Social Engineering Explained
Social engineering is a manipulation technique where cyber criminals exploit human trust to obtain confidential information, enabling further cyber crimes. Using disguised communication such as emails or calls, they trick individuals into revealing passwords or personal details.
For example, a cyber criminal might use social engineering to convince an employee to divulge company passwords. The cyber criminal then uses these passwords to access corporate networks to steal data and install malware on the company network. For more examples, read "9 Examples of Social Engineering Attacks".
All it takes is an email, phone call, or text message disguised as coming from a colleague, friend, or known company, and the cyber criminal has won. The cyber criminal may use a familiar yet urgent tone to convince the victim to update their banking information or tell the victim that they must provide their credit card information to claim their prize.
Defending against social engineering is difficult due to human unpredictability and the potential for victims to be caught off-guard. There is no way of knowing who will fall for a social engineering attack. Cyber criminals hope to catch the victim off-guard when they forget to remain alert to cyber attacks.
How Social Engineering Works
The Attack Process
Cyber criminals follow a 4-step process when conducting a social engineering attack.
1. Information gathering
The social engineer gathers information about their victim. This can be done using a variety of techniques.
2. Establish trust
The social engineer poses as a legitimate person and builds trust with their victim.
3. Exploitation
The social engineer exploits the victim's trust without raising suspicion, collecting "seemlingly unimportant" information or encouraging the victim to take an action that supports the criminal's end goal.
4. Execution
Armed with the information necessary to proceed with the attack, the cyber criminal achieves their goal (for example, they gain access to their target's online bank account, and successfully transfer money out of the victim's account).
Why Do Cyber Criminals Use Social Engineering?
Cyber criminals will use social engineering techniques for a variety of reasons and one of the most common is to try and gain access to sensitive information.
They may pose as a legitimate company or individual to trick someone into giving them login credentials, financial information, or other types of data they can use for their purposes.
Another reason why cyber criminals turn to social engineering is to spread malware. They may send out phishing emails containing links or attachments infected with malware.
Suppose someone clicks on the link or opens the attachment. In that case, they may unknowingly install the malware on their computer, which can give the cyber criminal access to their system and any sensitive information stored on it.
Social engineering can be a very effective way for cyber criminals to achieve their goals. That's why it's essential for everyone to be aware of the techniques that they may use and to be cautious when sharing information or clicking on links.
Free Training Resources
Social Engineering Awareness Kit
Educate employees on how to recognize and prevent social engineering attempts with this free resource kit. The kit includes 2 end-user training videos, print-ready infographics and additional resources to promote social engineering awareness.
Why Are Social Engineering Scams So Effective?
Social engineering is so an effective cyber attack technique because people make mistakes. Although victims know they need to be suspicious of emails that promise refunds or phone calls that tell them they'll be arrested immediately if they don't provide their tax information, people get caught off-guard.
Social engineering exploits human vulnerabilities, such as:
Lack of security knowledge
One of the most prominent challenges organizations face regarding social engineering is that many employees lack the knowledge to identify and defend against these types of attacks.
This lack of security awareness can have disastrous consequences, as social engineering attacks are designed to exploit human weaknesses. By tricking people into revealing sensitive information or downloading malicious software, attackers can gain access to critical systems and data.
Oversharing on Social Media
Although most individuals understand the risks of oversharing on social media, many continue to do so. Why? Because it's enjoyable and convenient to share life updates with friends and family.
However, they often overlook how this oversharing can expose them and their loved ones to social engineering attacks.
Social engineers use deception and manipulation to get us to disclose sensitive information or perform actions that we wouldn't normally do. They may pose as friends or family members or pretend to be from a trusted organization like a bank or government agency.
And they often target people who are more likely to share personal information on social media.
Over-Curiosity
Generally, it's good to ask questions—but, unfortunately, an excessive amount of curiosity can be risky. If you're the type of person who always asks questions and tries to learn more about everything around you, you may be at risk for social engineering.
Social engineers use manipulation and deception to get others to do what they want. They often target curious people because they easily trick them into giving up information or doing something they shouldn't.
If you're always asking questions and trying to learn more, be sure to do so safely and securely. Don't give out personal information or click on links from strangers. Be cautious of who you talk to and what you say. Curiosity is an excellent quality, but it's important to be aware of the risks that come with it.
Social engineering success relies on human nature—being busy, not paying attention, being too trustworthy, complacency, and simply forgetting the basics of cyber security awareness. It is not unheard of for people to be repeat victims of social engineering attacks.
EDUCATION IS KEY
It's much easier for cyber criminals to hack a human than a company network. For this exact reason, it's crucial that you focus on people-centric cyber security awareness training.
Security awareness training arms individuals with the education, resources, and tools to stay aware of social engineering. Terranova Security offers customizable courses, quizzes, game-style activities, and communication tools that are perfect for any industry, organization size, and security awareness budget.
How can you protect yourself from social engineering?
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Prevent Social Engineering Attacks with Phishing Simulation
Phishing simulation is the best way to raise awareness of phishing and social engineering risks. Phishing simulations help you identify which employees are at risk of cybercrimes that use clever social engineering techniques. Phishing simulations also allow you to reinforce to your employees how easy it is to be a victim of social engineering.
