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Phish Like an APT

Sanne Maasakkers

Sanne Maasakkers analyzes real-world nation-state phishing strategies, comparing APT psychological pretexts with traditional red team social engineering.

Summary

Analyzing Real-World APT Phishing Campaigns

While security research heavily documents nation-state malware and exploit chains, the specific social engineering pretexts used to deliver those payloads receive less empirical focus.

Deconstructing Nation-State Phishing Strategies

Sanne Maasakkers investigates real-world APT spear-phishing campaigns, analyzing how threat actors tailor pretexts to target industries, geopolitics, and current events.

Comparing APT Pretexts to Red Team Scenarios

Maasakkers compares sophisticated APT lures with standard commercial red team phishing templates, highlighting common oversights in enterprise simulations.

Building Realistic Threat Emulation Phishing Programs

The author provides red teams with frameworks for designing realistic, high-fidelity phishing campaigns based on genuine threat actor OSINT research.

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