Social engineering in cybersecurity is the act of tricking individuals into disclosing sensitive information or doing something that weakens computer systems.
Simply put, if you have ever been tricked into clicking an unusual link or sharing an OTP, chances are you’ve suffered a social engineering attack. In this blog, we will learn about social engineering in detail.
What is Social Engineering?
Social Engineering is a cyber-attack technique in which manipulation is the key weapon. Hackers exploit any human error to gain access to sensitive information, confidential and private files, etc.
In social engineering attacks, hackers are usually someone who is known to the victim or lures the victim into exposing data, allowing system access, and engaging in other malicious activities. Social Engineering takes advantage of how users think, act, and react to a particular situation.
Social Engineering is used in most cases where manipulating human behaviour is easy to hack into systems. Hackers use this technique to read user behaviour. Once they have an idea of what triggers or motivates the user to initiate a specific action, they try to manipulate and deceive the user.
It has been witnessed that a large number of users do not even know which emails or links to open. There is still a certain percentage of a lack of awareness regarding suspicious links constantly sent by hackers. Social Engineering takes advantage of this lack of knowledge and hence targets users who are clueless about falling into cyberattack traps. To completely understand Social Engineering, let us understand how or in what form these attacks are carried out.
Who is a Social Engineer?
A social engineer is a skilled attacker who uses deception, impersonation, or manipulation to exploit human psychology and gain unauthorized access to systems, data, and facilities.
They can impersonate coworkers, technical support, or reputable vendors to trick users into disclosing sensitive information.
Their actions can have serious consequences, highlighting the importance of awareness and vigilance in safeguarding against social engineering attacks.
How is a Social Engineering Attack Carried Out?
In the above section, we discussed that Social Engineering attacks are based on exploiting human weaknesses. Now, we will discuss how this entire process is carried out. So, the lifecycle of a Social Engineering attack consists of the following steps:
- Research and Identify the Target
At this stage, attackers collect important background information about their targets. Attackers use the information they have gathered about their victims to identify potential ways to gain access to them.
- Hook
At this stage, the attackers apply one of the social engineering methods to engage their targets. Attackers attempt to build rapport with the victims in this stage.
- Exploit
At this stage, the victim is comfortable and trusts the attacker, who knows the victim’s area of weakness. The attacker exploits this weakness and convinces the victim to perform compromising actions that include surrendering account details, installing malware, or giving out credit card information.
- Disengage/Exit
The attacker has accomplished their goal if they reach this stage. The attacker terminates the interaction and wipes the digital footprint.
What are the various weaknesses that the hacker exploits?
Human emotions and behaviour form the base of Social engineering attacks. Some of the common ones that Social Engineers exploit are:
- Kindness
- Fear
- Anger
- Guilt
- Hurrying
- Excitement
- Curiosity
- Sadness
These human traits make social engineering attacks both deadly and effective.
Types of Social Engineering Attacks
Social Engineering is a more evolved version of Cyber Security attacks. As hackers are becoming increasingly advanced, social engineering is considered one of the most sophisticated cyber attacks in the cybercrime world today.
Thus, it becomes equally important to understand the various forms or types of Social Engineering attacks.
- Created Scenarios
Sometimes, hackers tend to create fake stories or events to extract money from users. For example, you might get a call from a hacker who will claim that your relative met with an accident and was admitted to XYZ hospital, where the bill amount is Rs. 10XXXXX. To many, this would look like a genuine situation, and without delay, you would pay the required amount for the treatment. Such calls are common when it comes to Social Engineering.
- Fraudulent Donations and Fundraisers
Social Engineering attackers feed on the kindness, generosity, and simplicity of innocent users. By creating fake donations and fundraising events, these attackers extract vast sums of money from these users. Since it’s a human tendency to donate a small sum for the benefit of the needy, these hackers reach out to the maximum number of people to make vast sums of money. Hence, it is always recommended that the details of the organization asking for donations be cross-checked.
- Emails from a trusted source
It is not rare to see friends’ or relatives’ emails getting hacked. However, this leads to a bigger risk as the hacker now has access to other contacts on the victim’s list. Social Engineering comes into the picture when the hacker sends you an email from your friend’s or relative’s email ID asking for some important info or sends any link for you to open. You will naturally intend to open the link or share the details you asked for, trusting the source as your friend. Hence, even if the mail you received is from a trusted source, you should always cross-check and verify the same.
- Phishing emails
It has been constantly observed that phishing attacks form a major part of social engineering. In phishing attacks, the hacker will send you a very genuine email from a trustworthy-looking site or email address. The mail might contain a malicious link for downloading pictures or files. Considering it to be authentic, the user might end up clicking on the link, thus giving the hacker control of his/her system. Hackers engaging in social engineering understand how users will react in such situations. Hence, this type of attack is very common.
- Fake Contests
This has become a very common form of Social Engineering attack. In it, hackers design an authentic-looking contest to gain the user’s trust. Once they do, they send malicious links to the user, claiming him to be the winner. If the user clicks on these links, their system is exposed to threats, and the attackers gain access to their files and linked financial accounts.
