---
title: Google Says Hackers Are Calling Financial Firm Employees To Hack and Extort Victims
metaTitle: Extortion Groups Vish Financial Firms
description: Hackers are calling financial firm employees on personal phones, posing as coworkers to steal credentials and extort companies for millions.
slug: extortion-groups-vish-financial-firms
date: "2026-08-06T12:00:00-05:00"
featured: true
image:
  src: https://cdn.securelogix.dev/slx/images/extortion-groups-vish-financial-firms.webp
  alt: A closeup of a falcon staring back at the viewer.
sourcePublisher:
  name: TechCrunch
  url: "https://techcrunch.com/"
sourceArticle:
  url: "https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/06/google-says-hackers-are-calling-financial-firm-employees-to-hack-and-extort-victims/"
tags: [Vishing, Credential Harvesting, Banking & Finance]
status: published
---

Even in the age of AI-powered autonomous cyberattacks, the crude, tried and tested hacking techniques of tricking victims into doing things they shouldn’t are still producing great results.

Groups of unknown hackers are targeting and breaking into large financial and investment firms in the United States with the goal of stealing sensitive data to extort the victims with the threat of publishing it, Google’s security researchers wrote in a report on Thursday.

The company did not name the victims, but Reuters reported that among them there are leading private equity firms such as Apollo Global Management, Bain Capital, Blackstone, Bridgewater Associates, CME Group, KKR, Moody’s, and TPG...