Social Engineering: A Brief Guide to Human Hacking

Social engineering is a type of attack that takes advantage of human weaknesses. It’s where someone impersonates another person or shares confidential information with an unauthorized person to extract sensitive data from the victim.

Social engineering attacks have become more popular because they are easier than ever before to carry out and often difficult to detect.

Actually, social engineering is a type of attack that takes advantage of human weaknesses. It’s where someone impersonates another person or shares confidential information with an unauthorized person to extract sensitive data from the victim.

In this blog post, I will discuss prevention strategies as well as common methods for social engineering so you can protect your business against these costly attacks!

1. What is social engineering and how can you protect yourself from it?

Social engineering is a term that refers to the use of psychological techniques to manipulate people into performing actions or divulging confidential information. It can be used as a form of attack against employees, executives, and even customers.

The most popular ways this is done are through mass emailing, phone calls, and instant messaging. There are many different types of social engineering attacks including spear phishing, fishing, and whaling.

Social engineering can lead to identity theft so it’s important to protect yourself from these common types of social engineering attacks by following simple steps such as being mindful when opening emails from unknown senders; not providing personal information over the phone unless you’re sure who you’re speaking with.

Social engineering prevention can be done by educating employees about the dangers of opening suspicious attachments, following correct procedures when responding to unknown callers, or calling back unsolicited emails from unknown operators. Employees should also report any unusual activity such as people asking suspicious questions.

2. Why are people susceptible to social engineering attacks?

People are susceptible to social engineering attacks because they trust what the sender is saying, or they want to believe it so much that their guard is lowered. Social engineering attackers can be very convincing and typically use a few different methods such as phone calls and instant messaging.

The average cost of security breaches due to social engineering was $225 per person in 2017. Businesses will often spend thousands on IT systems, but neglect training employees how not to fall prey to these common types of social engineering attacks.

3. Who is a social engineer?

A social engineer is someone who is trained in the art of manipulating people and getting what they want. A social engineer will use anything from psychology to manipulation to get their way.

The term “social engineer” refers broadly to anyone who uses skills in manipulation for personal gain with an emphasis on non-technological means.

4. The most common types of social engineering attacks

The most common form of social engineering involves sending fraudulent emails containing viruses or links which appear harmless but actually contain harmful content when clicked on.

The attacks can be divided into four broad categories:

Spoofing — Social Engineering for the purpose of obtaining private information such as passwords, credit card numbers, or other sensitive data by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

Scareware– Scareware is a social engineering attack that tricks victims into downloading malicious software. An email virus disguised as something else tricks people into opening it so they can infect their computer with scareware which will then warn them about bogus problems on their system and require payment for fixes. This type of social engineering also includes fake antivirus alerts from companies like Microsoft saying that your computer is infected because you downloaded something illegal.

Pretexting — The act of creating a false identity with fictitious personal details in order to initiate targeted communication with another individual for fraud purposes. They will use this fake identity to create credibility so they can scam you into giving them your money or give away sensitive information that could be used against you later on like passwords, banking info, etc… This person might be someone who works from a call center to try to get people interested in signing up for their products…

Phishing — They are a popular way for hackers to gain access to your personal information. Phishing emails typically will contain attachments or links that lead you to the phisher’s website, which is usually designed in such a way as to appear legitimate.

5. How to recognize a phishing email?

They may also ask for login credentials or bank account numbers and can even be disguised as an email from your company asking you to verify your account by clicking on a link in the email.

Phishing emails usually have a false sense of urgency and require that, as the recipient, you take immediate action. There are many different types of phishing emails, and some may request your personal information or send spam to your inbox.

Email scams include fake social media profiles, strange prize notifications, fake checks (such as those in Nigerian bank scams), non-deliverable bulk mailings such as catalogs, or shopping notifications with links to malicious sites which then infect the victim’s device.

How can you protect yourself against these threats?

It’s important for everyone to educate themselves on how phishing works and what spam does before opening any unfamiliar email attachments or clicking any suspicious links within text messages. Seek out security professionals if you need them.

7. Social engineering via social media

The digital age has changed everything. In this new world, the line between reality and fiction is blurred. People are now more connected than ever before with social media platforms allowing them to share their thoughts, opinions, updates, and photos with thousands of followers at a time. The problem is that these connections can also be exploited by hackers using clever techniques known as “social engineering.”

Hackers can use social media to their advantage including impersonating people on sites like Instagram, Facebook, or Linkedin in order to gain access to victims’ devices. They can be lurking on Twitter feeds to get more open source sensitive information and be sending chat messages through Skype, Zoom, Facebook Messenger, or TikTok which make them seem more personal by including details such as your name.

Would it make sense to fund training programs for employees on the subject of social engineering?

Tell us your views on this topic!