Ep. 47 - APT42 & Iran's AI Social Engineering: Deepfakes, Phishing & Hack-and-Leak
Iran’s APT42 — also known as Charming Kitten or Mint Sandstorm — is redefining social engineering with generative AI, deepfake voice cloning, and long-term phishing campaigns.
In this episode of the Cyber Resilience Brief, we break down how Iranian state-sponsored threat actors are using AI-powered phishing, MFA fatigue attacks, credential harvesting, and hack-and-leak operations to target journalists, political campaigns, academics, and enterprise executives.
You’ll learn:
- How APT42 builds months-long AI-generated relationships before deploying malware
- How deepfake voice notes are being used to bypass verification
- How compromised email accounts fuel election interference and information warfare
- Why MFA fatigue and session token abuse remain critical enterprise risks
- How adversarial exposure validation (AEV) and continuous automated red teaming help security teams detect post-phishing lateral movement
As AI becomes agentic and scalable, social engineering attacks are evolving from mass phishing to precision psychological operations.
This isn’t just cyber espionage. It’s AI-driven influence warfare.
Stay safe. Stay resilient.