Tackling Social Engineering With Professional Assistance

By Author: Stu Sjouwerman
Total Articles: 3
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Issues concerning social engineering are everywhere. Every computer owner, be it a business entrepreneur or a layperson, faces the threat of their machines getting hacked. Also known as human hacking, it is a procedure that allows a person to hack into someone else’s computer and manipulate the existing data. More often than not, they use different software solutions that make the entire procedure simple. As a concerned individual, you can take active measures to avoid being conned into revealing personal information. A number of companies offer security awareness training to all customers. By getting acclimatized to the same, you can train yourself or your employees to successfully resolve security related threats.

Spear phishing has become a common occurrence, with many people reporting their online accounts being accessed by unknown individuals. In the process, a number of bogus emails are sent, but comprising of minor changes to make them appear authentic. They request personal information, which if entered, gives identity thieves a way to determine the banks to which their potential victims are linked with. This ...
... results in further exploitation of personnel working at the top hierarchy with a certain organization. The strategy behind social engineering is targeting one person at a time, rather than sending emails to hundreds and thousands of individuals at one go.

Being knowledgeable about phishing security gives service providers the liberty to help their customers in every possible manner. They constantly upgrade their security measures making them user-friendly and effective. Phish-prone individuals are constantly on the lookout for professional assistance to help them get rid of unwanted break-ins into their online accounts. Companies providing support in this niche have a team of experienced software engineers constantly developing new software solutions to assist their clients. The servers used by them are hardened Linux machines, where the databases are backed up on a daily basis. One of the reasons that make them successful against social engineering is that they do not store passwords in plain text. Instead, they use a 10x encrypted hash mechanism, where passwords cannot be retrieved even if someone wants to.

It is a known fact that phishing tests comprise of standard email and web protocols and do not include any kind of actual malware. Since the professionals are familiar with such a scenario, they guarantee that the phishing tests conducted by them will not introduce any complexities in your system. The resources used by them are exclusively focused on PCI compliance, which is a complex topic that affects millions of businesses around the world.

It is important for you to know that fighting against malicious cyber attack is a multi-layer approach. Having the email gateway spam filter in your exchange server can help you a great deal. Other tactics that can be used to tackle social engineering include the likes of not having a list of email addresses of all employees on your website and regularly scanning the Internet for exposed email addresses. It can also be wise to spread a word about not disclosing account details on social media sites, as they are very vulnerable to security attacks.

Stu Sjouwerman is the author of this article on Social Engineering. Find more information, about Spear Phishing here