- False Query Resolutions
Have you ever received a resolution and answer to a question or query that you never had? Well, if not, you are lucky. Social Engineering attackers send answers to users regarding random queries. There are hidden malicious links in the answers that, when clicked by the user, expose him/her directly to the threat and leave the system accessible to hackers.
- Diversion Theft
A diversion theft is a con act carried out by professional hackers and Social Engineers. These attacks usually target transport or logistics companies. The hacker tricks the company into making the delivery somewhere other than the designated location.
- Water-Holing
Naturally, people have some favourite websites that they regularly visit. Water-holing is one such Social Engineering attack in which the attacker takes advantage of this behaviour. Usually, the attacker targets a certain set of users and keeps track of the websites they visit. One of the websites is deliberately infected so that the virus can be passed on to all these users. Once their systems get infected, the attacker takes hold of the system to steal any sensitive data.
- Honey Trap
Using a honey trap attack, the social engineer pretends to be someone attractive. They build a relationship with the victim on the internet to attempt to obtain sensitive data from them.
- Vishing
Vishing, or voice phishing, employs a voice conversation over the phone to obtain monetary or personal information from the victim. They usually conceal their identity with spoofing, which disguises their caller ID. Like in other social engineering, the attacker attempts to build the person’s confidence or threatens them to make them reveal important information.
Real-Life Examples of Social Engineering Attacks
Many instances of Social Engineering have drawn the world’s attention.
One of the biggest examples is the 2011 RSA data breach, in which the attacker sent phishing emails to RSA employees containing malicious links aimed at stealing confidential information about the organization.
Another example of a Social Engineering attack is the one carried out on the US government in 2013. The Associated Press (AP) Twitter account received phishing emails claiming fake news that the White House was under attack and that then-President Barack Obama was also injured. This fake news created uncertainty for some time, resulting in a hit on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
In 2020, social engineering of staff resulted in unauthorized access to celebrity profiles on Twitter. Also, there was the Google and Facebook scam between 2013 and 2015, where a hacker manipulated both giants into wiring more than $100 million through counterfeit invoices.
How to prevent Social Engineering attacks?
There are many ways in which you can protect your confidential data and system from Social Engineering attacks. A few of the most helpful ones are given below:
- Organizations should conduct routine penetration tests and regularly educate their employees on how to handle suspicious links or emails.
- Firewalls help in reducing the chances of receiving emails from unauthorized sites and email addresses.
- Keeping your Antivirus and Antimalware software updated helps in installing web gateways and updating them regularly to scan any malicious email at the very beginning to stay protected. This helps in reducing the number of phishing emails to an extent.
- Cross-verify if you receive any information related to any damage to your financial accounts, balance, or net banking.
- Never share passwords, login IDs, or personal information via emails, texts, or other forms of communication, even if the source or sender’s email looks authentic.
- Never store any message or link on your device that asks for any financial data. Always delete these messages or emails from your inbox so that nobody can make use of them.
- Make use of two-factor authentication wherever possible. Never trust any website or allow it to save your passwords. 2FA is the best possible way to prevent unwanted users from logging in to your system or device
- Financial details such as card numbers, CVVs, ATM pins, Netbanking passwords, etc, should never be shared with anyone online.
The above-mentioned tips are just preventative measures to fight Social Engineering. Staying cautious, educated, and updated regarding cybersecurity attacks is the only way to reduce the chances of becoming a victim of social engineering attacks.
Businesses today focus on defending against malware, phishing, and brute-force attacks. However, social engineering in information security is still the most overlooked issue. This is precisely why social engineering poses such a significant cybersecurity threat, as it targets people rather than computers.
Why Social Engineering Poses a Risk in Cybersecurity
- Manipulates Human Behaviour
Social engineering does not rely on hacking tools to gain unauthorized access to sensitive information. Rather, it uses trust, urgency, fear, and other tactics to trick users into disclosing their information.
- It Avoids Conventional Protective Measures
Firewalls and antivirus software do not protect the company from employees who click on links or respond to phishing emails.
Attackers often impersonate colleagues, managers, or service providers, making their requests appear legitimate and routine.
- It Can Cause Major Breaches
Unmonitored breaches of networks can lead to credential exposure, backdoor installations, or full system takeovers.
How to Prevent Social Engineering in Cybersecurity:
- Simulated real-world exercises should be coupled with regular instructions on dealing with cybersecurity issues.
- Strengthen your network’s boundaries using Zero Trust strategies, which assume no one has granted access up front. Always request verification.
- Use multi-factor authentication (MFA) to reduce the risk of credential compromise.
Conclusion
In today’s digital age, understanding what social engineering is, how it works, and how to prevent it is becoming increasingly important. Cyber criminals have graduated from being coders to being psychologists who manipulate human behavior to breach systems. Social engineering analysis and employee awareness training are the best countermeasures for such attacks, whether for organizations or individuals.
Cybersecurity is an interesting career, and we hope this blog will help you decide on your career path in the domain. If you’re looking to dive deeper into Cyber Security and Ethical Hacking, our course is a great place to start.