Social Engineering- Cyber Security

Social Engineering

Social engineering is a technique to influence or deceive people to obtain information or perform some action. People are the weak link in security and this principle makes social engineering possible. A social engineer generally uses a mobile or Internet to make people do something that is illegal. Social engineering is the art of exploiting the trust of people.

There are two main categories of social engineering: 

• Human-based social engineering 
• Computer-based social engineering

Human-Based Social Engineering

Refers to person-to-person interaction to get the desired information. Examples include: 

• Impersonating an employee or valid-user 
• Posing as an important user 
• Using a third person 
• Calling as technical support
• Shoulder surfing 
• Dumpster diving

Computer-based Social Engineering

Refers to an attempt to get the desired information using a computer or software. Examples include: 

• Fake e-mails (phishing) 
• E-mail attachments 
• Pop-up windows