🕵️‍♂️ Human Attack Surface: Why People Are Still the Weakest Link

By Libra Infosec

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Estimated read time: 6 minutes

Cybersecurity tooling is evolving—AI-powered detection, endpoint isolation, threat intel feeds.

But one thing hasn’t changed:
Humans are still the easiest way in.

In this post, we’ll walk through how our red team simulates real-world social engineering attacks—and what organizations can do to actually prepare for them.

🎭 Phishing & Pretexting: How We Bypass Security with Words

EDRs catch malware. Firewalls block ports. But humans trust stories—and that’s where we strike.

1️⃣ Spear Phishing Campaigns

🧠 Deep Recon – We scrape LinkedIn, press releases, GitHub commits.
🎨 Brand Cloning – Fonts, logos, email footers, tone of voice—we match it all.
🔁 Multi-Stage Lures – Didn’t click the first time? Wait for our follow-up call.

Example: We emailed a CFO during a live vendor negotiation using a cloned sender and invoice doc. Within 3 clicks, we had their credentials—and full financial backend access.

2️⃣ Pretexting & Vishing (Voice Phishing)

📞 Impersonation – IT support, HR, vendor escalation—pick your mask.
⚠️ Urgency Hooks – “Suspicious login detected, I just need to verify something…”
🪞 Mirroring & Rapport – Build trust, then breach it.

Example: We posed as a frantic remote employee needing a VPN reset. Helpdesk complied without verifying our ID—granting access in under 5 minutes.

🚨 Why Organizations Fail to Detect Behavioral Anomalies

Most orgs believe a spam filter or security training is enough. We’ve proven otherwise.

🚫 Over-reliance on automation – Smart attackers avoid triggers entirely.
🔓 Weak internal verification – Many helpdesks will verify you based on tone alone.
🔕 No real-time behavioral detection – Unusual access patterns? They’re noticed days later—if ever.

Attackers don’t need malware if they can manipulate a mouthpiece.

🎯 Stories from the Field: How We Breached Organizations (Ethically)

🎤 The "Fake Conference Speaker"

A client hosted an internal summit. We impersonated a keynote guest and emailed the event lead from a cloned domain.

➡️ Result: We were sent the full attendee list—prime phishing targets.

Could’ve been stopped by: domain verification before trust assignment.

💳 The CFO Wire Transfer Play

CEO out of office. Spoofed urgent email from their name. CFO prepped a wire transfer based on forged instructions.

➡️ Result: Nearly sent funds until a sharp-eyed EA spotted a typo in the sender’s domain.

Prevention: enforce multi-channel verification for financial actions.

🔒 How to Harden the Human Layer

🧠 Simulate real-world attacks – Boring CBTs won’t cut it. Train using actual phishing/vishing simulations.
🔄 Use layered approvals – No single person should approve resets or transfers alone.
📊 Track behavioral shifts – Unusual login hours? New devices? Escalate them.
🚦 Normalize skepticism – Employees must feel safe saying, “I need to verify that request.”

The hardest system to patch is the human brain.
We break trust structures before attackers do. Then we show you how to rebuild them.