Social engineering is an art by which trick the working class or an organization and getting comply with your wishes. The basic goals of social engineering are to get unauthorised access to systems or information in order to commit fraud, industrial espionage, identity theft, or simply to interrupt the system or network.
Social engineering is in essence the practice of obtaining confidential information or coercing people into performing a particular action from users of your network. Social engineering techniques are also used to gain access to premises and other company assets.
'Social Engineering' is a threat, often overlooked but regularly exploited; to take advantage of what has long been considered the 'weakest link' in the security chain of an organization – the 'human factor'.Everyone should want to be security conscious because not only does the company benefit from being aware, but that mentality will carry over into their personal lives as well, which will help prevent them becoming a victim of identity theft and a number of other crimes.
A company can spend billions of dollars on all kinds of security equipment, but it only takes one person for a company’s security to be compromised.
It is important to be familiar with Social Engineering techniques to reduce the likelihood of success. By having this knowledge, one can ensure appropriate (preventative, detective and corrective) measures are implemented to protect the staff and assets of an organization.
Information Gathering, observing human behavior, Shoulder surfing, Checking the rubbish (Dumpster diving), By acting like an helpless user or by acting like an user from technical support or by acting like an important user, By sending fake mails to get important information like credit card details, phishing, Telephone etc.
A company will obviously have to have a social engineering training plan made to fit the Company’s needs. A great social engineering strategy plan may be short lived if it is not reinforced with occasional mock social engineering attempts or short little tips emailed or posted regularly in a bulletin that everyone receives. Procedures and guidelines should be in place specific to your companies function to minimize the threat of social engineering.
Everyone should want to be security conscious because not only does the company benefit from being aware, but that mentality will carry over into their personal lives as well, which will help prevent them becoming a victim of identity theft and a number of other crimes.
- Ratheesh Kannan