10 Ways Phishing Simulations Help Prevent Social Engineering Attacks
- Increase the user alertness level to social
engineering techniques - Change behavior to eliminate the automatic trust response
- Develop a cyber security culture and create
cyber security heroes - Measure the degree of corporate and employee vulnerability
- Eliminate the cyber threat level
- Deploy targeted anti-social engineering solutions
- Protect valuable corporate and personal data
- Meet industry compliance obligations
- Assess the impacts of cyber security awareness training
- Keep employees vigilant to social engineering techniques
Try Phishing Simulation Free for 30 Days
See how easy it is to give employees hands-on experience detecting and reporting real-world threats.
Social Engineering Techniques
Social engineering attacks can be carried out using a variety of techniques. Here are 12 common types of social engineering:
1. Phishing
Phishing uses tactics including deceptive emails, websites and text messages to steal confidential personal and corporate information. Criminals using phishing tactics are successful because they carefully hide behind emails and websites familiar to the intended victim.
2. Spear Phishing
Spear phishing is a cyber crime that uses emails to carry out targeted attacks against individuals and businesses. Criminals use savvy tactics to collect personal data about their targets and then send email emails that are familiar and trustworthy.
3. Whaling
Whaling is a social engineering attack targeting high-level executives or other individuals with access to sensitive information.
The attacker uses Phishing or other methods to trick the victim into revealing sensitive data or taking action to give the attacker access to the target's system.
Whaling attacks can damage an organization, leading to the theft of important data or the disruption of critical business processes.
4. Tailgating
Tailgating is a physical, social engineering technique that relies on trust to gain access to a building or secure area in a building. The criminal may simply walk closely behind someone, slip through an open door, or ask to be "badged in" because they forgot their employee swipe card.
This scam underscores the need for employees to pay attention to who is loitering near doors and never hesitate to ask for identification.
5. Baiting
Baiting relies on the human desire for reward. Baiting is both an online and physical social engineering attack that promises the victim something in exchange for their action.
For example, plugging in a USB key or downloading an attachment to receive free movie downloads for life. The computer and potentially the network are then infected by software that can capture login credentials or send fake emails.
6. Water-Holing
Water-holing targets a group of users and the websites they commonly visit. The cyber criminal looks for a security vulnerability in one of these websites and then infects the website with malware.
Eventually, a member of the targeted group is infected by the malware. This type of social engineering is very specific and is hard to detect.
7. Vishing
Vishing uses voice mails to convince victims that they need to act quickly, or they could be in trouble with the law or at risk. For example, a criminal may leave a voicemail that urges the victim to reset their banking information because their account has been hacked.
8. Pretexting
Pretexting is a social engineering technique that uses a false identity to trick victims into giving up information.
For example, the cyber criminal may know that the victim recently bought an item from Apple. Hence, the cyber criminal sends an email pretending to be an Apple customer service representative who needs to confirm the victim's credit card information.
9. Quid Pro Quo
Quid pro quo scams rely on an exchange of information to convince the victim to act. This social engineering technique offers a service to the victim in exchange for a benefit.
A common technique is for the criminal to impersonate an IT support employee who calls victims with open support tickets. The cyber criminal promises a quick fix if the person disables their antivirus software or confirms their login credentials.
10. Malware
Malware tricks victims into paying to remove malware, viruses, or other infected software from their computers. Victims are tricked into believing that there is a virus or malware on their computers, and if they pay, they can have it removed.
Depending on the scam, the criminal might only steal the victim's credit card information or install malware or ransomware on the computer.
11. Voicemail phishing and SMS phishing
Voicemail phishing is a type of fraud that uses Voice over IP (VoIP) technology to trick people into giving away personal or financial information.
The scammer typically poses as a legitimate organization or individual, such as a bank or government agency, and leaves a recorded message on the victim's VoIP voicemail system.
The message may claim that the person's account has been compromised or that some other urgent matter requires their attention. The scammer then asks the victim to call a number and enter their personal or financial information, which can be used to steal their identity or money.
On the other hand, SMS phishing uses text messages instead of email to trick users into giving away their personal information.
The attacker will usually send a text message that appears to be from a legitimate company or service, asking the recipient to click on a link or call a phone number to update their account information.
However, the link or phone number will lead to a fake website or call center where the attacker will try to collect the victim's personal and financial information.
12. False Identities
False identities are a vital component of social engineering attacks. By creating a false identity, attackers can gain the trust of their targets and collect sensitive information or perform other malicious actions.
There are many ways to create a false identity, but the most common method is to use stolen or fake credentials. This strategy can be done by purchasing stolen data on the black market or using publicly available information to create a new identity from scratch.
Attackers may also use social media to find and impersonate real people.
Once an attacker has created a false identity, they will often use it to build trust with their target. An attacker can send friend requests or messages or participate in online forums and groups.
Attackers may also use their false identities to collect sensitive information, such as login credentials or financial information. In some cases, attackers may even use their false identities to commit fraud or other crimes.
To be successful, social engineering attacks only need one thing: trust. Your employees must be aware of social engineering techniques.