Social engineering assaults can be used to carry out a variety of tasks. Phishing, for example, is a form of social engineering (SEA). The victim receives a legitimate-looking e-mail, clicks on a link to a familiar-looking website, and frequently divulges critical information to a malicious third party. As end-users grow more aware of such actions, assaults must become increasingly sophisticated to be effective.
Attacks of this type have recently been more carefully targeted against specific firms, often imitating internal system logins and affecting only employees at the target company. It’s an electronic numbers game played from afar, and it’s so popular because it works!
Steps For Social Engineering Attack
- Gather Information: In this step, the assailant gathers as much information as possible on the prospective victim. Information is acquired via company websites, other media, and occasionally by speaking with target system users.
- Attack Plan: The attacker lays forth how he or she wants to carry out the attack.
- Tools to Acquire: These are computer applications that an attacker will employ to begin an attack.
- Attack: Take advantage of the target system’s flaws.
Information gained via social engineering strategies, such as pet names, birthdates of the organization’s founders, and so on, is used in password guessing attacks.
How to protect yourself from social engineering attack (SEA
- Never give out your login details or passwords to anyone. If a legitimate technician requires access to your account or information, they should be able to do so without requiring you to provide them your password or other personal information.
- Make sure the URL is right when entering your information on a website.
- Even if they come from someone you know, never open strange-looking files or attachments.
Many well-known infections, such as ‘I Love You,’ the NeverQuest Trojan, or Blaster, used social engineering to spread to millions of machines, and other frauds, such as the Whatsapp premium messages scam, also employ this strategy to acquire the victim’s trust.
