Social Engineering

1300 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Psychology 1001

Social engineering is defined as the psychological manipulation of people for the purpose of having them perform actions or divulge confidential information. Many companies today spend millions of dollars on securing their data from network attacks with such items as a firewall or an IDS/IPS system, but what happens when the vulnerability is coming from the people you hire to handle the data and information every day. These are the people most social engineering scams target as many hackers use their computer technology and manipulation to take advantage of victims who are just too ignorant or too willing to help.
Social engineering has been largely misunderstood, leading to many differing opinions on what social engineering is and how it works. Many believe that social engineering is simply lying or scamming to gain free and trivial items; others believe that social engineering refers to the tools that a hacker can use to obtain information or favors, while others believe that that it is a science that can be broken down into parts or equations. Social engineering can be used in many areas of life, but not all of these are malicious or bad. Many times social engineering can be used to motivate a person to take an action that is good for them; the majority of social engineering that we will discuss is that which focuses on scams and manipulation.
Social engineering is not just any one action but a collection of actions that when put together, make up the action, skill and science for successful social engineering. The first step a successful social engineer has to take in-order to start his scam is gathering information. It has been said that no information is irrelevant and those words ring true then it comes to SE. Even the sl...

... middle of paper ...

...endor who demands access to part of a building or property. Scripts can help employees determine a proper response. The last step that should be taken is to learn from social engineering audits. There are many companies that provide SE audits and choosing the correct one is crucial. Everything from setting goals, what should be included in the audit and choosing the best auditor should all be taken into consideration.
Social engineering is defined as the psychological manipulation of people for the purpose of having them perform actions or divulge confidential information. With so many tactics in use today and them constantly changing and evolving, so must the people who these attacks target. It is no longer enough to just believe attacks can only come through a network, but we must also be ready able to realize that we ourselves are a major vulnerability as well.

Show More
Related

  • Target Data Breach

    727 Words  | 2 Pages

    The data breach at Target may have been less brute force than a casual observer might imagine, given the language used on Target’s own FAQ which describes the incident as “criminals forc[ing] their way into our system.”1 While this description might conjure an image of hackers sitting in a dimly lit room, running complex software on super powered machines, and attempting a brute force or DDoS style attack to gain access to customer information databases, the reality appears to have been slightly less glamorous. There can be a variety of unintended entries to a secure system, and criminals will go for the weakest link in the chain. This weak link may oftentimes be not a security hole in the software, but instead the users of that software. The term hacking is used as a catch-all for situations where an information system has been compromised, even though the actual attack or breach of security was nothing more than information leaking out from users or corporations not thoroughly versed in good security practices. In these cases, the breaches are more appropriately described as being a result of social engineering. Social engineering is the technique of combining technological and psychological savvy to obtain illegal access to information2. This can involve anything from complaining and pleading with a phone support representative to give out information, to just realizing that many people use the same password for most of their accounts. Phishing is a social engineering tactic where an attractive, familiar, or official looking email is sent out to multiple recipients with the intent of tricking them into clicking a malicious link or downloading malware attachments3,4. While the latter approach may feel more like hacking, because ...

    Read More

  • Investigating Theft in Retail Organizations

    1624 Words  | 4 Pages

    Tryon, G. & Kleiner, B. H. (1997). How to investigate alleged employee theft properly. Managerial Auditing Journal, 12(1), 19. Retrieved May 15, 2005, from ABI-Inform Online

    Read More

  • Informative Essay: Does Technology Make You More Alone?

    564 Words  | 2 Pages

    Social network, also referred to as a virtual community, is a platform that unites individuals to communicate. For instance, using it to email co-workers or instant message friends. Although it makes people's lives easier, it serves as an adverse tool of communication. The individual won't have face to

    Read More

  • Closed Circuit Television Promotes Social Inequality and Control

    745 Words  | 2 Pages

    this information is used for. It is essential that we prevent such a powerful tool of social

    Read More

  • Social Psychology Theory

    902 Words  | 2 Pages

    The central concepts following social psychology is that which dares to explain what makes people do what they do. Social psychology is the scientific analysis of how someone influences another’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Though considered to be a fairly young science, social psychology has endeavored to examine particular theories, concepts, and phenomenon that has shaped our society. As the centuries roll on, technology alongside social media, has evolved into something more sophisticated and has developed into a mechanism in which to entice and challenge social norms.

    Read More

  • Cultural Capital and Social Reproduction

    1185 Words  | 3 Pages

    Concern InfoTech Pvt. Ltd. (2013) Socialization [online]. [Accessed 11th December 2013]. Available at: < http://www.sociologyguide.com/basic-concepts/Socialization.php>.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Social Psychology In Heathers

    1490 Words  | 3 Pages

    Social psychology is one of the many variations of psychology. By definition, social psychology is how humans influence each other’s way of behaving and thinking. Under social psychology, there are various ways to define human behaviour and understand why we behave in a particular manner. These approaches deal with multiple concepts such as conformity, obedience, and social influences. They help answer questions about our behaviour and actions, while also analyzing our cognitive processes in certain situations. Social experiments conducted throughout history have also led to more understanding in the aforementioned areas. With these understandings of social behaviour, society can benefit and become aware of themselves and their mentalities.

