MPs have warned that an NHS decision to grant Palantir access to identifiable patient information in its plan to use AI to improve the health service is “dangerous” and will fuel public fears that data privacy is not being prioritised.
NHS England has allowed staff from the US tech firm and other contractors to access patient data before it has been pseudonymised, despite internal fears of a “risk of loss of public confidence”, the Financial Times reported.
The primary goal for attackers in a phishing campaign is to bypass email security and trick the potential victim into revealing their data. To achieve this, scammers employ a wide range of tactics, from redirect links to QR codes. Additionally, they heavily rely on legitimate sources for malicious email campaigns. Specifically, we’ve recently observed an uptick in phishing attacks leveraging Amazon SES.
The dangers of Amazon SES abuse
Amazon Simple Email Service (Amazon SES) is a cloud-based email platform designed for highly reliable transactional and marketing message delivery. It integrates seamlessly with other products in Amazon’s cloud ecosystem, AWS.
At first glance, it might seem like just another delivery channel for email phishing, but that isn’t the case. The insidious nature of Amazon SES attacks lies in the fact that attackers aren’t using suspicious or dangerous domains; instead, they are leveraging infrastructure that both users and security systems have grown to trust. These emails utilize SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication protocols, passing all standard provider checks, and almost always contain .amazonses.com in the Message-ID headers. Consequently, from a technical standpoint, every email sent via Amazon SES – even a phishing one – looks completely legitimate.
Phishing URLs can be masked with redirects: a user sees a link like amazonaws.com in the email and clicks it with confidence, only to be sent to a phishing site rather than a legitimate one. Amazon SES also allows for custom HTML templates, which attackers use to craft more convincing emails. Because this is legitimate infrastructure, the sender’s IP address won’t end up on reputation-based blocklists. Blocking it would restrict all incoming mail sent through Amazon SES. For major services, that kind of measure is ineffective, as it would significantly disrupt user workflows due to a massive number of false positives.
How compromise happens
In most cases, attackers gain access to Amazon SES through leaked IAM (AWS Identity and Access Management) access keys. Developers frequently leave these keys exposed in public GitHub repositories, ENV files, Docker images, configuration backups, or even in publicly accessible S3 buckets. To hunt for these IAM keys, phishers use various tools, such as automated bots based on the open-source utility TruffleHog, which is designed for detecting leaked secrets. After verifying the key’s permissions and email sending limits, attackers are equipped to spread a massive volume of phishing messages.
Examples of phishing with Amazon SES
In early 2026, one of the most common themes in phishing emails sent with Amazon SES was fake notifications from electronic signature services.
Phishing email imitating a Docusign notification
The email’s technical headers confirm that it was sent with Amazon SES. At first glance, it all looks legitimate enough.
Phishing email headers
In these emails, the victim is typically asked to click a link to review and sign a specific document.
Phishing email with a “document”
Upon clicking the link, the user is directed to a sign-in form hosted on amazonaws.com. This can easily mislead the victim, convincing them that what they’re doing is safe.
Phishing sign-in form
The resulting form is, of course, a phishing page, and any data entered into it goes directly to the attackers.
Amazon SES and BEC
However, Amazon SES is used for more than just standard phishing; it’s also a vehicle for a very sophisticated type of BEC campaigns. In one case we investigated, a fraudulent email appeared to contain a series of messages exchanged between an employee of the target organization and a service provider about an outstanding invoice. The email was sent as if from that employee to the company’s finance department, requesting urgent payment.
BEC email featuring a fake conversation between an employee and a vendor
The PDF attachments didn’t contain any malicious phishing URLs or QR codes, only payment details and supporting documentation.
Forged financial documents
Naturally, the email didn’t originate with the employee, but with an attacker impersonating them. The entire thread quoted within the email was actually fabricated, with the messages formatted to appear as a legitimate forwarded thread to a cursory glance. This type of attack aims to lower the user’s guard and trick them into transferring funds to the scammers’ account.
Takeaways
Phishing via Amazon SES experienced an uptick in January 2026 and has remained relatively steady through Q1. By weaponizing this service, attackers avoid the effort of building dubious domains and mail infrastructure from scratch. Instead, they hijack existing access keys to gain the ability to blast out thousands of phishing emails. These messages pass email authentication, originate from IP addresses that are unlikely to be blocklisted, and contain links to phishing forms that look entirely legitimate.
