In a modern digital world, cyber threats are becoming more and more dangerous. Today, they are typically used as a weapon to bring down targets.
While many people tend to associate cyber threats with weak configurations or outdated software, it is important to recognize that the primary entry point in most hacking attempts remains human error. People are the weakest link in your business environment. The term social engineering testing is therefore introduced here.
Social Engineering Testing is a proactive approach to security in which organizations use methods and techniques to assess their employees’ resilience to social engineering. We as tSF are therefore often used for this type of assignment to expose the company’s weaknesses.
Social engineering has numerous forms, below is a list of possible common forms of social engineering.
- Phishing: the most well-known form of social engineering, attackers send fraudulent emails and hope that their target clicks on the link and thus obtains malware or shares credentials with the hacker.
- Vishing: Through telephone calls, the target is called and tricked to share data. This is often combined with phishing because the threshold for passing on passwords via phone is higher than over a website.
- Baiting: In baiting, physical devices such as USB sticks are infected with malware and then left in strategic locations.
- Tailgating: Tailgating is a physical part of social engineering. Attackers can pose as employees or suppliers and try to gain physical access to secure premises.
The above-mentioned social engineering techniques are things tSF puts a lot of effort into and also uses during social engineering exercises or red team exercises. Afterwards, we can also always conduct an awareness session to map out all the dangers and alert people to what the dangers of social engineering attacks might be.
A crucial aspect to keep in mind is that as long as a company employs human workers, it can never be completely immune to breaches. Therefore, it is necessary to put a lot of energy into improving employee alertness by, for example, using social engineering tests, phishing simulations, etc. as a preventive measure against breaches to reduce the risk rate.
