The need to know: 3 unique forms of social engineering

Over the last year, it’s safe to say we’ve become more social by using evolving technology and the internet. As cyber threats continue to run ramped, industries must understand the importance of cybersecurity. From law firms to hospitals, businesses have been shifting their security roadmaps and prioritizing network health.

Cybercriminals are clever. The most apparent attacks are direct attacks like data breaches and cloud-based attacks. However, there are sneakier methods that often catch people off guard, better known as social engineering.

What is social engineering? According to the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a social engineering attack can be described as “an attacker uses human interaction (social skills) to obtain or compromise information about an organization or its computer systems. An attacker may seem unassuming and respectable, possibly claiming to be a new employee, repair person, or researcher and even offering credentials to support that identity.”

These attacks take many different forms, making it harder to pinpoint the hacker’s entry point. This blog post will highlight a few examples of these attacks and how you can remain safe in the face of socially engineered threats.

 

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