Community Targeted Phishing: A Middle Ground Between Massive and Spear Phishing Through Natural Language Generation

Alberto Giaretta; Nicola Dragoni

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-14687-0_8

Community Targeted Phishing: A Middle Ground Between Massive and Spear Phishing Through Natural Language Generation

Alberto Giaretta^*, Nicola Dragoni

^*Corresponding author for this work

Örebro University

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Article in proceedings › Research › peer-review

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Abstract

Looking at today phishing panorama, we are able to identify two diametrically opposed approaches. On the one hand, massive phishing targets as many people as possible with generic and preformed texts. On the other hand, spear phishing targets high-value victims with hand-crafted emails. While nowadays these two worlds partially intersect, we envision a future where Natural Language Generation (NLG) techniques will enable attackers to target populous communities with machine-tailored emails. In this paper, we introduce what we call Community Targeted Phishing (CTP), alongside with some workflows that exhibit how NLG techniques can craft such emails. Furthermore, we show how Advanced NLG techniques could provide phishers new powerful tools to bring upÂ to the surface new information from complex data-sets, and use such information to threaten victims’ private data.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of 6th International Conference in Software Engineering for Defence Applications - SEDA 2018
Editors	Paolo Ciancarini, Manuel Mazzara, Angelo Messina, Alberto Sillitti, Giancarlo Succi
Publisher	Springer
Publication date	1 Jan 2020
Pages	86-93
ISBN (Print)	9783030146863
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14687-0_8
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2020
Event	6th International Conference in Software Engineering for Defence Applications - Rome, Italy Duration: 7 Jun 2018 → 8 Jun 2018 Conference number: 6

Conference

Conference	6th International Conference in Software Engineering for Defence Applications
Number	6
Country/Territory	Italy
City	Rome
Period	07/06/2018 → 08/06/2018

Series	Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing
Volume	925
ISSN	2194-5357

Keywords

Natural Language Generation
NLG
Phishing
Security

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-030-14687-0_8

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Giaretta, A., & Dragoni, N. (2020). Community Targeted Phishing: A Middle Ground Between Massive and Spear Phishing Through Natural Language Generation. In P. Ciancarini, M. Mazzara, A. Messina, A. Sillitti, & G. Succi (Eds.), Proceedings of 6th International Conference in Software Engineering for Defence Applications - SEDA 2018 (pp. 86-93). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14687-0_8

Giaretta, Alberto ; Dragoni, Nicola. / Community Targeted Phishing : A Middle Ground Between Massive and Spear Phishing Through Natural Language Generation. Proceedings of 6th International Conference in Software Engineering for Defence Applications - SEDA 2018. editor / Paolo Ciancarini ; Manuel Mazzara ; Angelo Messina ; Alberto Sillitti ; Giancarlo Succi. Springer, 2020. pp. 86-93 (Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, Vol. 925).

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Giaretta, A & Dragoni, N 2020, Community Targeted Phishing: A Middle Ground Between Massive and Spear Phishing Through Natural Language Generation. in P Ciancarini, M Mazzara, A Messina, A Sillitti & G Succi (eds), Proceedings of 6th International Conference in Software Engineering for Defence Applications - SEDA 2018. Springer, Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol. 925, pp. 86-93, 6th International Conference in Software Engineering for Defence Applications, Rome, Italy, 07/06/2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14687-0_8

Community Targeted Phishing: A Middle Ground Between Massive and Spear Phishing Through Natural Language Generation. / Giaretta, Alberto; Dragoni, Nicola.
Proceedings of 6th International Conference in Software Engineering for Defence Applications - SEDA 2018. ed. / Paolo Ciancarini; Manuel Mazzara; Angelo Messina; Alberto Sillitti; Giancarlo Succi. Springer, 2020. p. 86-93 (Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, Vol. 925).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Article in proceedings › Research › peer-review

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Giaretta A, Dragoni N. Community Targeted Phishing: A Middle Ground Between Massive and Spear Phishing Through Natural Language Generation. In Ciancarini P, Mazzara M, Messina A, Sillitti A, Succi G, editors, Proceedings of 6th International Conference in Software Engineering for Defence Applications - SEDA 2018. Springer. 2020. p. 86-93. (Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, Vol. 925). doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-14687-0_8

Community Targeted Phishing: A Middle Ground Between Massive and Spear Phishing Through Natural Language Generation

Abstract

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Keywords

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