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Establish Accounts: Email Accounts

ID Name
T1585.001 Social Media Accounts
T1585.002 Email Accounts

Before compromising a victim, adversaries may create email accounts that can be used during targeting. Adversaries can use accounts created with email providers to further their operations, such as leveraging them to conduct Phishing for Information or Phishing.[1] Adversaries may also take steps to cultivate a persona around the email account, such as through use of Social Media Accounts, to increase the chance of success of follow-on behaviors. Created email accounts can also be used in the acquisition of infrastructure (ex: Domains).[1]

To decrease the chance of physically tying back operations to themselves, adversaries may make use of disposable email services.[2]

ID: T1585.002
Sub-technique of:  T1585
Tactic: Resource Development
Platforms: PRE
Version: 1.0
Created: 01 October 2020
Last Modified: 14 October 2020

Procedure Examples

Name Description
APT1

APT1 has created email accounts for later use in social engineering, phishing, and when registering domains.[1]

Mitigations

Mitigation Description
Pre-compromise

This technique cannot be easily mitigated with preventive controls since it is based on behaviors performed outside of the scope of enterprise defenses and controls.

Detection

Much of this activity will take place outside the visibility of the target organization, making detection of this behavior difficult. Detection efforts may be focused on related stages of the adversary lifecycle, such as during Initial Access (ex: Phishing).

References