{"id":4924,"date":"2021-04-21T18:35:06","date_gmt":"2021-04-21T18:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.catapulttechsolutions.com\/?p=3199"},"modified":"2021-12-21T10:08:42","modified_gmt":"2021-12-21T10:08:42","slug":"can-you-handle-a-social-engineering-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.catapulttechsolutions.com\/can-you-handle-a-social-engineering-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Can You Handle a Social Engineering Attack?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Social engineering is the art of exploiting human psychology, rather than technical hacking techniques, to gain access to buildings, systems, or data. Simply stated, it is the art of manipulating people to give up confidential information. It is up to all of us to be personally aware and protect ourselves from these dangers. Even if you have all the security features in place: cloud data, building security, defensive technologies, firewalls, etc., a skilled scammer can still weasel his way in, through or around your security.<\/p>\n

Why use Social Engineering to get in, through or around security?<\/h2>\n

There are several ways a social engineer may try to gain access to your information. It is much easier for a hacker to use your trust to trick you into giving them your password, bank information, social security, access to your computer, or click to install malware than it is for them to hack your system to find the information themselves.<\/p>\n

For example, a criminal may call an employee in the office or even just walk in wearing\u00a0 a company t-shirt bought at a second had store, posing as a member of the IT team, and get the employee to feed him information such as passwords or other secure data. Once a social engineer has a trusted employee’s password, the criminal can simply log in and snoop around for sensitive data. With an access card or code in order to physically get inside a facility, the criminal can access data, allow others in a group into the building, steal assets or even harm people.<\/p>\n

How do they do it?<\/h2>\n

Social engineering occurs in person, over the phone, via email, through social media, or even through web browsers. No matter the vehicle, the criminals use the same tools: human nature. Scammers prey on our greed, our kindness, our naivety, our curiosity, and our desire to be helpful to others. They do their homework, getting to know our business and our habits before they even make contact.<\/p>\n

There are so many examples of social engineering. It could be someone posing as law enforcement. A scammer may pose as a fellow employee. Someone may ask you to hold the door on the way into the building, giving access without a key card. A criminal uses the local news and current events to find areas where someone may be vulnerable. A social engineer might even pose as a fake charity.<\/p>\n

Emails are a popular source for social engineering. You may receive an email appearing to be from a known source. It may contain links or downloads that you did not expect and may turn out to be malicious.<\/p>\n

For instance, you should watch out for \u2026<\/h3>\n