What is social engineering in cyber security

Understanding and Preventing Social Engineering Attacks According to PurpleSec (2021), 98% of cyberattacks rely on social engineering. The same report indicates that new employees are the most susceptible: 60% of IT professionals cited recent hires as at high risk of falling for social engineering tactics. Social engineering attacks use deception, coercion, or other interpersonal methods to achieve an illegitimate or fraudulent outcome. As Jenny Radcliffe, founder and director of social engineering cybersecurity firm Human-Centered Security, says: “Criminals use the fear, the uncertainty, and the doubt—or FUD, as we call it in the business—to create this atmosphere of uncertainty in people’s heads” (Tanium, 2020, para. 11). In this article, we’ll cover the top social engineering attack methods and explain how to defend against them. Social Engineering Attack Patterns Social engineering attacks all follow a broadly similar pattern. First, the hacker identifies a target and determines their approach. They then engage the target and build trust. Next, they launch the attack. Finally, once the hacker has what they want, they remove the traces of their attack. CNN ran an experiment to prove how easy it is to pull off these types of attacks (O’Sullivan, 2019). In the experiment, a hacker successfully obtained a CNN tech reporter’s home address and cell phone number by calling a furniture store where the reporter had recently purchased an item. She got the name of the store from ...

In other words, they favor social engineering, meaning exploiting human errors and behaviors to conduct a cyberattack. For a simple social engineering example, this could occur in the event a cybercriminal impersonates an IT professional and requests your login information to patch up a security flaw on your device. If you provide the information, you’ve just handed a malicious individual the keys to your account and they didn’t even have to go to the trouble of Like most types of manipulation, social engineering is built on trust first— false trust, that is — and persuasion second. Generally, there are four steps to a successful social engineering attack: • Preparation: The social engineer gathers information about their victims, including where they can access them, such as on • Infiltration: The social engineer approaches their victims, usually impersonating a trustworthy source and using the information gathered about the victim to validate themselves. • Exploitation: The social engineer uses persuasion to request information from their victim, such as account logins, payment methods, contact information, etc., that they can use to commit their cyberattack. • Disengagement: The social engineer stops communication with their victim, commits their attack, and swiftly departs. Social engineering can happen everywhere, online and offline. And unlike traditional cyberattacks, whereby cybercriminals are stealthy and want to go unnoticed, social engineers are often communicat...

Products • Product families Product families • • • • • • • Security AI Security AI • • Identity & access Identity & access • • • • • • • • SIEM & XDR SIEM & XDR • • • • • • • • • • Cloud security Cloud security • • • • • • • • • Endpoint security & management Endpoint security & management • • • • • • • • • Risk management & privacy Risk management & privacy • • • • • • • • Information protection Information protection • • • • • • Forty-eight percent of people will exchange their password for a piece of chocolate,[1] 91 percent of cyberattacks begin with a simple phish,[2] and two out of three people have experienced a tech support scam in the past 12 months.[3] What do all of these have in common? They make use of social engineering: when an attacker preys on our human nature in order to defraud. Also in common, these small, very human actions have led to billions of dollars of loss to global business. People are by nature social. Our decision making is highly influenced by others. We are also overloaded with information and look to shortcuts to save time. This is why social engineering is so effective. In this blog, I’ll share the psychology behind Cialdini’s Six Dr. Robert Cialdini is Regents’ Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University and founder of Reciprocity People are inclined to be fair. In fact, receiving a gift triggers a neurological response in the areas of the brain associated with decision-making. If my friend buys me lunch on...

What is social engineering? Social engineering is the art of exploiting human psychology, rather than technical hacking techniques, to gain access to buildings, systems, or data. For example, instead of trying to find a software vulnerability, a social engineer might call an employee and pose as an IT support person, trying to trick the employee into divulging his password. Famous hacker Even if you've got all the bells and whistles when it comes to securing your data center, your cloud deployments, your building's physical security, and you've invested in defensive technologies, have the right security policies and processes in place and measure their effectiveness and continuously improve, still a crafty social engineer can weasel his way right through (or around). How does social engineering work? The phrase "social engineering" encompasses a wide range of behaviors, and what they all have in common is that they exploit certain universal human qualities: greed, curiosity, politeness, deference to authority, and so on. While some classic examples of social engineering take place in the "real world"—a man in a FedEx uniform bluffing his way into an office building, for example—much of our daily social interaction takes place online, and that's where most social engineering attacks happen as well. For instance, you might not think of This brings up another important point, which is that social engineering can represent a single step in a larger attack chain. A smishing tex...

This post was originally published December 2020 and was updated in December 2021. I explained how social engineering attacks can disrupt businesses Background: The What, Why, and “How We Got Here” of Coverage for Social Engineering What Is Social Engineering? Social engineering is a general term for types of security incidents when malicious actors trick an individual into taking an action such as giving away sensitive information and/or credentials, making a transfer of company funds, or making purchases on their behalf. In contrast to more sophisticated ransomware exploits, social engineering enterprises may be run by individuals or by small, loosely organized crime cartels. Actors typically target younger, lower-level employees who tend to be more trusting and less wary of suspicious communications. A recent, high-profile example of social engineering in the wild was the widespread breach at Robinhood. On November 3rd, a threat actor called a customer service employee and eventually gained access to support systems containing customer/personal information, like full names, and email addresses (and for some, zip codes and dates of birth). According to a Social engineering techniques tactics and exploits can cost firms significant amounts of money if the criminals succeed in getting an employee to do what they want, such as transferring company funds. It is extremely difficult to claw back any money lost by this means. Impacted businesses incur further expense through li...

