Social Engineering Awareness
Understanding Social Engineering Threats
Social engineering is a critical concern in both personal and professional settings. Cybercriminals often exploit human psychology to manipulate individuals into revealing sensitive information or performing actions that compromise security.
Effective awareness and training can protect against various social engineering tactics, such as phishing, pretexting, baiting, and tailgating, ensuring that individuals remain vigilant and security is not breached through human error.
of all emails sent are malicious, which equates to approximately 3.4 billion phishing emails dispatched daily
involve phishing, making it one of the most common forms of social engineering attacks
involve some form of social engineering, such as phishing, vishing, smishing, and pharming
Security Tools and Their Functions
Encryption
This converts readable password data into a secure, unreadable format that requires a specific key to decrypt, safeguarding sensitive information during transmission and storage.
Anti-spam Filters
These tools help filter out unwanted or suspicious login attempts, which may include threats such as brute-force attacks or stolen credential attempts.
Anti-phishing Protections
Specialized tools designed to detect and block malicious attempts to deceive users into revealing their login credentials or other sensitive information through fraudulent websites or emails.
Data breaches are viewed as an even greater risk than even climate change, inflation and another financial crisis.
Source: State of Email Security 2023 Report
Benefits to Your Business
Helps to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data, protecting both the organization and its customers.
Helps to reduce the risk of cyber threats such as malware, phishing, and ransomware attacks.
Helps to ensure that an organization is meeting compliance requirements as many industries have specific regulations around data protection and privacy.
Uses the cloud to host desktop environments to reduce the risk of data breaches or loss by storing sensitive data centrally and not on individual devices.
Provides comprehensive protection against phishing, malware, spam, and other email-based attacks through email encryption and archiving controls.
FAQ
Social engineering in cybersecurity refers to manipulation techniques that trick individuals into divulging confidential or personal information for deceptive purposes.
Common signs include unsolicited requests for confidential information, high-pressure tactics, and messages that create a sense of urgency or fear.
Examples include phishing emails, pretexting calls where the attacker pretends to need information for a report, and baiting scenarios where malware is disguised as a free download.
Understanding social engineering tactics is crucial because these attacks exploit human behaviors to bypass the most advanced security measures.
Regular training, at least bi-annually or annually, is recommended to keep up with new tactics and refresh on best practices.
Do not respond to or engage with the potential attacker. Verify the request through independent means, such as calling back using an official number, and report the attempt to your cybersecurity team.
Multi-factor authentication adds an essential layer of security, making it much harder for attackers to gain unauthorized access even if they have one type of credential.
