Social Engineering Attacks: What are They and How to Prevent Them?

98% of cyberattacks involve social engineering. 

This type of attack happens all the time. Therefore, it’s critical to be aware of the types and common practices hackers and attackers use to extract sensitive information from their victims. 

In this article, we will learn the definition of social engineering attacks, their types, and the most common tactics hackers use to manipulate victims. At the end, we will also learn how to prevent such an attack.

Ready? Let’s jump right in!

What is Social Engineering?

Social engineering attacks occur when hackers use psychology to trick and manipulate victims into revealing confidential information. These can be carried out physically or digitally. Attackers usually pose as friends, authorities, or organizations.

These attacks can take one or multiple steps. Usually, the victim is investigated extensively to find weaknesses or vulnerabilities. Then, the attacker tries to win the victim’s trust by posing as an ally to trick them into spilling sensitive information. 

Simply put, social engineering targets human emotions and trust rather than technology.

There are several social engineering techniques. Such as:

• Phishing
• Spear Phishing
• Baiting
• Pretexting

Phishing

This is one of the most popular social engineering attack types. It usually involves sending emails or text messages to victims in an attempt to create a fake sense of urgency or fear. Then, the attack leads them to click on a malicious link or a website containing malware, which installs malicious software on their devices without their consent.

For instance, the victim will receive a legitimate-looking email claiming to be from a bank employee. The email will inform the victim of an unfortunate data breach and encourage the victim to change their passwords to protect their account, with a quick, sneaky link at the end.

Once the victim clicks on the link and types in their password—in the hope of changing it to protect their account from being hacked—exactly the opposite will happen: The attacker will get access to their credentials instantly.

Spearfishing

Do you know what is worse than being a victim of a phishing attack? 

Being a victim of a spear phishing attack.

This is an advanced phishing version with a much higher success rate than the previous one. If done skillfully, anyone can fall victim to it because the perpetrator carrying out a spearfishing attack chooses his victim, unlike regular phishing attacks where the emails are sent in bulk and trap only those who fall for it.

The attacker carefully examines the victim to personalize messages according to their needs and circumstances. The personalization tricks victims into spilling confidential information that they are not supposed to.

Attackers usually scare victims by stating catastrophic consequences for not complying with their demands.

Baiting

As the name suggests, this social engineering attack involves using bait to lure the victim into clicking on a malicious link or website. 

Baiting is also done physically, where the attacker leaves USBs or DVDs in public places. These are infected with malware, and as soon as the victims take them home and run them on their devices, the malware starts its operations, stealing sensitive information from their computers or injecting malicious software to help attackers gain unauthorized access.

These baits are visually appealing and catchy. Digitally, hackers use visually appealing and enticing advertisements that lead to malicious websites.

Pretexting

Pretexting is when the attacker pretends to be an authority (such as police, bank officials, tax officials, government officials, etc.) that needs sensitive information to complete the verification process or calculate taxes. The attacker then asks sensitive questions to extract confidential information.

This attack also has a high success rate and can be utilized to extract sensitive records such as social security numbers, personal addresses, bank records, and everything else that is super personal to the victim.

Most Common Social Engineering Attack Tactics

These are the most common social engineering tactics and emotions attackers use to manipulate victims. 

Urgency and Panic 

The most common is urgency or panic. The perpetrator sends an email, text, or call encouraging action and follows up with a severe consequence if the required task is not performed.

Let’s take a simple example. You receive a message that says, “Due to a massive data breach, over one billion login credentials were compromised.” Change your credentials right now to save your account from being hacked and followed by a malicious link.

Such an attack forces the victim to take immediate action, causing them to leak their valuable information. 

Phishing and spear phishing usually use urgency and panic.

Authority Exploitation

Authority exploitation, or using the power of authority. This is another social engineering technique that attackers utilize to extract sensitive information from the victim. Authority exploitation can also be done physically. 

It is commonly used in pretexting.

