What is Social Engineering?
Email is a main communication tool for most businesses. On a desktop, laptop, tablet, and even our cellular phones. This puts our employees at risk of a social engineering attack. But, what exactly are the types of attacks we are at risk of?
Social engineering is the manipulation of people into performing actions or divulging confidential information. A type of trick for the purpose of information gathering, fraud, or system access.
There are four main types of social engineering schemes –
Vishing, otherwise known as “voice phishing”, is the criminal practice of using social engineering over a telephone system to gain access to private personal and financial information.
Phishing is a technique of fraudulently obtaining private information. Typically, the phisher sends an e-mail that appears to come from a legitimate business—a bank, another employee, or credit card company—requesting “verification” of information. The e-mail usually contains a link to a fraudulent web page that seems legitimate and has a form requesting everything from a home address, an ATM card’s PIN, or a credit card number.
Smishing is the act of using SMS text messaging to lure victims into a specific course of action. Like phishing it can be clicking on a malicious link or divulging information.
Impersonation is the act of pretending to be another person with the goal of gaining access physically to a system or building.
Contact your agent at PUI today to discuss ways to recognize and protect your business from these types of social engineering attempts.