Since these Amazon SES phishing attacks stem from compromised or leaked AWS credentials, prioritizing the security of these accounts is critical. To mitigate these risks, we recommend following these guidelines:
Implement the principle of least privilege when configuring IAM access keys, granting elevated permissions only to users who require them for specific tasks.
Transition from IAM access keys to roles when configuring AWS; these are profiles with specific permissions that can be assigned to one or several users.
Enable multi-factor authentication, an ever-relevant step.
Configure IP-based access restrictions.
Set up automated key rotation and run regular security audits.
Use the AWS Key Management Service to encrypt data with unique cryptographic keys and manage them from a centralized location.
We recommend that users remain vigilant when handling email. Do not determine whether an email is safe based solely on the From field. If you receive unexpected documents via email, a prudent precaution is to verify the request with the sender through a different communication channel. Always carefully inspect where links in the body of an email actually lead. Additionally, robust email security solutions can provide an essential layer of protection for both corporate and personal correspondence.
The primary goal for attackers in a phishing campaign is to bypass email security and trick the potential victim into revealing their data. To achieve this, scammers employ a wide range of tactics, from redirect links to QR codes. Additionally, they heavily rely on legitimate sources for malicious email campaigns. Specifically, we’ve recently observed an uptick in phishing attacks leveraging Amazon SES.
The dangers of Amazon SES abuse
Amazon Simple Email Service (Amazon SES) is a cloud-based email platform designed for highly reliable transactional and marketing message delivery. It integrates seamlessly with other products in Amazon’s cloud ecosystem, AWS.
At first glance, it might seem like just another delivery channel for email phishing, but that isn’t the case. The insidious nature of Amazon SES attacks lies in the fact that attackers aren’t using suspicious or dangerous domains; instead, they are leveraging infrastructure that both users and security systems have grown to trust. These emails utilize SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication protocols, passing all standard provider checks, and almost always contain .amazonses.com in the Message-ID headers. Consequently, from a technical standpoint, every email sent via Amazon SES – even a phishing one – looks completely legitimate.
Phishing URLs can be masked with redirects: a user sees a link like amazonaws.com in the email and clicks it with confidence, only to be sent to a phishing site rather than a legitimate one. Amazon SES also allows for custom HTML templates, which attackers use to craft more convincing emails. Because this is legitimate infrastructure, the sender’s IP address won’t end up on reputation-based blocklists. Blocking it would restrict all incoming mail sent through Amazon SES. For major services, that kind of measure is ineffective, as it would significantly disrupt user workflows due to a massive number of false positives.
How compromise happens
In most cases, attackers gain access to Amazon SES through leaked IAM (AWS Identity and Access Management) access keys. Developers frequently leave these keys exposed in public GitHub repositories, ENV files, Docker images, configuration backups, or even in publicly accessible S3 buckets. To hunt for these IAM keys, phishers use various tools, such as automated bots based on the open-source utility TruffleHog, which is designed for detecting leaked secrets. After verifying the key’s permissions and email sending limits, attackers are equipped to spread a massive volume of phishing messages.
Examples of phishing with Amazon SES
In early 2026, one of the most common themes in phishing emails sent with Amazon SES was fake notifications from electronic signature services.
Phishing email imitating a Docusign notification
The email’s technical headers confirm that it was sent with Amazon SES. At first glance, it all looks legitimate enough.
Phishing email headers
In these emails, the victim is typically asked to click a link to review and sign a specific document.
Phishing email with a “document”
Upon clicking the link, the user is directed to a sign-in form hosted on amazonaws.com. This can easily mislead the victim, convincing them that what they’re doing is safe.
Phishing sign-in form
The resulting form is, of course, a phishing page, and any data entered into it goes directly to the attackers.
Amazon SES and BEC
However, Amazon SES is used for more than just standard phishing; it’s also a vehicle for a very sophisticated type of BEC campaigns. In one case we investigated, a fraudulent email appeared to contain a series of messages exchanged between an employee of the target organization and a service provider about an outstanding invoice. The email was sent as if from that employee to the company’s finance department, requesting urgent payment.
BEC email featuring a fake conversation between an employee and a vendor
The PDF attachments didn’t contain any malicious phishing URLs or QR codes, only payment details and supporting documentation.