What is social engineering? Social engineering is the art of exploiting human psychology, rather than technical hacking techniques, to gain access to buildings, systems, or data. For example, instead of trying to find a software vulnerability, a social engineer might call an employee and pose as an IT support person, trying to trick the employee into divulging his password. Famous hacker Even if you've got all the bells and whistles when it comes to securing your data center, your cloud deployments, your building's physical security, and you've invested in defensive technologies, have the right security policies and processes in place and measure their effectiveness and continuously improve, still a crafty social engineer can weasel his way right through (or around). How does social engineering work? The phrase "social engineering" encompasses a wide range of behaviors, and what they all have in common is that they exploit certain universal human qualities: greed, curiosity, politeness, deference to authority, and so on. While some classic examples of social engineering take place in the "real world"—a man in a FedEx uniform bluffing his way into an office building, for example—much of our daily social interaction takes place online, and that's where most social engineering attacks happen as well. For instance, you might not think of This brings up another important point, which is that social engineering can represent a single step in a larger attack chain. A smishing tex...

Products • Product families Product families • • • • • • • Security AI Security AI • • Identity & access Identity & access • • • • • • • • SIEM & XDR SIEM & XDR • • • • • • • • • • Cloud security Cloud security • • • • • • • • • Endpoint security & management Endpoint security & management • • • • • • • • • Risk management & privacy Risk management & privacy • • • • • • • • Information protection Information protection • • • • • • Forty-eight percent of people will exchange their password for a piece of chocolate,[1] 91 percent of cyberattacks begin with a simple phish,[2] and two out of three people have experienced a tech support scam in the past 12 months.[3] What do all of these have in common? They make use of social engineering: when an attacker preys on our human nature in order to defraud. Also in common, these small, very human actions have led to billions of dollars of loss to global business. People are by nature social. Our decision making is highly influenced by others. We are also overloaded with information and look to shortcuts to save time. This is why social engineering is so effective. In this blog, I’ll share the psychology behind Cialdini’s Six Dr. Robert Cialdini is Regents’ Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University and founder of Reciprocity People are inclined to be fair. In fact, receiving a gift triggers a neurological response in the areas of the brain associated with decision-making. If my friend buys me lunch on...

In other words, they favor social engineering, meaning exploiting human errors and behaviors to conduct a cyberattack. For a simple social engineering example, this could occur in the event a cybercriminal impersonates an IT professional and requests your login information to patch up a security flaw on your device. If you provide the information, you’ve just handed a malicious individual the keys to your account and they didn’t even have to go to the trouble of Like most types of manipulation, social engineering is built on trust first— false trust, that is — and persuasion second. Generally, there are four steps to a successful social engineering attack: • Preparation: The social engineer gathers information about their victims, including where they can access them, such as on • Infiltration: The social engineer approaches their victims, usually impersonating a trustworthy source and using the information gathered about the victim to validate themselves. • Exploitation: The social engineer uses persuasion to request information from their victim, such as account logins, payment methods, contact information, etc., that they can use to commit their cyberattack. • Disengagement: The social engineer stops communication with their victim, commits their attack, and swiftly departs. Social engineering can happen everywhere, online and offline. And unlike traditional cyberattacks, whereby cybercriminals are stealthy and want to go unnoticed, social engineers are often communicat...

This post was originally published December 2020 and was updated in December 2021. I explained how social engineering attacks can disrupt businesses Background: The What, Why, and “How We Got Here” of Coverage for Social Engineering What Is Social Engineering? Social engineering is a general term for types of security incidents when malicious actors trick an individual into taking an action such as giving away sensitive information and/or credentials, making a transfer of company funds, or making purchases on their behalf. In contrast to more sophisticated ransomware exploits, social engineering enterprises may be run by individuals or by small, loosely organized crime cartels. Actors typically target younger, lower-level employees who tend to be more trusting and less wary of suspicious communications. A recent, high-profile example of social engineering in the wild was the widespread breach at Robinhood. On November 3rd, a threat actor called a customer service employee and eventually gained access to support systems containing customer/personal information, like full names, and email addresses (and for some, zip codes and dates of birth). According to a Social engineering techniques tactics and exploits can cost firms significant amounts of money if the criminals succeed in getting an employee to do what they want, such as transferring company funds. It is extremely difficult to claw back any money lost by this means. Impacted businesses incur further expense through li...

Understanding and Preventing Social Engineering Attacks According to PurpleSec (2021), 98% of cyberattacks rely on social engineering. The same report indicates that new employees are the most susceptible: 60% of IT professionals cited recent hires as at high risk of falling for social engineering tactics. Social engineering attacks use deception, coercion, or other interpersonal methods to achieve an illegitimate or fraudulent outcome. As Jenny Radcliffe, founder and director of social engineering cybersecurity firm Human-Centered Security, says: “Criminals use the fear, the uncertainty, and the doubt—or FUD, as we call it in the business—to create this atmosphere of uncertainty in people’s heads” (Tanium, 2020, para. 11). In this article, we’ll cover the top social engineering attack methods and explain how to defend against them. Social Engineering Attack Patterns Social engineering attacks all follow a broadly similar pattern. First, the hacker identifies a target and determines their approach. They then engage the target and build trust. Next, they launch the attack. Finally, once the hacker has what they want, they remove the traces of their attack. CNN ran an experiment to prove how easy it is to pull off these types of attacks (O’Sullivan, 2019). In the experiment, a hacker successfully obtained a CNN tech reporter’s home address and cell phone number by calling a furniture store where the reporter had recently purchased an item. She got the name of the store from ...