Uncovering a critical wire-transfer fraud path before attackers could

The Problem

Ahead of launching a new digital banking platform, the bank's board wanted independent validation that a real attacker could not reach the wire-transfer approval workflow, despite passing internal audits.

Our Assessment

Brangus IT was engaged for a 4-week objective-based red team exercise with the goal of reaching the wire-transfer approval system without detection by the bank's SOC.

The Solution

Our team gained initial access through a spear-phishing campaign targeting the treasury operations team, then pivoted through a misconfigured file share to obtain domain administrator credentials — undetected for 11 days.

Implementation

We worked directly with the bank's SOC and identity team to implement conditional access policies, tier-0 credential isolation, and detection rules for the specific lateral movement techniques used during the engagement.

Results

• Full compromise path documented from initial phish to wire-transfer system access
• 12 new SIEM detection rules deployed within 3 weeks of the debrief
• Tier-0 credential isolation implemented prior to platform launch
• Zero detection gaps remained in a validation retest 60 days later

Business Impact

The bank avoided a potentially catastrophic wire-fraud exposure ahead of a high-visibility platform launch, and used the engagement narrative to secure board approval for an expanded identity security budget.