Social Engineering
Social engineering is a specific type of cyber attack where a victim is tricked into leaking some valuable information such as personal data and credit card numbers. This type of attack usually results in a benefit for the attacker, who uses persuasion and manipulation to achieve the desire outcome.
Among the several types of social engineering, we can find:
- Phishing attacks: These are some of the most common types and usually involve an email or a text message that the victim believes to come from a legitimate source. Common examples of phishing attacks involve banks or credit card companies. Hyperlinks that take the victim to a fake website are often included in these messages.
- Baiting: This often involves an attractive promise such as the opportunity to obtain significant financial gains and it can take place either on the Internet or in the physical world. A common example is a USB flash drive being left on the floor with a catchy note or a trusted logo aimed at deceiving the victim so that malware can be installed as soon as the USB drive is inserted into the computer.
- Vishing: This technique leverages phone calls to get victims to give away personal information and gain access to restricted services. These attempts often target older people and attackers tend to pretend to be officials or bank representatives.
- Pretexting: This is a special type of attack that leverages social engineering to obtain specific information such as passwords in order to gain some benefit. Pretexting usually involves a pretext that is able to convince the victim of the trustworthiness of the attacker who will pretend to be a qualified counterparty such as an executive of a company, an IT technician, or an investor.
There are many ways to protect yourself from social engineering attacks, such as:
- Always be particularly careful about text messages and emails that require you to provide personal information;
- Always verify that a specific link is trustworthy and the source is legitimate;
- Do not give away information over the phone unless you verify the identity of the interlocutor;
- Enable Two-factor authentication;
- Do not trust messages that have a particular level of urgency—these are usually phishing attacks.
Glossary Terms
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AAA Cyber Security Definition Access Control List Definition Account Sharing Definition Active Directory Certificate Services Definition Active Directory Federation Services Definition Adaptive Authentication Definition Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) Definition Adware Definition AiTM Definition Altcoins API Definition ARP Cache Poisoning Attack Definition Asymmetric Encryption Definition Attack Surface Analysis Definition Attack Vectors Definition Authentication Authentication Protocols Definition Automated Compliance Definition
Beaconing Definition Behavioral Biometrics Definition Biometric Authentication Definition Bitcoin Blockchain Blockchain Authentication Definition Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Definition Bot Definition Botnet Definition Brute Force Attack Definition BYOD Definition
CA Certs Definition Canary Cyber Security Definition Catfishing Definition Central Logging Definition Certificate Authority Definition Challenge handshake authentication protocol CHAP Authentication Definition CIA Triad Definition Cipher Definition Cipher Suite Definition Ciphertext Definition CIS Click Fraud Definition Cloud Data Security Definition Cloud Security Risks Definition Computer Viruses Definition Continuous Authentication Definition Corporate Account Takeover Definition Credential Stuffing Definition Cross-site Scripting Definition CRUD Definition Crypto Cryptographic Hash Definition Cryptojacking Definition Cyber insurance Cyber Kill Chain Definition Cybersecurity Cybersecurity Analytics Definition Cybersecurity Honeypot Definition Cyberwarfare Definition
Dark Web Definition Data Breach Definition Data Exfiltration Definition Data Integrity Definition Data Obfuscation Ddos Definition Deep Packet Inspection Definition Deep Web vs Dark Web Definition Demilitarized Zone / DMZ Network Definition Denial-of-Service (DoS) Definition DevOps Security Definition Dictionary Attacks Definition DID (Decentralized Identity) Diffie Hellman Algorithm Definition Digest Access Authentication Digital Forensics Definition Digital ID Digital Signature Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA) Digital Signature Standard (DSS) Distributed Key DMARC Definition DNS Leak Protection Definition Domain Name Service (DNS) Definition Doxxed Definition DRM Definition
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Face Authentication Facial Recognition Definition Fake Hacking Definition Fault Tolerance Definition Federated Authentication Definition FIDO Alliance FIDO Biometrics FIDO Client Software SDK FIDO Cloud Authentication FIDO IoT Security FIDO Server FIDO U2F Authentication FIDO UAF Fido2 Definition Fileless Malware Definition Fingerprint Biometrics Definition Firewall Definition Firewall Rule Definition Firmware Definition Forensic Analysis Definition
Golden Ticket Attack Definition Google Authenticator Google Authenticator Definition Google Authenticator Push Notification
Hacking Definition Hacktivism Definition Hash Functions Definition Heap Spraying Definition HOTP Definition How Does a VPN Work Hybrid Cloud Definition Hyperscale Definition
IAM Definition ICMP Definition ID Ransomware Definition ID Ransomware Definition Howard Poston Identity Authentication Definition Identity Governance Identity Proofing Identity Verification Definition Identity-Based Encryption IDP Definition IKE Definition Incident Response Definition Ingress Vs. Egress Definition Insider Threat Definition Intrusion Detection System Definition IoT Edge Definition
Key Agreement vs. Key Exchange Definition Key Distribution Center Definition Key management Keylogging
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Machine Learning Cyber Security Definition Magic Links Definition Malvertising Definition Malware Definition Man in the Middle (MITM) Attack MDM Protocol Definition MDR Definition Meterpreter Definition MFA Push Notification Mimikatz MITC Definition MITRE ATT&CK Framework Definition Mobile Authentication Definition MS-DOS Definition MSSP Meaning Multi-factor Authentication Definition
Network Edge Definition Network Security Definition Node NTLM Authentication NTLM Authentication Definition NTLM Definition
OAuth 2.0 Definition OAuth Definition OCSP Definition On-Path Attack Definition One-Factor Authentication Definition One-Time Password Definition Open banking OpenID Connect Flow Definition OPSEC Definition OTP Definition Out-of-band authentication
PAM Tools Definition Parse Logs Definition Passkeys Password Complexity Password Hashing Password Reuse Password Spraying Definition Passwordless Authentication Penetration Testing Definition Personally identifiable information (PII) PGP Definition Phishing Definition PKI Architecture Definition PKI Authentication Definition PKI Certificates Definition Port Scanning Definition Pretexting Definition Privileged Access Management Definition Protected health information (PHI) Proxy Server Definition PSD1 Definition PSD2 Definition Public Key Encryption Definition Push Authentication
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Tailgating Attack Thin Client Definition Threat Actor Threat Hunting Threat Modeling Ticket-Granting Ticket (TGT) Definition Tiny Banker Trojan Tokenization Definition Tokenized Authentication TOTP Definition Traceroute Definition Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) Definition Transparent Proxy Trickbot Trojan horse Trojan Virus Definition Trustless Two-factor authentication
U2F (Universal 2nd Factor) Definition UDP (User Datagram Protocol) UEBA (User and Entity Behavior Analytics) KZero Staff Unified Threat Management (UTM) URL Filtering
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