Familiarity and Trust

This occurs when attackers pose as your friends or colleagues or win your trust by constructing a chain of cleverly crafted lies to trick you into believing that they know you well, hence sparking the emotions of trust and familiarity.

Curiosity and Greed

Attackers also bait victims by intriguing their greed and offering deals that are too good to be true. Such deals usually include unreal amounts of cash for relatively simple tasks such as clicking on a link or filling out a form.

Human nature, in general, is curious and greedy, and hackers take full advantage of this. Hackers usually post enticing traps that lead users to perform a certain action to feed their curiosity. 

Now, let’s see what kind of bad things hackers do after being successful in their social engineering attacks. In other words, let’s examine the consequences of the social engineering attacks. 

Consequences of Social Engineering Attacks

As we learned, it impacts human psychology and can lead individuals to perform a number of harmful acts, such as transferring heaps of cash, getting pertinent information, clicking a malicious link, and letting a hacker get unauthorized access to personal or organizational devices.

Which can lead to financial loss, loss of personal property, catching viruses, or loss of reputation for the business or organization.

Social Engineering Attacks Prevention: 04 Tips

Attackers can be wise, but you have to be wiser to protect yourself from cyberattacks. Here are five safety tips to prevent social engineering attacks. 

#1: Be Cautious Before Responding to Emails

We already discussed how attackers could pose as your friend, colleague, or someone important to whom you should respond. However, that’s how attackers get sensitive data and hack your systems.

Therefore, always double-check before sending sensitive information through emails. If possible, use another communication tool to confirm whether your friend or colleague is asking for your personal information or an attacker. 

Moreover, be extra cautious about unreal offers. If an offer sounds too good to be true, it actually is. 

Also, never click on a link coming from an unknown sender. If someone is pretending to be a bank employee, ask for their name and contact the bank to confirm whether the person with that name is actually an employee.

Furthermore, these fake malicious websites are not secured and do not have an SSL certificate. Hence, they do not offer a secured connection. Search engines like Google strictly advise against putting your personal information on such sites. 

#2: Educate Your Employees

You will not respond to a suspicious email, but one of your employees might. Therefore, always educate your employees or other administrators, contributors, or editors on your website. Guide them about the best security practices before responding to an email. 

There have been several unfortunate past events when organizations were hacked because an employee responded to a malicious email, such as the Nordea Bank Heist.

#3: Secure Your Website

Securing your website can also help against incoming cyber threats. Implementing necessary measures, such as adding multiple-factor authentication, or 2FA, can help prevent unauthorized access even if a hacker has cracked your password. 

You can enhance protection by securing your admin URL with an additional password. If you are using a CMS like WordPress, you can effortlessly enable extra passwords and several more security features using Password Protected, a complete WordPress security solution. 

Activate the plugin and then navigate to Security >> WP Admin Protection, switch the enable button, and set the password. You are good to go; an additional password is now securing your website.

You can protect your site further from other cyberattacks, such as a WordPress brute-force attack, by limiting login attempts. 

This can be done by navigating to Security >> Attempt Limitation. Select the number of attempts and the time (in minutes) you want the user to be locked out after a number of unsuccessful attempts.

#4: Install or Update Your Antivirus

A reliable antivirus can track down and eliminate malware and other viruses before they spread. To enhance your security, go for a premium antivirus with all the necessary security features. 

Monitor your system regularly for unexplained files that you have not downloaded. Run antivirus scans often, and do not forget to check for updates. Allow antivirus auto-updates to avoid missing important updates. 

Social Engineering Attacks: Key Takeaways

As we discussed earlier, cybercriminals are smart—or we can say very smart. With emerging technologies in cybersecurity, hackers are leveraging new ways to extract sensitive information. Thus, it’s necessary to protect your website from malicious files.

Do not be complacent about your safety measures, and always monitor your website for any vulnerabilities and quickly fix them before a hacker finds them. Install a reliable antivirus and implement other safety measures, such as password-protecting your wp-admin.php page and adding multi-factor authentication.

Frequently Asked Questions