What is a paradox of social engineering attacks?
People are not only the biggest problem and security risk but also the best tool in defending against an attack.
- Delete any request for personal information or passwords. Nobody should be contacting you for your personal information via email unsolicitedly. …
- Reject requests for help or offers of help. …
- Set your spam filters to high. …
- Secure your devices. …
- Always be mindful of risks.
Social engineering is the term used for
a broad range of malicious activities accomplished through human interactions
. It uses psychological manipulation to trick users into making security mistakes or giving away sensitive information. Social engineering attacks happen in one or more steps.
Examples of social engineering range from
phishing attacks
where victims are tricked into providing confidential information, vishing attacks where an urgent and official sounding voice mail convinces victims to act quickly or suffer severe consequences, or physical tailgating attacks that rely on trust to gain …
1.
$100 Million Google and Facebook Spear Phishing Scam
. The biggest social engineering attack of all time (as far as we know) was perpetrated by Lithuanian national Evaldas Rimasauskas against two of the world’s biggest companies: Google and Facebook.
- Angler phishing. Phishing attacks carried out via spoof customer service accounts on social media. BEC (business email compromise) …
- Pharming. Redirecting web traffic from legitimate sites to malicious clones. Spear phishing. …
- Tabnabbing/reverse tabnabbing. Rewriting unattended browser tabs with malicious content.
Security awareness training
is the most powerful tool for preventing social engineering attacks.
Phishing
Phishing
is the most common type of social engineering attack that occurs today.
When a hacker pretends to be a person in authority to get a user tell them information
, it is an example of reverse social engineering.
What is the most effective way to detect and stop social engineering attacks?
Organization-wide training for recognizing common attacks.
In today’s world, social engineering is recognized as one of the most effective ways to
obtain information and break through a defense’s walls
. It is so effective because technical defenses (like firewalls and overall software security) have become substantially better at protecting against outside entities.
Contact spamming and email hacking
This type of attack involves hacking into an individual’s email or social media accounts to gain access to contacts. Contacts may be told the individual has been mugged and lost all their credit cards and then ask to wire money to a money transfer account.
Social engineering is
a manipulation technique that exploits human error to gain private information, access, or valuables
. In cybercrime, these “human hacking” scams tend to lure unsuspecting users into exposing data, spreading malware infections, or giving access to restricted systems.
Kevin David Mitnick
is a well known name in the world of security. His past includes a variety of social engineering exploits and hacks that led to the security breach of numerous Fortune 500 companies, as well as federal and state agencies.
- Phishing. …
- Vishing and Smishing. …
- Pretexting. …
- Baiting. …
- Tailgating and Piggybacking. …
- Quid Pro Quo. …
- Cyber Threats Beyond Social Engineering.
- The feeling of urgency. The message will try to make you feel like you must act now or else. …
- The questions. …
- No proof of who they are. …
- The contact details. …
- A personal message with wrong information.
