Previous
Easier To Exploit The Insecure VoIP - Communication
Educate Your Employees About Manipulation.
Sept 25 2021
What Is Social Engineering?
Social engineering is a act of manipulating people into performing actions or divulging confidential information. While similar to a confidence trick or simple fraud, the term typically applies to trickery or deception for the purpose of information gathering, fraud, or computer system access; in most cases the attacker never comes face-to-face with the victim. In addition, hackers try to exploit a user’s lack of knowledge. Thanks to the speed of the technology, many consumers and employees aren’t aware of certain threats like drive-by downloads. Users also may not realize the full value of personal data, like their phone number. As a result, many users are unsure how to best protect themselves and theirInformation
Types Of Social Engineering Attacks
Social engineering can impact you digitally through mobile attacks in addition to desktop devices. However, you can just as easily be faced with a threat in-person. These attacks can overlap and layer onto each other to create a scam.
Here are some common methods used by social engineering attackers:
Phishing Attacks
Phishing attackers pretend to be a trusted institution or individual in an attempt to persuade you to expose personal data and other valuables.
Voice phishing (vishing)phone calls may be automated message systems recording all your inputs. Sometimes, a live person might speak with you to increase trust and urgency.
SMS phishing (smishing) texts or mobile app messages might include a web link or a prompt to follow-up via a fraudulent email or phone number.
Email phishing is the most traditional means of phishing, using an email urging you to reply or follow-up by other means. Web links, phone numbers, or malware attachments can be used.
Angler phishing takes place on social media, where an attacker imitates a trusted company’s customer service team. They intercept your communications with a brand to hijack and divert your conversation into private messages, where they then advance the attack.
Search engine phishing attempts to place links to fake websites at the top of search results. These may be paid ads or use legitimate optimization methods to manipulate search rankings.
URL phishing links tempt you to travel to phishing websites. These links are commonly delivered in emails, texts, social media messages, and online ads. Attacks hide links in hyperlinked text or buttons, using link-shortening tools, or deceptively spelled URLs
DNS Spoofing and Cache Poisoning Attacks
DNS spoofing manipulates your browser and web servers to travel to malicious websites when you enter a legitimate URL. Once infected with this exploit, the redirect will continue unless the inaccurate routing data is cleared from the systems involved.
DNS cache poisoning attacks specifically infect your device with routing instructions for the legitimate URL or multiple URLs to connect to fraudulent websites.
Scareware Attacks Scareware is a form of malware used to frighten you into taking an action. This deceptive malware uses alarming warnings that report fake malware infections or claim one of your accounts has been compromised. As a result, scareware pushes you to buy fraudulent cybersecurity software, or divulge private details like your account credentials.
Watering Hole Attacks Watering hole attacks infect popular web pages with malware to impact many users at a time. It requires careful planning on the attacker’s part to find weaknesses in specific sites. They look for existing vulnerabilities that are not known and patched — such weaknesses are deemed zero-day exploits . Other times, they may find that a site has not updated their infrastructure to patch out known issues. Website owners may choose to delay software updates to keep software versions they know are stable. They’ll switch once the newer version has a proven track record of system stability. Hackers abuse this behavior to target recently patched vulnerabilities.
