In an era where technology and innovation shape our workplaces, a looming threat is emerging from within the shadows—hackers are increasingly breaching corporate IT systems by exploiting age-old human behaviors, leveraging advanced technological tools. This evolving threat is not just a reflection of technical vulnerability but a deep dive into the psychological and behavioral susceptibilities of individuals.
Today, sophisticated attack techniques often merge technology with social engineering. Threat actors are harnessing deepfake videos, AI-driven voice cloning, and other advanced methods to launch tailored, highly personalized campaigns. These campaigns are often directed towards corporate executives, government officials, and other high-profile individuals for impersonation, extortion, and increasingly disruptive operations that can cripple entire industries.
According to the latest report from Palo Alto Networks, social engineering has emerged as the leading access vector for incident response cases from May 2024 to May 2025. The report showed that attackers successfully exploited social engineering tactics in 36% of the incidents investigated, focusing predominantly on privileged or executive accounts to penetrate systems. This highlights a critical vulnerability; executives, who often possess expansive privileges to sensitive information and vital business systems, have become prime targets for cybercriminals aiming to maximize their illicit gains.
“Executives hold the keys to the corporate kingdom,” stated Sam Rubin, a senior vice president at Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 team. The unique access these individuals have makes them lucrative targets for attackers looking to inflict maximum damage and reap high returns from extortion efforts. Alarmingly, in over half of the social-engineering incidents analyzed, hackers accessed sensitive data—and in a growing number of cases, these attacks disrupted crucial business functions or had a negative impact on operational performance.
Impersonation Bypasses Safeguards
Recent years have seen a sharp uptick in cybercriminals utilizing advanced impersonation techniques, particularly through voice cloning and deepfake technologies. This allows them to convincingly mimic senior executives. In certain cases, hackers have targeted these executives directly for extortion or cloned their voices for impersonation purposes. Armed with a cloned voice, email contacts, or even a photo, attackers can execute fraudulent credential-reset requests or send deceptive demands to unsuspecting lower-level employees.
Scott McCollum, a principal intelligence analyst at Google’s Threat Intelligence Group, underscored this risk, stating, “In the age of AI, vocal or video spoofing of executives has become a legitimate risk.” When staff receive requests for sensitive data or access from what appears to be their executive, the potential for breaches skyrockets.
This kind of sophisticated social engineering has been employed against numerous sectors, including retail, aviation, and insurance. A notable case involved the British retailer Co-op, whose networks were compromised due to a hacker impersonating an employee, effectively using social engineering to answer critical security questions and reset account credentials. This breach resulted in a staggering $275 million in lost sales, demonstrating the far-reaching consequences of such attacks.
Rob Elsey, the group chief digital and information officer at Co-op, recounted that the malicious activity began merely an hour after the account was breached. Despite extensive preparations, including simulated attacks and red-team exercises, the pressures during real incidents often allow attackers to circumvent those very defenses.
The Co-op incident turned the spotlight on Scattered Spider, a hacker group composed of young, English-speaking individuals who exploit vulnerabilities in a loosely affiliated underground network known as The Com. Similar tactics were employed against Workday, which also fell victim to a social-engineering assault where hackers falsely impersonated IT and HR officials to convince employees to reset their password credentials.
Evolving Tactics
Cybersecurity experts have observed a significant evolution in social-engineering tactics. Whereas attackers traditionally relied on triggering malware downloads via email attachments, the widespread adoption of security measures like multifactor authentication has prompted a shift toward more intricate and personalized methods to gain initial access. This change reflects an adaptive strategy, allowing hackers to maintain their success rates despite increasing defenses.
Researchers from Proofpoint attribute this evolution partly to Microsoft’s recent decisions to disable certain macros—frequently exploited by cybercriminals—within its Office applications. In response, hacker tactics have diversified to include compressed executables and alternative file types, often leading to more complex attack sequences.
New techniques are also gaining traction; one example includes the ClickFix method for stealing credentials, significantly enhancing the scope and impact of financial fraud schemes against organizations.
High-Value Targets
In June, the Ponemon Institute, in collaboration with BlackCloak, released findings indicating a steep increase in social-engineering attacks directed at corporate executives and high-net-worth individuals. Alarmingly, nearly 40% of survey respondents reported experiencing a deepfake impersonation attempt. Much of this technology-driven impersonation revolves around deceiving trusted entities to extract payments or sensitive information, leading to understandable apprehension among executives regarding the potential for such attacks to escalate to physical threats.
Moreover, these social-engineering tactics have grown increasingly invasive, extending beyond executives to include family members and personal contacts. This expansion in targeting strategies has significant implications for personal safety, as well as organizational security.
As organizations grapple with these emerging threats, executives can take proactive measures to enhance their security posture. Recommended steps include:
- Limiting social media posts about personal activities, particularly those related to travel.
- Avoiding the public exposure of information about family members.
- Adopting phishing-resistant multifactor authentication systems.
- Utilizing out-of-band methods for any changes to passwords, MFA resets, or banking information.
Sam Lewis, manager of custom intelligence at Google’s Threat Intelligence Group, articulated a crucial point: “Executives are increasingly vulnerable to targeting based on information that can easily be aggregated online about themselves, their family, and their company.” This growing vulnerability underscores the necessity for heightened awareness and preventive measures in an age where the line between technology and personal safety continues to blur.
