Decoded – Nerd Thoughts: Trust nobody (not even your inbox)

So, November isn’t about giving thanks. It’s about taking trust away.
Welcome, then, to Zero Trust Security Month, where we question every login, every packet, every smiley in an email signature. “Trust no one” (spell it like Spooky Mulder!) isn’t paranoia anymore, it’s architecture.

At Baited, we’ve spent months knee-deep in phishing simulations, spear-phishing reports, and human behavior patterns. And one truth keeps surfacing: people still trust too easily. That’s where Zero Trust begins: not with firewalls or IAM tools, but with mindset rewirin

The illusion of safety inside the castle

For decades, organizations built digital fortresses. Firewalls, VPNs, and internal networks formed the walls. The assumption was simple: if you’re inside, you’re safe.
Then came the breach parade.
Stolen credentials. Compromised admin accounts. VPNs becoming expressways for attackers.
The moat dried up. The dragons retired.

Zero Trust flipped the script.
It said: everyone is guilty until proven innocent.
Every device, every identity, every API call must earn access. Again and again. And again.

And when applied right, it works. Not perfectly, tho. But better than blind faith ever did.

Spear-phishing: when trust becomes a weapon

Last month, CFOs and financial executives across Europe, Africa, and Asia-Pacific were targeted by a hyper focused spear-phishing wave disguised as recruiting emails from Rothschild & Co.
It used CAPTCHA walls to dodge scanners, perfectly written introductions, and legitimate remote access tools like NetBird and OpenSSH to hide in plain sight – yep: plain sight.

Meanwhile, higher-education institutions got hit by a long-running phishing campaign that impersonated Google forms and university login pages, tricking thousands of students and professors across the globe (read here Mandiant’s report: https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/threat-intelligence/phishing-targeting-higher-education/).

Different targets, same exploit: trust.
People trusted the brand name, the logo, the form, the “familiar” sender.
And that’s exactly why Zero Trust isn’t just for networks, it’s for humans too.

Zero Trust is not a tool. It’s a behavior

Here’s the trap many fall into: they buy an identity gateway or a shiny new monitoring suite and call it “Zero Trust.”
WRONG! That’s just infrastructure.

Zero Trust is a discipline: verifying everything, assuming compromise, monitoring continuously, and reducing privileges by default.
It’s also cultural: questioning “why am I getting this email?” or “why does this process need admin rights?” before doing anything.
The best tech stack in the world won’t save you if the intern clicks “Accept cookies and malware.”

That’s why me (also, we) obsess over the human layer: not to blame it, but to strengthen it. Our awareness simulations are designed like missions, not lectures.
They’re dynamic, AI-driven, and never dull. Because boredom is the real backdoor.

“I’ve seen it, Gandalf. I was there, when people had to take mandatory security awareness trainings with the will to live of an amoeba.“
They hate it, let’s face it: read and click the answer.
Oh, I got it wrong.. by the way, what’s for dinner?

Prevention is not paranoia

Every major phishing campaign of the last year (from banks to universities) could have been stopped by one combination: micro-segmentation, continuous identity checks, and user awareness.

That last one, awareness, is where we come in.
We don’t train with fear. We train for resilience.
Each simulated phish is a safe failure, a hands-on rehearsal, and a step toward a Zero Trust mindset.

The month ahead

This November, we’ll dissect Zero Trust from every angle:

• in #PacketHunters, we’ll break down how trust chains are exploited in real attacks, and how developers can code defensively
• on Fridays, #Decoded: Humans at Baited will go behind the scenes, because even our coffee machine follows a Zero Trust policy too

At month’s end, TheCatch #3 will drop with a full recap, insights, and a sneak peek of what Bruce, our resident AI and relentless cynic, has been analyzing behind the scenes.

The enemy isn’t malware.
It’s misplaced trust.
And Zero Trust isn’t about walls or passwords; it’s about never assuming the gate is closed.
So as we dive into this month, remember: every click, every session, every “sure, that looks fine” moment, that’s where the next breach starts.

Bruce reminds us daily:
“Trust nobody. Not even your inbox.”

✍️ Decoded: Nerd Thoughts is my monthly playground, where retro vibes meet today’s threats. This edition kicks off November’s theme: Zero Trust Security. From credential leaks to insider risks, we’ll dig deep all month. And don’t miss our wrap-up, The Catch #3, dropping end of November – Bruce approved.
GLHF 😉