Forged financial documents
Naturally, the email didn’t originate with the employee, but with an attacker impersonating them. The entire thread quoted within the email was actually fabricated, with the messages formatted to appear as a legitimate forwarded thread to a cursory glance. This type of attack aims to lower the user’s guard and trick them into transferring funds to the scammers’ account.
Takeaways
Phishing via Amazon SES experienced an uptick in January 2026 and has remained relatively steady through Q1. By weaponizing this service, attackers avoid the effort of building dubious domains and mail infrastructure from scratch. Instead, they hijack existing access keys to gain the ability to blast out thousands of phishing emails. These messages pass email authentication, originate from IP addresses that are unlikely to be blocklisted, and contain links to phishing forms that look entirely legitimate.
Since these Amazon SES phishing attacks stem from compromised or leaked AWS credentials, prioritizing the security of these accounts is critical. To mitigate these risks, we recommend following these guidelines:
Implement the principle of least privilege when configuring IAM access keys, granting elevated permissions only to users who require them for specific tasks.
Transition from IAM access keys to roles when configuring AWS; these are profiles with specific permissions that can be assigned to one or several users.
Enable multi-factor authentication, an ever-relevant step.
Configure IP-based access restrictions.
Set up automated key rotation and run regular security audits.
Use the AWS Key Management Service to encrypt data with unique cryptographic keys and manage them from a centralized location.
We recommend that users remain vigilant when handling email. Do not determine whether an email is safe based solely on the From field. If you receive unexpected documents via email, a prudent precaution is to verify the request with the sender through a different communication channel. Always carefully inspect where links in the body of an email actually lead. Additionally, robust email security solutions can provide an essential layer of protection for both corporate and personal correspondence.
Banks, governments and tech providers urged to upgrade security because current systems will soon be obsolete
Banks, governments and technology providers need to be prepared for quantum computer hackers capable of breaking most existing encryption systems by 2029, Google has warned.
The tech company said in a blogpost that quantum computers would pose a “significant threat to current cryptographic standards” before the end of the decade and urged other companies to follow its lead.
…iPhone and iPad are the first and only consumer devices in compliance with the information assurance requirements of NATO nations. This enables iPhone and iPad to be used with classified information up to the NATO restricted level without requiring special software or settings—a level of government certification no other consumer mobile device has met.
This is out of the box, no modifications required.
In January 2026, we announced the general availability of the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, a new, independent cloud for Europe entirely located within the European Union (EU), and physically and logically separate from all other AWS Regions. The unique approach of the AWS European Sovereign Cloud provides the only fully featured, independently operated sovereign cloud backed by strong technical controls, sovereign assurances, and legal protections designed to meet the sensitive data needs of European governments and enterprises.
One of the foundational components of how AWS European Sovereign Cloud enables verifiable trust of technical controls and delivers assurance is through our compliance programs and assurance frameworks. These programs help customers understand the robust controls in place at AWS European Sovereign Cloud to maintain security and compliance of the cloud. To meet the needs of our customers, we committed that the AWS European Sovereign Cloud will maintain key certifications such as ISO/IEC 27001:2022, System and Organization Controls (SOC) reports, and Cloud Computing Compliance Criteria Catalogue (C5) attestation, all validated regularly by independent auditors to assure our controls are designed appropriately, operate effectively, and can help customers satisfy their compliance obligations.
Today, AWS European Sovereign Cloud is pleased to announce that SOC 2 and C5 Type 1 attestation reports, along with seven key ISO certifications (ISO 27001:2022,27017:2015,27018:2019, 27701:2019, 22301:2019, 20000-1:2018, and 9001:2015) are now available. The attestation reports cover 69 AWS services operating within the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, while the certificates have integrated the AWS European Sovereign Cloud region into the global AWS Management Systems. This achievement marks a pivotal first step in our journey to establish the AWS European Sovereign Cloud as a trusted and compliant cloud for European organizations. By securing these foundational certifications and attestation reports early in our implementation, we are demonstrating our commitment to earning customer trust.AWS European Sovereign Cloud customers in Germany and across Europe can now run their applications with enhanced assurance and confidence that our infrastructure aligns with internationally recognized security standards and the AWS European Sovereign Cloud: Sovereign Reference Framework (ESC-SRF). These certifications and attestation reports provide independent validation of our security controls and operational practices, demonstrating our commitment to meeting the heightened expectations towards cloud service providers. Beyond compliance, these certifications and reports help customers meet regulatory requirements and innovate with confidence.
