Social Engineering

Social engineering is defined as a collection of strategies used to manipulate unsuspecting individuals. Though it is similar to a confidence trick, the term is mostly associated with swindling information out of people to gain access to a computer system and the critical data it stores. These attacks have become more common because it is very unlikely that the perpetrator and victim will meet face to face. -Methods of Social Engineering Social engineering is based on various attributes of human decision making. A scammer will exploit these vulnerabilities similar to how a hacker takes advantage of weaknesses in a network. -Pretexting: this is the act of using a fraudulent scenario to pump information out of someone. Pretexting typically takes place over the telephone. -Phishing: this is a strategy used to obtain financial information. Phishing originates from email messages where a crook pretends to be a legitimate party. -Trojans: this an infection that presents itself as a tempting gift or a useful piece of software. After clicking on a Trojan, a user may unknowing download spyware and other malicious codes onto their system.