Could Your Business Recognize a Social Engineering Attack?

As vital as the security solutions that keep a network safe are, they can be rendered futile if a cybercriminal is skilled in social engineering. Social engineering involves utilizing manipulation to gain access to protected resources. If your company and its team are vulnerable to a social engineering attack, your data security strategy is lacking an important piece. 

Why is Social Engineering Effective?
Social engineering is like pointing to an imaginary stain on someone’s shirt, only to tap their nose when they look down -- by pretending to be trustworthy, a cybercriminal is granted the opportunity to do whatever they want with a company’s data. These attacks have two elements going in the social engineers' favor.

A social engineering attack is not the type of attack that the standard user is on the lookout for. The average user has probably heard about ransomware and other huge external threats, but may not think to question what seems to be a legitimate-looking message.

Also, there is a massive amount of data readily available on the Internet to help construct a convincing social engineering attack; this type of data is referred to as open-source intelligence.

Open-source intelligence can come from numerous data sources, which only aids a social engineer. By digging on the Internet, a social engineer can locate a significant amount of information that better informs their attack.

With the correct research, a social engineer can organize a disconcertingly comprehensive profile of an organization, its operations, its employees, and more. Here are some examples:

Technology
Information about the type of technology a company leverages is surprisingly common online. For example: Job postings usually identify the hardware and operating system a business uses to ensure that an applicant has a familiarity with the systems they would be working with. The problem is that this also aids a criminal by identifying which exploits will be effective against a business. Moreover, if a business isn’t cautious, their social media images could provide a cybercriminal with information about their networking hardware.

Employee Information
People oversharing on on social media is also common, which can easily lead to company information being shared as well, like images from within the workplace. Those images can reveal the kind of computer used by employees, as well as the contents of their screens and any information displayed on them. That's in addition to the access of information many companies allow to be publicly available on social media. 

Furthermore, a lot of people will talk about their work schedule on social media, as well as provide a detailed account of their professional experience. This provides a social engineer with more data to work with.

Vendors and Other Companies
External services that provide for a business can help a social engineer gain access to that business, especially if the service provider utilizes them as evidence of value on their website. Trash pickup and janitorial services are especially valuable; data could be stolen after it leaves a business’ premises.

In conclusion, while securing your data with firewalls, authentication requirements, and other digital measures is imperative, it is just as important to also ensure that your employees are aware of the dangers of social engineering. Establishing processes to help prevent social engineering attacks is something that every business should do.

For assistance in planning these processes, reach out to Macro Systems at 703-359-9211.