Social engineering is a powerful tool that hackers use.
Cybercrime is made up of many different methods of computer penetration, but one of the most insidious is taking the center-stage. Social engineering is the art of hacking the human behind the screen rather than simply attacking the machine itself. This method of attack is not only incredibly effective, but incredibly dangerous. Today we’re going to be going over exactly what it is and what you can do to combat it. Let’s take a look.
What is social engineering?
Social engineering is a method of attacking a computer or a network using the power of human manipulation. For example, if I were a hacker, I might try to get a potential victim to befriend me via social media so that I could gain access to their personal information. I might also appeal to their interests and try to get them to engage with an infected email or post on social media. At the end of the day, social engineering is about building trust between the cybercriminal and their victim. So, how can you combat that?
Combatting social engineering is about vigilance.
One of the most important things to keep in mind is that if you don’t want the world to know something about you, don’t post it online. However, considering that a lot of businesses have online profiles not only for themselves, but for their employees, it can be difficult to remain invisible while conducting business. However, you can stay vigilant about who you communicate with and who has access to your personal information while using social media and other online resources. Where available, make sure to set your profile to “private” so that only friends can see your address, phone number, and other important information. You should also make sure to screen everyone that sends you a friend request to make sure that they are a legitimate person. You can do this by checking out their profiles and seeing whether or not they have a lot of friends, whether or not their photo is a stock photo, and whether or not their profile is even filled out.
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