Email security , Phishing Commercial spam and phishing attacks increasingly leverage trusted platforms May 1, 2026 Share By SC Staff Trusted email platforms are now the easiest entry point for attackers, with spam actively driving successful phishing attacks by blending into everyday communication flows, according to a recent report by Tech Radar. Commercial spam now constitutes 46% of all spam globally, with a significant portion originating from compromised accounts and free email services, according to VIPRE Security Group's Q1 2026 Email Threat Trends Report. The United States is both the primary source of this spam infrastructure and the top target. Attackers are exploiting user fatigue caused by overflowing inboxes, making individuals more susceptible to phishing attempts. Malicious links are the most common weapon in these phishing campaigns, appearing in over half of all analyzed emails. To evade detection, cybercriminals are increasingly using trusted domains and services like Cloudflare, hiding phishing links behind protection systems. Callback phishing, using tactics like fake invoices or urgent alerts, is also gaining traction. Free email providers have little incentive to aggressively filter commercial spam, as it can drive user engagement metrics, leading to even the best secure email tools struggling against threats that appear to come from legitimate sources. Source: Tech Radar SC Staff Related Threat Management Microsoft: QR code, CAPTCHA-gated phishing more than double in Q1 2026 Laura French May 1, 2026 The company detected about 8.3 billion email-based phishing threats between January and March. Phishing Robinhood account creation flaw exploited for phishing emails SC Staff April 28, 2026 Attackers abused a flaw in Robinhood's onboarding process, allowing them to inject HTML into account confirmation emails. Email security Thousands of Zimbra servers vulnerable to actively exploited flaw SC Staff April 27, 2026 The vulnerability affects Zimbra Collaboration Suite versions 8.8.15, 9.0, 10.0, and 10.1. Get daily email updates SC Media's daily must-read of the most current and pressing daily news Business Email By clicking the Subscribe button below, you agree to SC Media Terms of Use and Privacy Policy . Subscribe Related Terms Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Eavesdropping Email Spoofing Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) Post Office Protocol, Version 3 (POP3) Spam Store-and-Forward You can skip this ad in 5 seconds