🎙️ Inverted Podcast #20 — Targeted Attacks: Protecting High‑Risk People and Organizations 🎙️

What does it really mean to be a high‑risk user—and how are targeted attacks different from everyday phishing and scams?

In this episode of the Inverted Podcast, Jeroen Kemperman is joined by co-hosts Dario Salice and Dana Kaufman, with special guest Mike Sager, to break down the world of targeted cyberattacks. Together, they explore how activists, journalists, political candidates, founders, and other high‑value individuals are targeted by well‑resourced adversaries—and why conventional security advice often falls short for these groups.

The conversation dives into how nation‑states, organized crime, and sophisticated attackers operate differently from “drive‑by” attackers, investing time and resources to research their targets, craft personalized lures, and escalate attacks until they succeed. The panel discusses real‑world examples like political campaigns, advocacy organizations, journalists, and small consulting teams that become critical entry points for attackers—often without the resources of large enterprises.

The episode also looks at how AI and data leakage are changing the threat landscape, making highly personalized social‑engineering attacks faster, cheaper, and more scalable than ever before. As the panel explains, techniques that once required days or weeks of effort can now be performed in hours—dramatically expanding who can be targeted and how.

From a product and platform perspective, the discussion turns to what builders can do to better protect high‑risk users. Drawing on experience with programs like Google’s Advanced Protection Program, panel discusses raising the security baseline, giving users ways to opt into stronger protections, being opinionated about defaults, and balancing security with usability so protections don’t get turned off.

The episode wraps with practical advice for individuals who believe they may be targeted—ranging from using hardware security keys, to seeking help from trusted organizations, to developing a mindset of verification and healthy skepticism.

If you’re building products for real people—or you worry that you or your users might be a high‑value target—this episode offers clear, grounded insights on how to think about security when failure really matters.

If you’re interested in real-world security strategies, zero trust, and the evolving challenges facing media organizations, this episode is a must-listen.

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