The service desk is the new perimeter
Attackers aren’t picking locks—they’re picking people. The fastest way inside many enterprises is still the service desk. Threat actors like Scattered Spider have turned social engineering into a science, and your help desk agents are their primary target.
One convincing phone call can turn a routine password reset into full domain access.
The MGM Resorts and Clorox incidents showed how devastating one successful social-engineering call can be, with a nine-figure business impact and weeks of disruption.
That’s not a fluke; it’s the playbook.
Training Helps, Controls Decide
Yes, agent training matters. No, it won’t save you on its own. Social engineers are specialists at exploiting helpful humans under time pressure.
Scripts, “common sense,” and ad-hoc challenge questions break down when an attacker is calm, prepared, and persuasive.
If your last line of defense is an overworked agent making a judgment call, you’ve already lost.
Bottom line: user verification must be a security-owned workflow, not an agent-owned conversation.
... continue reading