What is Social Engineering?
Social engineering is a manipulation technique that exploits human error to gain private information, access, or valuables. It often involves tricking individuals into breaking normal security procedures.
How Social Engineering Occurs?
- Phishing
- Deceptive Emails: Fraudsters send emails that appear to be from legitimate sources, tricking individuals into providing personal information.
- Pretexting
- Fabricated Scenarios: Creating a believable pretext to obtain sensitive information.
- Baiting
- Tempting Offers: Offering something enticing to lure victims into giving away information or access.
- Tailgating
- Physical Entry: Gaining unauthorized physical access by following someone into a restricted area.
- Vishing
- Voice Phishing: Using phone calls to trick individuals into revealing confidential information.
What are the Impacts of Social Engineering on Businesses?
- Financial losses
- Fraudulent Activities: Financial losses from fraudulent activities enabled by social engineering.
- Data Breaches
- Compromised Information: Loss of sensitive company data due to successful social engineering attacks.
- Reputation damage
- Trust Issues: Damage to reputation and loss of customer trust due to breaches and fraud.
- Operational disruption
- Business Interruption: Disruption of business operations due to fraud investigations and mitigation efforts.
- Increased Security Costs
- Training and Prevention: Higher costs for employee training and implementing advanced security measures.