On May 20, 2026, the FBI issued a Flash report about Silent Ransom Group (SRG) impersonating IT personnel through social engineering to gain access to victim computers. This report comes almost exactly one year after the FBI issued a May 2025 cyber alert regarding SRG’s target of law firms using social engineering calls and callback phishing emails to gain remote access to law firm systems and devices. We covered this first alert in our August 14, 2025 Top Tip.

While SRG initially sent phishing emails about fake “subscription fees” to gain access to victim networks, their tactics have now morphed to include a social engineering scheme where SRG actors pose as an employee from the victim’s IT department.

In this new scheme, SRG actors will either call or email an employee urging the employee to call the actor…