Social engineering is a form of cyber crime where criminals will use human interaction to try to steal sensitive data, money, gain privileged access or deliver malware. The criminals rely on manipulation or human error rather than vulnerabilities in software to achieve their goal(s).
It’s a broad category which encompasses many different types of attacks such as phishing, scareware, vishing, baiting, spear phishing and more.
It’s on the rise… #
Up to 90% of all malicious data breaches involve social engineering, making it one of the most common forms of attack and, sadly, one of the most successful.
This is because traditional cyber defences (such as firewalls & anti-virus) have become increasingly better over the years at preventing attacks. Conversely, due to human error and often a lack of training & awareness around cyber security, criminals are targeting humans as a weak point more and more.
What can you do to combat social engineering attacks? #
As there are a whole host of defences organisations can employ to help prevent social engineering attacks, we recommend speaking to a security expert. If you need a contact, please do ask us for a referral, we’d be happy to help.
We do provide user education, training & simulations around phishing and other attacks to help build your Human Firewall. However, this is only one part in what would be your overall defence strategy.