Social Engineering : The Trojan Horse

Social engineering has caused many problems for different organizations. Because of social engineering many businesses have to take extra steps to protect themselves and their information from being hacked. According to Bidgoli, Social Engineering is a type of attack that takes over the power of human aspects in order to trick the public into declaring confidential information(MIS 7, 2017). This hacking technique has obtained the attention of numerous organizations, businesses, and governments worldwide.

new advances in the electronic technologies during the past decades have administered a new wealth of criminal activity. Software like Computer viruses, malware, software privacy, spam and etc. Technologically savvy artist replicate websites, so when a person's online activities occurs in a virtual world it can be compromised.Many times Cyber intrusions rely on human interaction and it often involves tricking people into breaking security procedures.

Over the course of the past few decades, technology has been on a fast track to more advanced opportunities for communication. These developments have increased efficiency in society, however, it is evident that the basic values, such as privacy of personal information, are compromised significantly. Privacy is an essential element of a free society and without which, individuals would lose the ability to interact with one another in private. With the advancements of technology there is a clash between an individuals right to guard their personal information and the power of the cyber world to penetrate that information. Innovative technologies such as various forms of social media and surveillance are invading the freedom to said privacy.

Dhamija, R., Tygar, J. D., & Hearst, M. (2006, April). Why phishing works. InProceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in computing systems (pp. 581-590). ACM.

A Social engineering attack is a technique used by the hacker to trick people so they give up confidential information. The most important information the criminals are seeking are peoples’ passwords, bank information, social security number and much more. Reading through the website http://www.social-engineer.org/, I can tell that no one is safe from social engineering attack. One example that makes me think that way is the case of Maario Coleman and Angela Russell. These two guys were able to collect students’ information on the graduation ceremonies and create target lists. The pair then used online databases to find matching social security numbers and birthdates before applying for loans in the students’ names. Social engineering attack

Social media is a common threat to privacy. These days nothing about our lives can be kept a secret with the amount of information individuals post online. If someone wanted to find out something about someone, all they would have to do would be to visit their Facebook or twitter page. Many large companies that fear for security risks monitor and track their employees’ Internet and email usage. However, there is an even more dangerous threat to private security, hackers. Whether they are in the government, working for private industry, or free-lance, hackers can be found anywhere virtually breaking into servers that are not usually accessible. Recently the government has begun to increase the invasiveness of their monitoring of individuals’ private lives. Since the attacks on 9/11, the “government, through the National Security Surveillance Act (NSSA) C.N., have been wiretapping cell phone conversations, often on random innocent citizens who the government should have no reason to believe these citizens would be involved with any illegal activity” (Dowell). The government does not just invade the privacy of dangerous or suspicious characters; they invade the privacy of every citizen. The government also tracks all Internet usage and accounts. Every message you have ever sent or posted online can be viewed by the FBI and various other security agencies. These acts violate the second amendment, freedom of privacy. With their knowledge of computer programming, free-lance hackers can hack into even the most secure networks and download private information. Nothing is safe from hackers, “pictures, phone numbers, social security numbers, emails, work information, anything needed for fraud can be found on the web or through a company” (Dowell). They use this information to access credit cards and other private accounts and rob people, all from behind a computer screen.

It is recommended that we conduct a test that would simulate that breach. The test results should be anonymous as the goal of the test is to improve the company's security posture in a way that improves the entire company's security. After the test is complete, the results should be used to assist in designing training for employees on understanding and dealing with potential social engineering attacks. After developing the training, new policies and procedures should be disseminated, then the training can include understanding and reviewing the new policies and procedures. After the training is completed another test should be done to measure engagement and effectiveness of the social engineering training. This information should be used to improve training. The goal of the training would be to empower employees with situational awareness skills that would assist them in identifying potential social engineering attempts and how to respond

Identity theft is one of the growing crimes in the United States due to the fact people do not know how to properly protect themselves against it. Criminals use different methods to acquire the information necessary to steal someone’s identity. Some of the techniques used to commit identity theft are; stealing wallets, acquiring bank information or pilfering through trash to find documents containing PII (FBI, n.d.). Nowadays criminals are able to steal people’s identity using different procedures over the internet without having to compromise their identity. Some of the methods are social engineering, phishing, sending spam messages and malware (OLI, 2013). Criminals use these methods because with the use of technology, identity theft could be accomplished anonymously and without much effort. Also because people lower their guard about securing their personally identifiable information when using the internet, especially when using social networks, they become easy targets to

