Computer security is a very important topic in today’s world. One does not have to look far to read about data breaches, DDoS attacks, or other computer related crimes. When we think of cybercrime, we usually envision the Hollywood portrayal of technical hackers typing vigorously and wearing dark sunglasses. However, in reality, hacking tends to be much less glamorous. Actually, one critical element is often overlooked by the general public and movies alike; yet, every security professional knows, people are the weakest link, when it comes to security. In fact, “as part of a demonstration at the 2010 Def Con hacking conference, large corporations were subject to social engineering techniques. The result was alarming: 96% of employees contacted by phone or email disclosed confidential information…” (Ricart). In this paper, I will discuss the concept of social engineering: what it is, the types of attacks, the framework used in carrying out said attacks, and lastly, I will address countermeasures to mitigate the risk. Social engineering, as defined on social-engineer.org, is any act that influences a person to take an action that may or may not be in their best interest (social-engineer). Human nature is a very interesting topic and one that has been studied for centuries. Throughout its history, certain patterns and behaviors have been observed. Therefore, social engineering is a type of applied science that is rooted in psychology, however its nature is fluid and varies
A social engineering attack relies on human interaction and often involves tricking people into breaking normal security protocols (Social Engineering). The most popular types of social engineering attacks are baiting, phishing, spear phishing, pretexting, scareware, tailgating, and quid pro quo (Social Engineering). These attacks happen every day, and no one is more wise until someone loses a mass amount of money or runs into computer problems.
Social engineering has caused many problems for different organizations. Because of social engineering many businesses have to take extra steps to protect themselves and their information from being hacked. According to Bidgoli, Social Engineering is a type of attack that takes over the power of human aspects in order to trick the public into declaring confidential information(MIS 7, 2017). This hacking technique has obtained the attention of numerous organizations, businesses, and governments worldwide.
The purpose of this paper is to touch on the issue of Hacking. It will go into detail about the history, evolution, future and prevention of Hacking. In addition, this paper will discuss different types of hackers and their motivation behind hacking. This paper examines the major impact caused by malicious hackers and give modern examples of such attacks. To conclude, it will predict how hacking will be in the near future and give the precautionary measures Information Security professionals can take to mitigate the risk of being victimized.
Social engineering are all those activities that are done by a hacker to manipulate that human tendency to trust so as to gain unauthorized access to the valued information that are in the computer system. The IT specialist agrees that despite the secure networks and firewall being used, the security of the IT is based on the trust in the protection and
The data breaches at Target, Home Depot are reminders to CIOs of how deadly social engineering can be. CIO’s and CSO’s realize the dangers of security problems on a massive scale. These are some deliberate security breaches that happen when an employee shares a password or loses a mobile device. An employee might access a website at work that loads malware onto his PC, which then spreads throughout the corporate network. In other cases, security breaches occur when a disgruntled employee leaves the company and takes with him valuable intellectual property that belongs to the company.
Social engineering is a type of psychological attack where an attacker misleads you into doing something they want you to do. Social engineering is used every day by everyday people in everyday situations. A child trying to get her way in the candy aisle or an employee looking for a raise is using social engineering. Unfortunately, it is also present when criminals, con men, and the like trick people into giving away information that makes them vulnerable to crimes. Like any tool, social engineering is not good or evil, but simply a tool that has many different uses. Social engineering is lying to people to get information. Social engineering is being a good actor. Social engineering is knowing how to get stuff for free. Combining all these
Over the last few years the amount of security breaches that have been reported have had one factor that has been prevalent in majority of the attacks. That factor is the employee’s and how they are manipulated into giving the intruder/hacker exactly what they needed without realizing it. The use of social engineering in data breaches and fraud has been steadily increasing over the years. Confidentiality, integrity, and availability the three components of the CIA triad in network security can all be compromised by the risk of social engineering.
Social Engineering has become a career for modern day cyber criminals. Thieves are waiting to prey on the vulnerable, and naïve. The situations, as devastating as they are to the victims, are very real. In some cases, unfortunately, the cybercrimes are life-altering and irreparable. This paper will highlight four real-life cases where social engineering techniques were used to obtain personal and corporate information.
Many wonder what is a social engineer and want to know what is that they do and why do they do it. Social engineer is the art of manipulating people so that they give the social engineer important information. A social engineer could be considered people who know you personally or someone who do not know you at all. If it’s a person you have not met, they would manipulate you to make it seems as they are trusted individual. Social engineering sometimes look for the flaws within a company or an individual and use that for their gain. In my PowerPoint I stated that social engineer are basically the “scientific” term for a hacker. They “phish” the brain to retrieve what is needed and moved to the next vulnerable person or company.
Social engineering refers to the techniques that are used by the criminals to manipulate people to give out their confidential information such as user names, passwords and bank accountants without being aware (Hadnagy, 2011). This technique is used by the criminals over the internet to trick people to disclose their confidential information rather than hacking the software installed on their PC. Social engineering takes different forms and it is perpetrated by the individuals who wants to take advantage of others after getting confidential information that allows them to access their accounts such as email or databases that contain protected information. For instance, a criminal who want to access another person’s email account may send
Social engineering is a way of manipulating people so that they can provide their personal information to the cyber criminals. These criminals try to trick the individuals to try to get their passwords and bank information or gain access over to that individual’s computer. Criminals think that it is easier to fool someone to give them their password then try to hack their password. Basically they target those people who don’t have any idea that their information can be misused by these criminals so they just give all of their information. These criminals gain trust of those people before they get those people’s information for their own benefit. Social engineering is one of the biggest problem that people should be more aware of so they can
In today’s world technology has evolved to the point where a large amount of information is stored in cyberspace. It is because of this type of storage people around the world have an easier time at accessing information than ever before. The time before the late 20th century gathering information was long and tedious to get a book that the library did not own would take at least a couple of weeks depending on the time period or it may not have been possible to obtain that book. But now people can access a vast amount of information in a matter of minutes. Example, in modern times if someone wanted to know about a different culture they could simple look up the information on a computer or any device that had access to
Cyber Security also called computer security and IT security, is the assurance of data from theft or any harm to the gadget, the product and information stored on hardware. It incorporates controlling physical access to the equipment and additionally ensuring against code or data injection or via network access.
The Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines cyber security measures taken to protect a computer or computer system (as on the Internet) against unauthorized access or attack Most people think that hackers are just people that want to mess up your computer, but real hackers break into systems because they want to see what they can do, then they might leave a message on the victims computer, but that’s it. So, the computer security people protect from those other hackers that want to mess up peoples computers. The means we take can as individual to protect ourselves in the cyber world is be anyomous on websites, don’t post your personal information ,have virus protection install on your computer, get spy
A threat agent is the facilitator of an attack however; a threat is a constant danger to an asset.