Social engineering is a cyberattack that relies on psychological manipulation to deceive companies or individuals into revealing sensitive information. Unlike traditional attacks that depend on technical or software vulnerabilities, social engineering exploits an individual’s trust and behavior, making it more challenging to prevent.

Despite the difficulties, there are methods you can take to identify and prevent social engineering attacks before they happen with proper cyber awareness. This article will describe and explain the different types of social engineering attacks cybercriminals often use and the measures you can take to protect your sensitive information.

What are the different types of social engineering attacks?

There are many methods attackers will use to initiate a social engineering attack. Still, they share a common goal: stealing data via psychological manipulation to create a sense of urgency and fear. Here are some of the common social engineering attacks to look out for.

1. Phishing

Phishing is one of the most common forms of social engineering attacks. It typically occurs via email or spoof websites that intimate trusted companies or entities, like a bank, government, or e-commerce site.

Phishing aims to trick an individual into downloading a malicious file or clicking on a link to a fake website to reveal their sensitive information, such as account numbers, usernames, and passwords.

Phishing attacks try to steal user data by creating a sense of urgency in its language. An overwhelming sense of fear or anxiety may cause the victim to act against their better judgment and try to fix the “problem” as soon as possible.

Although phishing typically occurs via email. Other types include:

• Vishing (voice phishing): Criminals use phone calls to persuade the target to reveal sensitive or confidential information.

• Smishing (SMS phishing): similar to phishing, but the attack happens via text message to get the person to take action instead of email.

How to identify and stop phishing attacks

• Ensure your software, such as antivirus and email software, is up to date so it can detect and block phishing attempts.

• Employ DNS Filtering to help block malicious or unwanted domains to avoid websites that will steal your information.

• Protect your accounts with Multi-Factor authentication for added security

• Don’t panic! Phishing relies on emotions, so take the time to check the email for bad grammar and sense of urgency in the language and check the email to verify the sender.

If you suspect you have received a phishing email, do not click on any downloads or links in the email.

1. Scareware

Scareware typically uses pop-up ads or banners impersonating security providers to scare the victim into thinking there is a problem with their device. Scareware tries to convince the user that their device is infected with malware or viruses that will cause it to crash or lose all their data.

A scareware attack is usually used for financial gain, so when a user sees this popup claiming their device is at risk of a breakdown, they are told the only way to fix it is to pay a fee to remove the malware, despite there being no actual threat to the device. Scareware may also trick users into downloading malware, which can be used to steal sensitive information.

How to protect against Scareware

• Avoid clicking pop-up messages or banners. Legitimate anti-software companies rarely use this method to inform customers of a virus.

• Close the browser entirely rather than attempting to click and close the ad.

• If you think your computer is infected, verify it by taking your device to a professional

1. Reverse Social Engineering

In a reverse social engineering attack, the attacker relies on their contact to contact them so they can fix a problem with the software that cyber criminals previously created. This differs from regular social engineering attacks because the victim, not the attacker, makes the initial contact. Reverse social engineering is particularly dangerous because it plays on the victim's willingness to help others.

The attacker may present themselves as an IT support technician claiming to investigate a security breach that requires the victim's help. To solve the problem, they must provide information such as login credentials or other personal data. This attack can also give the hacker higher privileged access to confidential information in the system, which they can later use for more advanced attacks on sensitive data.

How to protect against reverse engineering attacks

• Verify the identity of the person calling you by requesting their name, contact details, and organization, and confirm this with the company they claim to be from.

• Go through cybersecurity training from your company, or keep up to date with security threats to recognize attacks.

• Practice least privileged access and only provide sensitive information with trustworthy parties when necessary.

  1. Quid Pro Quo Attacks

For this attack, the hackers will offer their victim something valuable or beneficial, for example, free access to software, financial incentives, or some form of prize from a contest. The prize or incentive is used as bait so the target will willingly give the attacker information, such as passwords and emails or privileged access to confidential data.

How to prevent quid pro quo attacks

• Be suspicious of unsolicited or unexpected calls offering a prize, especially if it is in return for personal information.

• Verify the details of the source of the offer, organization, websites, phone numbers, etc.

• Follow security policies if you are an employee of a company and feel you are the target of this type of attack, and escalate the issue to the IT department.

Conclusion

This blog has looked at the typical social engineering attacks hackers use to steal your personal information.

We have learned that what makes social engineering attacks so dangerous is the reliance on manipulating the psychology of the victim to make them feel like they have no other option but to do as the attack requests.

Despite social engineering threats, it is essential to realize that you have the power and control to take the necessary precautions to protect your data against these threats.

The best defensive strategies you can start to implement include creating unique passwords with a strong password generator and protecting them with multi-factor authentication. If you have any sensitive data you need to secure privately, back them up using a secure cloud storage provider.