    Read More

  • Social Psychology of Persuasion

    1126 Words  | 3 Pages

    Every day in our life's we are persuaded to make choices. Persuasion is a very

    Read More

  • Functions of Social Computing

    749 Words  | 2 Pages

    Social computing refers to the intersection of social behavior and computational systems. It is the collaborative and interactive aspect of online behavior of different people communicating together- not in isolation as in one on one chat. Social computing in an organization can empower and motivate employees and as a result create benefits for the business. For example the use of customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning systems among others. Therefore businesses can use social computing to get closer and intimate with their customers, suppliers and hence promote their brands at a lesser cost. Social computing enhances customer relationship management because it allows a business to follow public opinion its brand and respond quickly to customer issues and this increase customer satisfaction and loyalty as well as placing the firm in a better place as far as competition is concerned because of proper customer service delivery social computing elements include wikis, blogs, twitter and instant messaging.

    Read More

  • Facebook's Changing Privacy Policies

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    Facebook had originally advocated for privacy, claiming that they wanted as much information as possible private, in order for people to share more information (Kirkpatrick, 2009). However, in the past year or so, Facebook has changed its privacy policies, making information more public, and making it impossible to change some of that into more private information. However Mark Zuckerberg has made a U-turn regarding privacy, claiming that people now want to share more information and that society is changing and these new policies are a reflection of that change (Kirkpatrick, 2010). However given that Facebook has so many users, and it has such an impact on our society, they are more than mere bystanders, they are not reflecting a social change but rather imposing it (Kirkpatrick , 2009). This privacy change affects many since their information is now available to anyone who wants it as opposed to just a small circle of trusted friends, this leaves a window open for people like stalkers (Singel, 2009) who can find out all about a person, or to theft, since a lot of a person’s personal information can be accessed, personalized scams would be easier to pull off.

    Read More

  • Impact of Social Media on Relationships

    1047 Words  | 3 Pages

    As social networking evolves, different aspects of communication suffer. Such as the social penetration theory, which “describes people as onions with several layers of information

    Read More

  • Ethics in Technology

    1544 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the early years of computers and computerized technology, computer engineers had to believe that their contribution to the development of computer technology would produce positive impacts on the people that would use it. During the infancy of computer technology, ethical issues concerning computer technology were almost nonexistent because computers back then were not as multifaceted as they are today. However, ethical issues relating to computer technology and cyber technology is undeniable in today’s society. Computer technology plays a crucial role in all aspects of our daily lives. Different forms of computer technology provide unique functionalities that allow people to perform daily activities effectively and efficiently. In modern society, we use computer and cyber technology to communicate with friends and family via social networking sites, participate in business transactions, and get current news. Different tasks require unique technological feature in computer technology to function properly. Although, unique technological features increase people’s proficiency in accomplishing various tasks, unique technological features in computer and cyber technology increase security vulnerabilities. In many cases, the security vulnerabilities in computer technology are exploited by cybercriminals to invade people’s privacy, and steal people’s identity. We know that computers have no moral compass; they cannot make moral decisions for themselves. Essentially, people make moral decisions that affect others positively or negatively depending on how they use computer technology. Some of the biggest ethical issues facing people in the computing environment include privacy concerns on the web and identity theft. Privacy concerns...

    Read More

  • Social Media Outline Essay

    1653 Words  | 4 Pages

    Social media is a form of Internet communication that has taken over the world and made people antisocial

    Read More

  • Cyber Security Essay

    1212 Words  | 3 Pages

    Some examples of social engineering include phishing, spear phishing, and hoaxes. Phishing is where a victim receives messages that may or may not look real from actual business places. These messages ask victims to authenticate and give up sensitive information. Most people who fall for these tactics believed that the website or message was real. Spear Phishing targets a specific victim. Hoaxes are just ways to make the victim feel dumb that they fell for the trap. Lastly, we have spam, which is unsolicited commercial emails. Now a days filters have blocked a good amount of these emails because they are just annoying to deal with but spam has become the common transport for viruses, worms, trojans, and many other forms of

    Read More

  • Social Engineering

    808 Words  | 2 Pages

    Social engineering is a non-technical form of intrusion that uses deception to gain your trust and trick you into providing personal information that you usually would not give out freely. (Rouse, 2006). Social engineering is one of the biggest techniques used in identity theft. Computer technology has radically changed the world and how society communicate with each other. When computer technology was in its infancy, business companies were the only member of society that had to be concerned about social engineering attacks. With the arrival of mobile and personal computing for nearly everyone, securing personal data has become an issue for everyone, not just business organizations. If you’re personal information is not protected, the consequences can be catastrophic. Today, there are spammers, hackers, virus developers, and identity thieves that poses a real risk to your privacy and even more importantly, your finances. (Williams & Sawyer, 2013).

    Read More

More about Social Engineering

Open Document