In “The Social Construction of What?” Hacking explores many topics including the subject of physics. Hacking is a philosopher who is an expert in continental philosophy as well as social theory. He states the common claims of constructionists as X not being inevitable and that it should be improved and reformed. Hacking also speaks of how constructionists apply these criticisms to things such as gender, race, and the topic of women. He goes against the view of many physicists who believe that the results of research are “as is”. He states that the contingency of science is found in the way in which the question is in fact stated. Although, after the framing of the questions, the answers or “contents” of science are non-contingent.

Cyber attack has been a huge problem for so many years and there have been a lot of attempts to stop it but there have not been enough resources for this to happen. This paper offers more top to bottom clarification of Cyber attack, reasons, dangers, and defenselessness. It talks about the impact on individual; gives situations of Cyber attacks lastly clarifies ways that people can keep themselves from being casualties of Cyber attack. This paper will give insights on how Cyber attack impacted the United States a year ago contrasted with now, climate it has expanded or diminished. It will likewise talk about how Cyber attacks have made more individuals careful about how they reveal data and the sort of sites they visit that lead to them being victims of cyber attack.

Many wonder what is a social engineer and want to know what is that they do and why do they do it. Social engineer is the art of manipulating people so that they give the social engineer important information. A social engineer could be considered people who know you personally or someone who do not know you at all. If it’s a person you have not met, they would manipulate you to make it seems as they are trusted individual. Social engineering sometimes look for the flaws within a company or an individual and use that for their gain. In my PowerPoint I stated that social engineer are basically the “scientific” term for a hacker. They “phish” the brain to retrieve what is needed and moved to the next vulnerable person or company.

Cookies are also used as a technique of social engineering and it involves installing software in an individual’s PC remotely. The victim is then tricked by messages that constantly pop up in his computer’s window and which inform him he has won a particular prize (Mann, 2012). In order to trick the user, he is directed click a particular link to claim his prize. If he accepts and does so, his emails and passwords are stolen and used to his access his/her personal and confidential

The worse attack on the United States computer network took place in 2008. The Deputy of Secretary of Defense, William J. Lynn III, described the event as a “network administrator’s worst fear: a rouge program operating silently, poised to deliver operational plans into the hands of an unknown adversary” (Lynn, 2010). The common thought that comes to mind when we think of an attack on a network infrastructure is that the attack is a complex attack coordinated by some “black hat ” hacker/cracker that had to decipher lines of code and encrypted algorithm to penetrate the United States network infrastructure. However, the most common attack and the most devastating attack to infect the United States network was a simple social engineering attack.

In terms of computer security, Social Engineering refers to the psychological manipulation of people in order to access confidential information. It is believed that it can be easier to trick people than to hack into their computing system by force. Social engineers gather personal information or gain access to computers by exploiting people’s natural tendency to want to trust others and be helpful. Some methods that are used by social engineers to gain information are via email, the internet or even by phone to trick people into revealing sensitive information or get them to do something that goes against the company’s policy. “Social engineering has been an effective method of committing fraud for centuries. Recently, however, it has been used more and more to assist criminals in perpetrating crimes that can net large sums of money. Without one social engineering method or another, most current attacks would not be successful [11]”. Employees are an organization’s weakest link and social engineering attacks are only limited by the creativity of the perpetrator, which relies on the gullibility of people.

Of all the things that we’ve learned in this course, one of the weakest aspects of cyber security is social engineering. Social engineering is a way for people to manipulate others into breaking normal security procedures, by relying heavily on human interaction. An organization could have the most state-of-the-art cyber protection software and the strictest policies, but all of that can be broken down from human error, negligence, or malice. Cyber criminals can exploit personal information from someone easier than hacking a system for the same information. We tend to give out personal information without thinking of the possible consequences. Security is about trust because we trust our information is