Five minutes. What happened, and what to do about it. All stories from 15 October 2026
Google Ads adds channel priority and spend caps, and changes Display Network funding in February
If you run Search or Performance Max ads, you can now cap what goes to Search partners and the Display Network.
Microsoft and Japan's police take down phishing kits behind more than a billion scam messages
Microsoft On the Issues· 14 OctMicrosoft says that with Japan's National Police Agency it traced scam messages to a criminal marketplace, YAM Store, and two phishing kits, CoGUI and Iron Man. Since January 2026 they enabled more than one billion malicious messages aimed at over 75,000 organisations in more than 150 countries. A US court order let Microsoft and Health-ISAC seize domains. Microsoft has disabled more than 20,000 accounts and is blocking over 100,000 domains.
- Remind your team that a parcel, toll, bank or tax message that urges a quick click is a common kit template. They should go to the company's own site or app instead of using the link.
- Turn on multi-factor sign-in for your email and accounting accounts if it is not on already, since these kits mainly steal passwords and payment details.
Source: Microsoft On the Issues. This is our short summary of their reporting. The paragraphs marked "Our read" and the things to do are SeedFoundry's opinion. The summary is drafted with AI tools. Image: Microsoft On the Issues, from its own announcement. How we source and credit
These are short summaries of other people's reporting, with our own commentary. Each story names its source and links to the original. How we source and credit