In the past two years, the largest and most damaging data breaches didn’t begin with sophisticated malware or zero-day exploits. They started with something far simpler, an attacker typing an employee’s name into a search engine.
One recent breach ransomed nearly 3 billion stolen user records for $3.5 million on the dark web.1 Another exposed more than 500 million user records, prompting the company to pay a $370k ransom.2 And both of these, among many others, were done by using public information.
Public information — names, job titles, phone numbers, email addresses, and details scraped from data broker sites — has become the launchpad for devastating cyberattacks. The problem is most organizations have no idea how exposed their people really are.
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How attackers think like sales teams
Today’s cybercriminals don’t brute-force their way through firewalls. They do research.
Using LinkedIn profiles, corporate websites, breached credential databases, and data broker records, attackers build detailed dossiers on employees. Armed with this information, they craft convincing phishing emails, impersonate colleagues on phone calls, and manipulate help desks into resetting passwords or granting access.
Once an employee is fooled and grants the phisher access, technical security controls are no longer a help barrier. The attacker is already inside, operating with trusted credentials under the guise of someone who’s supposed to be there.
The real-world damage
Recent high-profile incidents show just how effective these tactics have become:
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Cloud platform breaches impacting hundreds of companies, initiated through employee social engineering
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Hundreds of millions of customer records exposed using stolen employee credentials
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Data broker breaches exposing billions of records – the same records attackers use to target your workforce
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Ransom payments and remediation costs reaching into the millions
The pattern is clear: attackers don’t just hack systems. They hack people. And unfortunately, public data makes that incredibly easy to do.
The blind spot in your security strategy
While organizations invest heavily in things like endpoint protection and network monitoring, almost none offer solutions for the employee information that’s already out there.
That means that every data broker listing, leaked credential, and overshared LinkedIn detail is an opportunity for attackers that traditional security tools simply don't address.
See Array’s Privacy Protect in action
Reducing the risk
Although attacks using public information are on the rise, organizations are learning how to best protect both their employees and themselves.
Here are a few tips that can help understand and limit your digital vulnerability:
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Identify what's already out there. You can't fix what you can't see. Audit the personal and professional data available about you and your employees online.
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Remove information from data broker sites. These companies collect and sell personal details that attackers can exploit. Removing this data is key to minimizing threats.
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Strengthen identity verification. Help desks and support teams should establish more robust processes to confirm identities before making account changes.
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Monitor continuously. Unfortunately, new breaches happen constantly, but ongoing monitoring can catch new exposures before attackers do.
The bottom line
It’s a scary fact, but if attackers can research your employees, a breach is more likely in your organization. As a result, reducing public employee exposure and strengthening identity verification has become key to modern cyber risk management.
The information is likely already out there, but you don’t have to ignore it. Taking simple proactive steps, like removing employee information, can help you stay ahead.
Talk to us if you’d like to learn more about how we help organizations stay secure, or run a scan and see for yourself!
1 Data Breach Exposes 3 Billion Personal Information Records, McAfee, 2025
2 The Snowflake Attack May Be Turning Into One of the Largest Data Breaches Ever, Wired, 2024
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Editorial Note: This content is the author’s opinion, expression, and/or recommendation(s).
Sri Gogineni is Group Product Manager of AI at Array, where he builds tools that help people improve their financial health and achieve their dreams. With over a decade of experience across tech and product leadership—including founding a hardware startup and scaling growth—Sri blends deep technical insight with a passion for user-centric design.
Outside of work, he enjoys salsa dancing and wrenching on cars.
Outside of work, he enjoys salsa dancing and wrenching on cars.