Cybercrime is one of the most common crimes in today’s world. Even while knowing a lot about technology, many people become victims of cyber-attacks. It can be of various types and can come in any form. Cyber-attack is a very broad term, and thus there are subcategories of it, and we shall discuss one of them today, Social Engineering.
Social engineering is a subset of cyber-attacks that aims to trick people into sharing their sensitive details to help the attacker access data. You must have heard that someone shared their bank details online, not on a verified website, and the attackers drained all the money from the person’s bank. These kinds of incidents happen frequently. Not just these incidents, but sometimes attackers portray to be your colleagues and send you emails, asking for login ids and passwords. It risks the firm’s data and finances as well.
Now let’s know what Social Engineering is.
Social engineering is a way to manipulate people psychologically into sharing sensitive information to gain access to personal data. Anyone can fall into the trap, whether an individual or a firm. The attackers are getting smarter; thus, they no longer hack into systems. Instead, they use human psychology to their advantage and make people victims. Social engineering attackers target individuals who have access to critical office position or wire transfer funds.
Top social engineering attack techniques:
There are a variety of tactics used by the attackers to gain access to passwords, physical locations, etc. Here are top social engineering attack tactics :
Phishing: It is a tactic where the attacker steals the users’ data like login credentials and credit card numbers. It happens when the attacker portrays a trusted entity i.e. a caller claiming to call from bank or credit card company. Thus leading the victim to open the email, link, or an instant message.
Pretexting: In this kind of attack, the attacker impersonates an authoritative person, say an executive or law enforcement official. The attacker gets information through a couple of lies and makes the victim believe they have committed a crime or are in some trouble. Thus, if they don’t share the information, their life could be at risk.
Scareware: As the name suggests, the attacker sends out a threat message or false alarm to the victim in this kind of tactic. A pop-up may appear on the victims’ devices, saying that their system is infected with malware. Often people get scared and follow the steps mentioned. Attackers usually ask people to install some software’s, which ultimately affects the victims’ device & attackers takes complete control.
Watering hole: This is another tactic where the attacker observes or guesses the activity of a group of people and then injects malicious code into a website, which the group of people will most probably visit in the coming days.
These were some of the top social engineering tactics or attacks used by the attackers to make people fall into their traps. Many times, human psychology plays an important role. For example, even though we aren’t sure of the company and don’t trust it, we still fall into the attacker’s trap since they manipulate our brains into believing them. Subconsciously, we are aware but don’t trust our gut feeling and lose personal data or money.
What are the repercussions?
The repercussions of such attacks are significant since most social engineering attacks are driven by financial gain; organizations stand to suffer considerable financial loss, personal data, and sensitive information.
These were the physical repercussions, but these kinds of attacks can even affect the company’s employee morale, productivity, and mental health can also suffer because of losses. Along with these, a company’s reputation is affected in the market.
Some preventive measures one should use:
As technology is becoming much smarter, so are the attackers. Thus, you must keep yourself updated on the preventive measures and even follow them.
- If you own a firm, make sure that your employees are trained to look out for signs of social engineering.
- Implement multifactor authentication so that only those can log into the systems that have proper details and not just simple passwords.
- Deploy email filters that detect scams and fake emails before reaching out to your employees.
- Deploy and maintain a good end point protection software.
- Never give out personal information to unverified sites. If you aren’t sure of the authentication, don’t trust it.
- If you receive emails and don’t know whether the company is real, make sure you search about the company in a separate channel to verify it, or you can always contact them directly and clear your doubts.
So, these were a couple of preventive measures one should take, whether individual or they own a firm. Make sure that you follow these preventive measures as social engineering is one of the fastest crimes in the world of cybercrime.
Conclusion:
This was all about social engineering and the related attacks. The cyber-world is an enormous, deep hole. You must understand where your limit is, since the internet can make you lose everything within a second by just clicking something phishy. One wrong click and you can lose all your hard-earned money or maybe your data and information. Gaining training in social engineering can help you not get affected by social engineering attacks. Training can help you prevent falling into traps and be safe and secure.
PS: For knowing more about “Social Engineering” , read the detailed blog at :
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