SOC 2 Type 1 report
SOC reports are independent third-party examinations that show how AWS European Sovereign Cloud meets compliance controls and sovereignty objectives. The AWS European Sovereign Cloud SOC 2 report addresses three critical AICPA Trust Services Criteria: Security, Availability, and Confidentiality and includes internal controls mapped to the ESC-SRF. The ESC-SRF establishes sovereignty criteria across key domains including governance independence, operational control, data residency, and technical isolation. As part of the SOC 2 Type 1 attestation, independent third-party auditors have validated suitability of the design and implementation of our controls addressing measures such as independent European Union (EU) corporate structures, operation by EU-resident AWS personnel, strict residency requirements for Customer Content and Customer-Created Metadata, and separation from all other AWS Regions. The ESC-SRF controls in our SOC 2 report show customers how AWS delivers on its sovereignty commitments.
C5 Type 1 report
C5 is a German Government-backed attestation scheme introduced in Germany by the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) and represents one of the most comprehensive cloud security standards in Europe. The AWS European Sovereign Cloud C5 Type 1 report provides customers with independent third-party attestation on the suitability of the design and implementation of our controls to meet both C5 basic criteria and C5 additional criteria.
The basic criteria establish fundamental security requirements for cloud service providers, covering areas such as organization of information security, human resources security, asset management, access control, cryptography, physical security, operations security, communications security, system acquisition and development, supplier relationships, incident management, business continuity, and compliance. The additional criteria address enhanced requirements for handling sensitive data and critical applications, making this attestation particularly valuable for AWS European Sovereign Cloud customers with stringent data security and sovereignty requirements.
Key ISO certifications
AWS European Sovereign Cloud region has achieved successful onboarding to seven key ISO certifications that collectively demonstrate comprehensive operational excellence:
These certifications confirm that AWS European Sovereign Cloud region has been integrated into comprehensive frameworks for managing security, privacy, continuity, service delivery, and quality, helping to ensure sensitive information remains secure, services remain available, and operations meet the highest standards through systematic risk management processes and continuous improvement practices.
How to access the reports
To access SOC 2, C5 reports and ISO certifications, customers should sign in to their AWS European Sovereign Cloud account and navigate to AWS Artifact in the AWS Management Console. AWS Artifact is a self-service portal that provides on-demand access to AWS compliance reports and certifications.
We recognize that compliance is not a destination but a continuous journey, and these initial SOC 2, C5 reports and ISO certifications represent the beginning of our certification portfolio. They lay the essential groundwork upon which we will continue to build to meet AWS European Sovereign Cloud customers’ compliance needs as they continue to evolve. As we expand our compliance coverage in the months ahead, customers can be confident that security, transparency, and regulatory alignment have been part of the very DNA of the AWS European Sovereign Cloud design from day one. To learn more about our compliance and security programs, visit AWS European Sovereign Cloud Compliance, or reach out to your AWS European Sovereign Cloud account team.
Security and compliance is a shared responsibility between AWS European Sovereign Cloud and the customer. For more information, see the AWS Shared Security Responsibility Model.
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Other noteworthy stories that might have slipped under the radar: Cloudflare WAF bypass, Canonical Snap Store abused for malware delivery, Curl terminating bug bounty program
Russian state has tolerated parallel probiv market for its convenience but now Ukrainian spies are exploiting it
Russia is scrambling to rein in the country’s sprawling illicit market for leaked personal data, a shadowy ecosystem long exploited by investigative journalists, police and criminal groups.
For more than a decade, Russia’s so-called probiv market – a term derived from the verb “to pierce” or “to punch into a search bar” – has operated as a parallel information economy built on a network of corrupt officials, traffic police, bank employees and low-level security staff willing to sell access to restricted government or corporate databases.
Sensitive information relates to more than 100 individuals and their referees
Personal details submitted by applicants for a job at Tate art galleries have been leaked online, exposing their addresses, salaries and the phone numbers of their referees, the Guardian has learned.
The records, running to hundreds of pages, appeared on a website unrelated to the government-sponsored organisation, which operates the Tate Modern and Tate Britain galleries in London, Tate St Ives in Cornwall and Tate Liverpool.
It’s become the playbook for big Australian companies that have customer data stolen in a cyber-attack: call in the lawyers and get a court to block anyone from accessing it.
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