This kind of social engineering, also called piggybacking, and occurs when an attacker follows someone into an area that they don’t have authorized access to. An attacker may pretend to be a coworker, a police officer, or someone else who may inspire trust in the target. This may involve an impersonation of a vendor or facility employee, and once a target is convinced that the identity is legitimate, the exploitation continues in earnest. Pretexting uses a deceptive identity as the reason to establish trust with a target. Here are a few different types of social engineering attacks, so you’ll know how to spot a scam. Understanding that social engineering attacks are rooted in deception may help you sniff them out before you become a victim. Emotional manipulation can give them an upper hand, since humans are more likely to take risky actions in a heightened emotional state, especially if fear, guilt, or anger are involved. An attacker may prey on a target’s emotions to get them to act out of turn. If a target can see through the lies, the social engineering attack will fail. Social engineers need their targets to trust them, especially since their interactions are based on lies. The sense of urgency might trick otherwise rational targets into handing over personal information. Another option is the possibility of claiming a fake reward in a set amount of time. Targets may be incorrectly motivated by attackers to act under the guise of a serious issue that requires immediate attention. No one wants to miss out on a time-sensitive opportunity, and attackers will capitalize on this. Targets may find themselves being misled into a few specific behaviors that are hallmark traits of social engineering: Social engineering techniques tend to hinge on the attacker’s use of confidence and persuasion to convince their targets to take actions that would otherwise be out of character. Unfortunately, humans have developed several ways to deceive each other. Human manipulation is harder to untangle. Malware may exploit a specific weakness in a piece of code, making it a relatively straightforward fix once it’s identified. Humans are much more unpredictable, and their mistakes can be hard to identify or anticipate. This tactic can be especially dangerous because it relies on human error, rather than a vulnerability in software. A skilled engineer will do this without making the target feel suspicious at all. A social engineer will bring the interaction to a natural end. Typically, the target hands over this information willingly, and engineers may use this to their advantage to gain access to even more confidential information. Social engineers obtain the target’s information over a period. They spin a story, hook the target, and take control of the interaction to steer it in a way that benefits the engineer. The engineer works to establish trust with the target. This could include potential points of entry or security protocols that the target has in place. In this stage the engineer identifies a target and gathers background information. The cycle of this type of manipulation might go like this: Instead of a smash-and-grab robbery, social engineers tend to take a prolonged approach that starts with research. Social engineering attacks are generally not quick. Stay safer online with one easy-to-use app 1 1Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription required app available as separate download Learn More
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |