Hello friends how are you all? Today we are going to talk about, What Is Social Engineering Attack? How To Prevent It? Increasingly companies of all sizes, especially larger companies are investing in the latest information technology (IT) systems to increase their productivity and profit.
They purchase the latest hardware, software and hire the best cybersecurity experts to ensure that the system cannot be hacked. However, many companies do not realize that their own employees can be the biggest vulnerability in the network,
clicking on malware, phishing emails, or are tricked into providing confidential business information to a person who they feel they can trust, but is actually work for competitors, business rivals or is selling the information to others
What Is Social Engineering Attack? How To Prevent It?
Hence it is important to hire a competent firm to check whether the business has adequate systems in place which will prevent a social engineering attack when targeted by hackers, competitors or other hostile individuals and companies. In most non-tech firms,
the employees are not aware of the risk caused by phishing emails or vishing phone calls, they will sometimes click on the link in the phishing mail. Since all the computers in the office network are connected, even if one computer is affected, all the computers may get infected causing great losses.
Phishing Emails
Phishing emails are the most common social engineering attack especially in non-internet companies supplying goods and services. These companies have a large number of vendors and customers. Their marketing team is also very aggressive in contacting companies for leads and orders.
So when they receive emails from potential customers, payment notifications, or fake orders, the staff, if not properly trained, will click on the link, download the attachment which contains malware.
The malware can then affect the entire IT system, stealing data, or may contain ransomware so that confidential information is not accessible.
While the companies with better IT systems will have some sort of email spam filters installed to block the phishing emails, these spam filters may also block some legitimate mails from the customers or vendors, which can cause great losses.
Hence to prevent employees from downloading malware or clicking malware links, it is necessary to train the employees about the risk involved in doing so, and how to identify the phishing emails. In addition to phishing, vishing is also becoming popular,
with employees receiving phone calls to persuade them to reveal confidential information, which can be misused. In other cases, new employees or interns may be bribed or persuaded to load malware on the computers of the company, falsely claiming that they wish to work at home.
Testing
While it is possible to inform and train employees on the risk caused by phishing, vishing, and other attacks using social engineering techniques. it is also necessary to test the employees to check how well they have understood
the dangers posed by phishing, vishing, baiting, pro quid pro, and similar attacks. Hence it is advisable to hire a reputed cybersecurity firm to test the IT systems and employees to find out if they are likely to be tricked by the attackers.
In case any vulnerabilities in the system are detected, suitable corrective measures can be taken, like deploying the employee to another position where he will cause less damage even if he makes a mistake.