Tips to Prevent Becoming a Victim of Social Engineering

The internet has brought several benefits for people, organizations, governments, and entities. The humongous amount of data transmitted each second across the globe tells the story of a thriving digital age and the world becoming a global village. However, with ease, convenience, cost savings, speed, agility, and remote working associated with the digital age is the danger of cybercrime. According to the World Economic Forum, cyberattacks are considered to be ranked first when it comes to the risks caused by humans. And going by the statistics of Cybersecurity Ventures, by 2021 cybercrime shall cost the world a whopping $11.4 million every minute. 

It is not that such threats are not acknowledged by businesses and other entities, for they do take effective measures to prevent cyberattacks. It is just that they do not always consider the most crucial aspect when it comes to tackling cybercrime – the people. In fact, the human link is supposedly the weakest one to get unauthorized access to any system or computer network. Modern-day hackers take the easiest route of manipulating the human mind to reveal sensitive information about a system or network. Such type of manipulation of the human mind aka social engineering is considered better than using brute force and other tactics. This is why organizations ought to reach out to a phishing service provider to increase awareness about the lurking risks and compliance requirements. 

What is social engineering?

It is the act of tricking someone from an organization or entity to leak sensitive information about the system, database, or network. Here, hackers interact with unsuspecting people within an organization to take advantage of their natural inclinations and emotional reactions. So, if a typical hacker looks for a software or network vulnerability to gain unauthorized access into a system or network, a hacker using social engineering techniques can pose as a person from technical support or even the management to trick employees into giving their login credentials. 

In social engineering, the attacker appeals to the employee’s innate desire to help someone, the inclination to get overawed by people in the higher authority, or simply a tendency to display reckless behaviour. Interestingly, once the attacker(s) understands the motivations of the user’s actions, the latter can be easily manipulated and deceived. Social engineering is often considered the first line of attack by cybercriminals as technical defences related to security such as firewalls etc., have become better in preventing intrusions. 

As an attack vector, social engineering relies mainly on human interactions to manipulate people into breaking security protocols and divulging sensitive information. By using such information, attackers get access to systems or networks and steal confidential personal or business information. 

Types of social engineering attacks 

Social engineering attacks are of different types as mentioned below: 

Phishing: It remains one of the effective and commonest ways to get access to confidential information within a system or network. Here, the attacker sends emails or SMS messages to unsuspecting users containing embedded links to malicious websites that are meant to steal login credentials. These emails or messages appear to come from supposedly trusted sources such as banks, government agencies, or software companies. The messages often display a sense of urgency by informing a user that something is amiss or has gone wrong. The unsuspecting user believing the message to have come from a genuine source divulges confidential information to the attacker. For example, cybercriminals sending an email claiming that the user has won a lottery, and should give his or her bank details to receive the lottery amount. 

Spear phishing: In this type of social engineering attack, the attacker targets specific people or positions within an organization by sending personalized emails. The goal of the attacker is to target specific individuals and keep low profile while still trying to achieve the objectives.  

Vishing: Also known as Voice Phishing, Vishing is similar to Phishing except for the fact that it is conducted over a phone call. Here, the attackers call their potential victims by impersonating to be the representatives of organizations. They trick their victims to share sensitive information.  

Smishing: Also known as SMS phishing, here the hackers send SMSs on the mobile phones of their potential targets by pretending to be the representative of known organizations. 

Baiting: In this type of attack, the malicious actor takes advantage of the victim’s greed or curiosity and lures him or her into a trap by using ‘bait’. For example, the attacker might leave a USB drive or any type of physical media containing malware at a place frequented by the victim such as a cafeteria, parking lot, etc. To make the ‘bait’ appear compelling or enticing to the victim, the attacker might label it with words such as ‘confidential’, ‘minutes of the meeting’, ‘payroll details’ etc. In case the victim or target takes the bait and plugs the physical device into his or her computer to see what is inside, the malware gets automatically injected into the computer. 

Scareware: It is a type of malware that scares a victim into taking action by sending alert messages and fictitious threats about the victim’s account being compromised or infected with malware. The frightened victim then buys fraudulent software containing malware. 

Watering hole: In this type of attack, popular web pages are infected with malware to target a group of victims. So, when the victims visit these web pages the malware or trojan gets installed into their systems and the attacker(s) can steal sensitive data. The term ‘watering hole’ has been adopted from hunting where the attacker, instead of tracking his or her victim from a distance, prefers to attack the unguarded victim where he or she is most likely to visit, say a popular website. 

How to avoid becoming a victim of social engineering

Organizations should understand that educating the workforce about cybercrime and its implications is of critical importance in addition to installing network firewalls or antivirus software. The training should be an ongoing process given that cybercriminals are becoming more sophisticated in their approach. However, a few tips can come in handy to avoid becoming a victim of social engineering.

• Verify the identity of any sender of emails or messages claiming to be from a legitimate organization and seeking internal information of an organization or employees.
• Never share information about your organization and its IT infrastructure with anyone unless you have verified the person’s identity and authority to get the information. 
• Never respond to emails (with or without links and attachments) asking for personal or financial information.
• Never send confidential information through an application or website unless confirmed of its authenticity and security. 
• Always look at the URL of a website. Remember, malicious or spoofed websites look identical to a verified website with only a difference in spelling or domain (.net, .com, etc.)
• In case you are unsure about an email, contact the company sending the email directly. Do not use the contact information given on the website. You may even contact a credible phishing service provider to get more information about phishing attacks. 
• Install antivirus software to prevent malicious files. 
• Make use of the anti-phishing features provided by the web browser or email client. 
• Practice good password hygiene. Do not use the same password for multiple accounts. 
• Setup two-factor authentication for all the accounts. 

Conclusion

Any social engineering attack can be harmful to you personally and to your organization. The best way to avoid becoming a victim is to stay alert, keep educating yourself, and be aware of the lurking risks. Further, share the knowledge with your co-workers, friends, and family. Lastly, reach out to an experienced phishing service provider and keep your organization safe from social engineering attacks.