Briefing
Inside the spider
How to prepare for the social engineering playbook that has become a growing concern for UK retail. A realistic attack simulation, an attack map and purple team test cases you can run against your own defenses.
A step-by-step simulation of a realistic social engineering attack on a retail target
An attack map with every phase mapped to MITRE ATT&CK techniques
Purple team test cases with expected prevention and detection for each
Why scoped, point-in-time testing can’t prove you’re protected
Free download
There’s no patch for human error.
When several of the UK’s best-known retailers were breached within weeks of each other, it showed how easily traditional defences fail when the human layer is the way in. No zero-days were needed. The attackers built a convincing pretext and asked the service desk to reset a password.
If your last test was scoped in advance and closed out with a certificate, ask whether it would have caught this.
This guide reconstructs the tactics, techniques and procedures used in recent high-profile retail breaches, and gives you purple team test cases to find out whether your defences would detect and stop them.
Your service desk is the front door.
The primary vector targets IT support staff, whose natural helpfulness becomes the weakness. A well-crafted pretext gets credentials reset and authentication bypassed for accounts with privileged access.
The guide includes test cases for exactly this, with the helpdesk verification controls and audit log detections you should expect to see.
Once they’re in, they look legitimate.
Attackers move methodically through the network, use legitimate administrative tools and exfiltrate data through channels that don’t trigger alerts. Contact only comes once they have leverage.
Every phase of the example attack map links to specific MITRE ATT&CK techniques, so your team can build targeted detections for each stage.
Let the breach become your blueprint.
Each test case mirrors a real-world attack on a major UK retailer and states the preventative control and detection mechanism you should expect.
Run them against your environment and you’ll know whether your security architecture detects and stops the threats targeting retailers today.
Stop testing.
Start knowing.
You’ll know exactly where you stand, and you’ll be able to prove it. To your board, your regulator, and yourself.
Transform to a proactive, continuous offensive security programme
Your budget is aimed at the risk that matters, not the one you were handed
You show the board what security prevented, not a request for more
Security clears the way for the business to move faster
You enter the boardroom in command
It starts with a 30-minute Attack Discovery call.
No access to your systems required.