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- Market & Momentum - 01/05/2026
Market & Momentum - 01/05/2026
The year opens with edge exposure, cloud identity abuse, and rapid exploit reuse. Attackers aren’t experimenting... they’re scaling what already worked.
J.W. Croley
January 05, 2026
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The past few days show a clean executive signal: attackers are optimizing for time-to-impact, not novelty. The most reliable paths remain user-trust (browser extensions and social engineering), operational pressure (ransomware volume and economics), and organizational lag (patching, controls enforcement, and change freezes).
If you want a “Q1 posture win” this week, it’s simple: reduce trust-by-default, shrink attack surface, and tighten response loops.
Trend (Macro) | Likelihood | Direction | What to expect this week |
|---|---|---|---|
Browser extension compromise & session theft | 72% | 🔺 Rising | “Looks legit” extensions capturing meeting links, credentials, tokens, and session context. |
Ransomware pressure continues (volume + opportunistic access) | 70% | 🔺 Rising | More affiliate-driven intrusions while orgs are transitioning out of holiday mode. |
Post-breach fraud & impersonation | 62% | ➡ Stable | Follow-on scams leverage recycled personal data and “verification” lures. |
Third-party trust abuse (tools, plugins, outsourced access paths) | 58% | 🔺 Rising | Attackers ride the normal business workflow instead of breaking the front door. |
Governance failures (controls exist but aren’t enforced) | 66% | 🔺 Rising | The gap between “policy” and “reality” widens during operational churn. |
Malicious “meeting helper” extensions are harvesting conference details
Threat actors are disguising extensions as video/meeting productivity tools and siphoning meeting URLs, IDs, and related metadata. Watch for “legitimate-looking” add-ons being installed quietly and used broadly. (See Zoom Stealer)Browser extension abuse is scaling beyond niche campaigns
Reporting indicates a wider pattern: high install counts, multi-browser targeting, and stealthy data collection methods. This isn’t “one bad extension,” it’s a repeatable distribution model. (See DarkSpectre)Ransomware operators keep monetizing… now with insider-enabled outcomes in the spotlight
Recent case coverage highlights how ransomware success can hinge on operational knowledge, negotiations, and process weaknesses—not just malware. It’s a reminder: extortion is a business process, and attackers learn from defenders. (See ALPHV/BlackCat guilty pleas)Ransomware volume signals sustained pressure, not a “holiday blip”
Trend reporting shows continued year-over-year growth and sector concentration, which typically correlates with opportunistic access attempts and faster “time-to-ransom” playbooks. (See 36% ransomware spike analysis)Threat intel reporting continues to show multi-sector ransomware activity and targeting breadth
Weekly intelligence briefs (forum monitoring + leak-site tracking) reinforce that affiliates are not “picky” right now; they’re hunting for the easiest operational wins across industries. (See Weekly Intelligence Report)
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Trust is the new perimeter (again).
Extensions and “helpful tools” bypass a lot of enterprise security because they operate under assumed legitimacy. This isn’t a malware problem; it’s a governance and enforcement problem.
Ransomware is behaving like a mature market.
The operational model keeps getting refined: affiliates learn, processes get faster, and intrusion paths prioritize reliability over sophistication.
Defenders are most vulnerable during transitions.
Holiday → normal operations is a fragile window: tickets pile up, controls get exceptions, enforcement gets inconsistent, and attackers thrive on that inconsistency.
The fastest attacker wins come from control drift.
Security tools can be “deployed” while policy enforcement quietly erodes (extensions, admin access paths, exception creep). Attackers don’t need to beat your tooling if they can slide around your enforcement.
Extension risk (meeting-stealer campaigns): Enforce an enterprise extension allowlist, block “unknown productivity” add-ons, and audit installs from the last 14 days on exec/admin endpoints.
Session/token theft risk: Tighten conditional access and alerting for token reuse / unusual session geos, and require re-auth for privileged actions.
Ransomware pressure: Confirm offline backups + restore testing, ensure privileged access is jump-hosted, and validate EDR isolation procedures actually work end-to-end.
Impersonation/fraud: Brief HR/finance and helpdesk on “verification” lures; strengthen call-back procedures and require dual approval for sensitive changes.
Control drift: Freeze exceptions: pull a report of “temporary” access grants/extensions/admin approvals and close the loop this week.
The first week of the year is when attackers cash in on what you meant to fix last year.
You don’t need a “new program” to reduce risk this week. You need enforcement: fewer defaults, fewer exceptions, tighter proof that controls actually trigger.
J.W.
(P.S. Forward this to your CISO / include in your Q1 kickoff brief.)
The Future of Shopping? AI + Actual Humans.
AI has changed how consumers shop, but people still drive decisions. Levanta’s research shows affiliate and creator content continues to influence conversions, plus it now shapes the product recommendations AI delivers. Affiliate marketing isn’t being replaced by AI, it’s being amplified.