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T1591.004 Identify Roles

Adversaries may gather information about identities and roles within the victim organization that can be used during targeting. Information about business roles may reveal a variety of targetable details, including identifiable information for key personnel as well as what data/resources they have access to.

Adversaries may gather this information in various ways, such as direct elicitation via Phishing for Information. Information about business roles may also be exposed to adversaries via online or other accessible data sets (ex: Social Media or Search Victim-Owned Websites).1 Gathering this information may reveal opportunities for other forms of reconnaissance (ex: Phishing for Information or Search Open Websites/Domains), establishing operational resources (ex: Establish Accounts or Compromise Accounts), and/or initial access (ex: Phishing).

Item Value
ID T1591.004
Sub-techniques T1591.001, T1591.002, T1591.003, T1591.004
Tactics TA0043
Platforms PRE
Version 1.0
Created 02 October 2020
Last Modified 24 October 2025

Procedure Examples

ID Name Description
G0046 FIN7 FIN7 has identified IT staff and employees who had higher levels of administrative rights.4
G1001 HEXANE HEXANE has identified executives, HR, and IT staff at victim organizations for further targeting.65
G1004 LAPSUS$ LAPSUS$ has gathered detailed knowledge of team structures within a target organization.3
C0022 Operation Dream Job During Operation Dream Job, Lazarus Group targeted specific individuals within an organization with tailored job vacancy announcements.87
G1017 Volt Typhoon Volt Typhoon has identified key network and IT staff members pre-compromise at targeted organizations.2

Mitigations

ID Mitigation Description
M1056 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. Efforts should focus on minimizing the amount and sensitivity of data available to external parties.

References

  1. Seals, T. (2020, October 15). Broadvoice Leak Exposes 350M Records, Personal Voicemail Transcripts. Retrieved October 20, 2020. ↩

  2. CISA et al.. (2024, February 7). PRC State-Sponsored Actors Compromise and Maintain Persistent Access to U.S. Critical Infrastructure. Retrieved May 15, 2024. ↩

  3. MSTIC, DART, M365 Defender. (2022, March 24). DEV-0537 Criminal Actor Targeting Organizations for Data Exfiltration and Destruction. Retrieved May 17, 2022. ↩

  4. The BlackBerry Research and Intelligence Team. (2024, April 17). Threat Group FIN7 Targets the U.S. Automotive Industry. Retrieved May 1, 2025. ↩

  5. ClearSky Cyber Security . (2021, August). New Iranian Espionage Campaign By “Siamesekitten” - Lyceum. Retrieved June 6, 2022. ↩

  6. SecureWorks 2019, August 27 LYCEUM Takes Center Stage in Middle East Campaign Retrieved. 2019/11/19  ↩

  7. Breitenbacher, D and Osis, K. (2020, June 17). OPERATION IN(TER)CEPTION: Targeted Attacks Against European Aerospace and Military Companies. Retrieved December 20, 2021. ↩

  8. ClearSky Research Team. (2020, August 13). Operation ‘Dream Job’ Widespread North Korean Espionage Campaign. Retrieved December 20, 2021. ↩