Social Engineering – Meaning, Types , and Real-life Examples

Earlier, knowing something was considered a sign of knowledge, but nowadays, something different is happening for various reasons. One such thing is social engineering. In this blog, we will learn about social engineering in detail.

• What is Social Engineering?
• Who is a Social Engineer?
• How is a Social Engineering Attack Carried Out?
• Types of Social Engineering Attacks
• Real-life Examples of Social Engineering Attacks
• How to Prevent Social Engineering Attacks?
• Conclusion

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 lure 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 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 cyber attack 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 person skilled in the art of psychological manipulation, using tactics like persuasion, manipulation, and deceit to exploit human vulnerabilities. They leverage social interactions to deceive individuals, trick them into revealing confidential information, or manipulate them into performing certain actions that serve the social engineer’s ulterior motives.

Social engineers often employ techniques such as impersonation, pretexting, baiting, and phishing to gain unauthorized access to systems, networks, or sensitive data. 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:

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1. Prepare

As a first step, hackers gather necessary background information about their target user or group of users. They later use this data to act as a legitimate party and gain the target’s trust.

2. Infiltrate

This is the first point of contact with the target user or group of users, where the hacker tries to establish a relationship with them by gaining trust. This trust is gained by using the background information that was collected in the previous step. 

3. Exploit

Once the trust is gained, the hackers initiate an action by exploiting the user’s trust in the hacker.

4. Disengage

This is the final step, where the hacker disconnects and disappears after getting the required information or data from the user.

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

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.

1. 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.

2. Fraudulent Donations and Fundraisers

Social Engineering attackers feed on the kindness, generosity, and simplicity of innocent users. By creating fake donations and fundraiser 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.

3. 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.

4. 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 very genuine mail from a trustworthy-looking site or mail ID. 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.

5. 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, his system is exposed to threats, and the attackers gain access to his files and linked financial accounts.

6. 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.

The above-discussed attacks are just a few of the many forms of Social Engineering attacks. Studying human behaviour has become easier for social engineering hackers, which has led to an increase in the number of cases.

7. 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.

8. 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.

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.

The information stolen in the attack is still unknown. 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.

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 IDs.
• 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 makes use of them.
• Make use of Two-Factor Authentication wherever possible. Never trust any website or allow them 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.

Conclusion

We hope this blog has helped you figure out what you need to do to handle Social Engineering attacks or any suspicious cyber activity. Even though, with time, these attacks will only get sophisticated, we must not forget the golden rule of not clicking on any suspicious links without cross-verifying. In this blog, we talked about what Social Engineering is and its various forms and examples. Cyber Security 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.