[ufmace]

I assume you're right on those techniques, but 2 things:

1. It sounds like they'd have to be pretty well targeted against the precise systems of that particular company in order to work. Which would tend to suggest more targeted spear-phishing attacks and extensive recon being done against the company systems somehow before anybody launched a real black-hat attack.

2. At that point, it feels hard to blame the individual employee versus whoever misconfigured those corporate services in the first place. Though I would guess it's fairly common for those kind of things to happen due to many systems being set up without the help of true experts and the unlikeliness of a real attack against them without either a highly-skilled black hat targeting them or securing the services of a skilled and prices pen test team.

[createdapril24]

1. You are correct. I would measure the effort in terms of a small number (1-3) weeks of recon and targeting for a team of two.

2. I agree. Individual employees are not at all to blame. Companies who are blaming their employees for getting phished are doing it wrong. The correct action to take is to inform employees and build the other kinds of mitigations mentioned elsewhere in this topic tree.