations since June 2024, primarily targeting finance teams in North America and Europe. Their campaigns are notable for their structured approach, use of convincing fake invoices, forged executive approvals, and carefully chosen payment amounts just below approval thresholds. The group operates with defined roles and has been observed sending between 10,000 and 50,000 emails daily in small, targeted batches, with over 500 unique campaign variants catalogued.
Meanwhile, BlindEagle has focused its efforts on Colombian government institutions, leveraging compromised internal email accounts to bypass standard email security controls such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Their phishing emails, crafted to mimic official judicial notifications, contain malicious SVG attachments that redirect victims to fraudulent government portals. The infection chain is complex, utilizing multiple layers of obfuscation, legitimate web services, and fileless malware techniques to evade detection. Both campaigns demonstrate a high level of sophistication in social engineering and technical execution, posing significant risks to targeted organizations.
Timeline
Dec 19, 2025
New analysis reveals Scripted Sparrow's large-scale automation
Further reporting showed Scripted Sparrow uses automation to generate and send millions of phishing emails each month across three continents. The group was also observed adapting tactics to evade filters by dropping attachments and prompting victims to reply, while using measures such as geolocation spoofing and Telegram for internal coordination.
Dec 18, 2025
Researchers track Scripted Sparrow as a global phishing ring
Analysis published in December 2025 described Scripted Sparrow as a structured global BEC operation with disciplined workflows, rotating domains and mule accounts, and likely operators spanning several countries. The report highlighted detection opportunities in email headers, domain registration patterns, and reused templates, along with recommended payment verification controls.
Dec 17, 2025
Zscaler documents BlindEagle's multi-stage DCRAT infection chain
Researchers detailed how a malicious SVG attachment redirected victims to a fake government portal that delivered obfuscated JavaScript, steganography-based payload retrieval, a Caminho downloader from the Internet Archive, and a final DCRAT payload from Discord CDN. The malware was injected into MSBuild.exe, giving attackers capabilities including keylogging and data exfiltration.
Dec 17, 2025
BlindEagle launches phishing campaign against Colombian government agency
BlindEagle targeted an agency under Colombia's Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Tourism by compromising an internal email account and sending phishing messages from within the organization. The emails mimicked judicial notifications and abused internal trust to bypass SPF, DKIM, and DMARC protections.
Jun 1, 2024
Scripted Sparrow begins BEC campaigns targeting finance teams
Scripted Sparrow has been active since June 2024, running business email compromise campaigns against finance and accounts payable personnel in North America and Europe. The group impersonates professional services and consultancy firms, using spoofed threads and fraudulent invoices to induce wire transfers to criminal-controlled accounts.
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Related Stories
BlindEagle Phishing Campaign Targets Colombian Government Agencies
BlindEagle, a South American threat group, orchestrated a sophisticated phishing campaign targeting Colombian government agencies, specifically those under the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism (MCIT). The attackers leveraged compromised internal email accounts to send convincing phishing emails that impersonated the Colombian judicial system, using legal terminology and official formatting to increase credibility and urgency. The emails contained SVG attachments with encoded HTML, leading recipients to a fraudulent web portal designed to mimic the legitimate judicial branch. The attack chain was highly complex and file-less, involving multiple stages of JavaScript execution and PowerShell commands, with each stage using advanced obfuscation techniques such as Base64 and custom algorithms to evade detection. Zscaler analysts identified that the campaign represented a significant escalation in BlindEagle's tactics, moving beyond basic malware to a multi-stage, stealthy infection process that exploited trust relationships within the targeted organizations. The campaign highlights the evolving threat posed by BlindEagle to government entities in Colombia.
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