Social Engineering Security

Social engineering has proven to be a very successful way for a criminal to get inside an organization.  Once a social engineer has a trusted employee’s password, he can simply log in and snoop around for sensitive data.  Social engineering attacks are not only becoming more common against businesses, but they’re also increasingly more sophisticated.  With hackers devising more clever methods for fooling employees and individuals into handing over valuable company data, businesses must use due diligence in an effort to stay steps ahead of cyber-criminals.

 

Social engineering attacks typically involve some form of psychological manipulation, fooling unsuspecting employees into handing over confidential or sensitive data. Social engineering involves email that invokes urgency or other emotions in the victim, leading the victim to promptly reveal sensitive information, click a malicious link or open a malicious file.  The success of social engineering techniques depend on attackers’ ability to manipulate victims into performing certain actions or providing confidential information.  Today, social engineering is recognized as one of the greatest security threats facing organizations. Social engineering attacks can be non-technical and don’t necessarily involve the compromise or exploitation of software or systems.  When successful, many social engineering attacks enable attackers to gain legitimate, authorized access to confidential information.

 

Every organization should take steps toward educating employees on the common types of social engineering attacks including phishing and spear-phishing.  Having solid social engineering security enable employees to recognize and avoid common social engineering tactics. 

 

Social engineering attacks come in many different forms and can be performed anywhere where human interaction is involved.  The following are four of the most common forms of digital social engineering assaults:

 

          • Phishing | As one of the most popular social engineering attack types,

            phishing scams are email message campaigns aimed at creating a sense of

            urgency, curiosity or fear in victims.  It then prods them into revealing sensitive

            information, clicking on links to malicious websites or opening attachments that

            contain malware.

          • Spear-phishing | This is a more targeted version of the phishing scam

            whereby an attacker chooses specific individuals or enterprises.  They tailor

            their messages based on characteristics, job positions and contacts belonging

            to their victims to make their attack less conspicuous.

          • Scareware | It involves victims being bombarded with false alarms and

            fictitious threats.  Users are deceived to think their system is infected with

            malware, prompting them to install software that has no real benefit.

          • Pretexting | This is where an attacker obtains information through a series of

            cleverly crafted lies.  The scam is often initiated by a perpetrator pretending to

            need sensitive information from a victim so as to perform a critical task.

 

The following tips can help improve vigilance in relation to social engineering hacks:

 

          • Don’t open emails and attachments from suspicious sources.  If you

            don’t know the sender in question, don’t answer the email.

          • Use multifactor authentication.  One of the most valuable pieces of

            information attackers seek are user credentials. 

          • Be wary of tempting offers.  If an offer sounds too enticing, think twice

            before accepting it as fact. 

          • Keep your antivirus software updated.  Make sure automatic updates are

            engaged.

          • Never reveal your passwords or login credentials to anyone. 

          • Make sure the URL is correct when entering details on a website.

          • Never open strange-looking files or attachments.

 

Social engineering is as dangerous and harmful as any other technical attack.  In fact, social engineering is more serious than other threats, as humans are always in a vulnerable state.

 

As social engineering attacks continue to grow in sophistication and frequency, companies need social engineering security as a first line of defense.  That’s where PhishingBox comes in.  Learn how to recognize and avoid social engineering attacks with our social engineering security software.