Phishing kits soared in popularity last year as rookie hackers ramped up DIY cyber attacks

The number of known Phishing as a Service (PhaaS) kits doubled last year, according to new research, with enterprises warned about a looming onslaught of social engineering attacks in 2026 and beyond.

Across the year, 90% of high-volume phishing campaigns leveraged PhaaS kits, researchers at Barracuda found. These make it easier for lower-level cyber criminals to access advanced tools to wage large-scale attacks.

The new kits are sophisticated, evasive, and stealthy, Barracuda noted, with Whisper 2FA and GhostFrame introducing inventive and evasive tools and tactics, including a suite of techniques to prevent analysis of their malicious code.

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