Have you ever heard of a social engineering cyber attack? If not, you’re not alone. They’re on the rise, and they can be incredibly damaging. But what are social engineering cyber attacks, exactly? How do they work? And most importantly, what can you do to protect yourself from them? In this blog post, we’ll answer all those questions and more. Let’s take a closer look at social engineering cyber attacks and some tips for prevention.
While most business owners are well-aware of malware, ransomware, and phishing schemes, a less commonly known type of cyber attack is social engineering. A social engineering cyber attack is a type of attack that uses human interaction to exploit security weaknesses. In other words, social engineers use human psychology and emotions to manipulate people into giving away sensitive information or taking actions that benefit the attacker. While such attacks can be difficult to prevent, knowing how they work can help you better protect your business and employees from becoming victims.
So, why are these types of cyber attacks extremely destructive to companies and enticing to cybercriminals? Social engineering attacks are low cost, low risk, high rewards, and easily fall under a company’s radar until it’s too late. An example of this can be seen as in the case of Bill, who is in charge of a company’s cybersecurity team. As Christina Lekati reports in the article Social Engineering Kill–Chain: Predicting, Minimizing & Disrupting Attack Verticals, the account payments department transferred money to the attacker thinking they were a partner company. But unlike what most cyber awareness training sessions cover, the attacker had insider information since “they were indeed collaborating on the project the caller mentioned, the timeline was accurate, and the names the caller mentioned were indeed the project owners.”
Cybercriminals can find advantageous information about your business much easier than you think. Tons of information is gathered on a target (your business) within the first broad phase of social engineering attacks: planning, researching, and preparation. Some of the steps in this phase include identifying targets, surveillance and info-collecting, and pretexting. This phase can be as short as a few hours to as long as several years, but it is nonetheless crucial for the success of the second phase, execution. Some of the steps in this phase are approach and trust-building, exploitation, and exfiltration.
Now with the knowledge that social engineering cyber attacks have great potential for bringing down your business, how can you prevent them? In short, be aware of the information that is made public about your business. Open-source intelligence on your business can easily be found on your website, case studies from your business partners, interviews, and other media such as articles, videos, and posts.
Securing your business against social engineering cyberattacks is critical in today’s digital age. By monitoring the information you make public about your company and employees, you can help to deter would-be criminals from attempting to exploit your organization. Want to secure your business when cybercrime hits? Learn more by visiting europayusa.com/cap