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Social Engineering Definition

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In the context of Cybersecurity, Social Engineering is using psychological tactics to trick an unwitting victim into giving up private data or performing an act that will harm the individual and cause loss of privacy, data, or even money.  Social engineering differs from hacking in the technical aspect. Social engineering relies on manipulating people rather than manipulating a computer system to access private data and secure information or accounts.

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How does the social engineering piece intertwine with the technical aspect of cyber-attacks?

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How does the social engineering piece intertwine with the technical aspect of cyber-attacks?

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Social engineering can effortlessly intertwine with the technical aspect of cyber-attacks. A simple, well-designed social engineering attack can easily thwart the technical barriers and firewall technology.  The hacker can get the victim to give up passwords, information that can be used to reset the password, or even the codes needed to get past multi-factor authentication.  Social engineering represents much more accessibility to clear hurdles than the technology barriers designed to keep hackers out in many ways.

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What are some of the most common ways social engineering affects cybersecurity?

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What are some of the most common ways social engineering affects cybersecurity?

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One of the most common forms of social engineering in cybersecurity is “phishing.” “Phishing” is when a hacker lures an unwitting victim into clicking on a malicious link.  This form of social engineering generally involves some key characteristics:

1)    The hacker sends excellent news or terrible news

2)    A sense of urgency is implied throughout the message

3)    There is a sense of privacy or confidentiality in the theme of the message

4)    Sometimes the hacker even will try to impersonate a trusted person

Some of the goals of the hacker are to get the victim to:

1)    Click on a malicious link

2)    Provide or send financial information

3)    Provide password access or 2FA codes

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What can we do to help prevent attackers from leveraging social engineering for their benefit?

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What can we do to help prevent attackers from leveraging social engineering for their benefit?

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One of the ways that we can help prevent hackers from leveraging social engineering for their benefit is to use common sense.  Some of the ways to use common sense include:

·      Be suspicious of unsolicited calls and emails

·      Do not provide sensitive information about your company or financially sensitive information unless you are confident with whom you are speaking and that that person has the authority to access this data.

·      If you are unsure if an email is legitimate, go directly to the company website do not click on any links in the email.

·      Use multi-factor authentication for logins, and never share the code with anyone.

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How do cyber attackers leverage social engineering to go after a target?

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How do cyber attackers leverage social engineering to go after a target?

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Hackers use social engineering to get the victim to do an action with a harmful consequence.  The hackers will appeal to many different human emotions to entice the victim to act to unravel their secured data.  For example, a hacker may try to persuade the victim by speaking to their ego, to a financial need, to their sheer curiosity, or even their basic humanity.

The hacker uses urgent wording and a sense of credibility to act such as clicking on a link, opening an attachment, installing a program, or downloading a file.  Once the action is performed, the hacker has now successfully bypassed even the most powerful cyber security technology.

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Three articles on instances of social engineering being used for a cyberattack:

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Three articles on instances of social engineering being used for a cyberattack:

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1)    Massive LinkedIn Phishing, Bot Attacks Feed on the Job-Hungry: https://threatpost.com/massive-linkedin-phishing-bot-attacks-hungry-job-seekers/178476/

2)    Attackers Publicly Demanding Ransom From Hacked Instagram Account Owners in a Brazen Phishing Campaign: https://www.cpomagazine.com/cyber-security/attackers-publicly-demanding-ransom-from-hacked-instagram-account-owners-in-a-brazen-phishing-campaign/.

3)    MFA fatigue attacks: Users tricked into allowing device access due to overload of push notifications: https://portswigger.net/daily-swig/mfa-fatigue-attacks-users-tricked-into-allowing-device-access-due-to-overload-of-push-notifications

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Three videos on instances of social engineering being used for a cyber attack:

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Three videos on instances of social engineering being used for a cyber attack:

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1)    This is how hackers hack you using simple social engineering: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc7scxvKQOo.

2)    Watch this hacker break into a company: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWVN3Rq4gzw

3)    Identity Theft Social Engineering Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VExB-N-5sA