Attackers may utilize social engineering to trick people into disclosing private information or taking activities that could jeopardize security. This can be accomplished using phishing scams, pretexting, baiting, and other psychologically preying methods. Social engineering aims to deceive people into disclosing information or access that can be exploited for fraud or other criminal activity.
Attacks involving social engineering can take a variety of shapes, including phishing emails, phone con games, and in-person deceit. These attacks frequently prey on social cues and psychological tricks to persuade victims to divulge private data, including login passwords or financial information.
Phishing is a popular type of social engineering in which a hacker sends an email or text message that looks to be from a trustworthy source, like a bank or social media site, in order to deceive the recipient into giving sensitive information or clicking on a dangerous link.
Another frequent tactic used by attackers to obtain access to sensitive information is pretexting, in which they construct a bogus identity and utilise it to appear trustworthy. Calls, emails, or face-to-face meetings can be used for this.
How Social Engineering Works ?
Gathering Information: The initial step is to gather as much information as possible about the target victim. The data is acquired via business websites, other publications, and occasionally by speaking with target system users.
Attacker’s Plan: The attacker describes the attack’s strategy in detail.
Obtain Tools: The tools an attacker will employ to launch the attack include computer applications.
Attack: Take advantage of the system’s flaws.
Use your newfound knowledge: Attacks like password guessing make use of data obtained via social engineering techniques, such as pet names, the founding dates of the company, etc.
Social Engineering Techniques:
- Phishing: sending fraudulent emails or text messages that appear to be from a legitimate source in order to trick recipients into providing sensitive information or clicking on a malicious link.
- Pretexting: creating a false identity and using it to gain trust and access to sensitive information through phone calls, emails, or in-person interactions.
- Baiting: using the promise of something desirable, such as a prize or reward, to entice victims to divulge sensitive information or perform an action.
- Scareware: tricking victims into believing their computer is infected with malware and persuading them to download and install malware.
- Quid pro quo: offering something of value in exchange for sensitive information.
- Spear Phishing: targeted phishing attacks directed at a specific individual or organization.
- Whaling: phishing attacks directed at high-level executives or other high-profile individuals.
- Vishing: using phone calls to trick victims into providing sensitive information.
- Diversion theft: stealing mail or redirecting it to a different address.
- Impersonation: posing as a trusted person or organization in order to gain access to sensitive information.
Counter Measures for Social Engineering
- Employee education and training: Regularly educating and training employees on the common tactics and techniques used in social engineering attacks can help them recognize and avoid these attacks.
- Strong authentication: Implementing multi-factor authentication can make it much harder for attackers to gain access to sensitive information.
- Use of security software: Installing and regularly updating anti-virus, anti-malware, and anti-phishing software can help protect against attacks.
- Email filtering: Implementing email filtering and blocking rules can help prevent phishing emails from reaching employees.
- Be suspicious of unsolicited phone calls, emails or visits: Be cautious of unsolicited phone calls, emails or visits, and never provide sensitive information unless you have verified the identity of the person or organization.
- Limited access to sensitive information: Implementing strict access controls can prevent unauthorized individuals from gaining access to sensitive information.
- Incident response plan: Having a plan in place to respond to security incidents can help minimize the impact of an attack.
- Regular security audits and penetration testing: Regularly testing your network and systems can help identify vulnerabilities that could be exploited by attackers.
- Use of VPN and encrypted communications: Use of Virtual Private Network (VPN) and encrypted communications can help protect against man-in-the-middle attacks.
- Monitor for suspicious activity: Regularly monitoring your systems for suspicious activity can help detect an attack in progress.
