Human Hacking: All About Social Engineering Attacks

Although the word “social engineering” might not sound very hazardous, this sort of attack is wrecking chaos in all the exploits it comes across. The basic difference between this cyber threat and others is that the execution is based on humans rather than an unpatched system vulnerability. 

But what exactly is a Social Engineering attack, and how can we avoid becoming a target?

What is Human Hacking/Social Engineering attack? What are its impacts? 

Social Engineering is a technique that exploits humans using psychological manipulation and getting access to privileged information. It is also known as “Human Hacking.” They manipulate the users by showing a sense of urgency and fear of similar emotions leading the victim to leak the information to the attacker via call, email, or clicking on a link.  

First, the attacker gathers information on the victim using passive information gathering, dumpster diving, shoulder surfing, or others. Then, the attacker impersonates to gain confidence and gives urgent instructions for the subsequent steps. Then, the attacker exploits the victim by sabotaging or stealing some information or money. And after this, the last step is removing the traces and disengaging from the victim. The traces are hard to find as they use different tools and try to avoid logs as much as possible.  

In this attack, the victim is not a machine, but a human and is the weakest link due to emotions, lack of knowledge of personal data, and pressure. Read on to find out the types of these attacks and how you can prevent them from happening.  

What are the various Social Engineering attacks? 

Social Engineering is a broad term and has many different attacks within it, as mentioned: 

1. Phishing

It attempts to access privileged information such as passwords, card details, PINs, and Personal Identification details like Driving Licence, Social Security Numbers, Passport Details, and others. It mainly involves the user clicking on links to malicious websites, replicas of original websites, or opening any attachments containing malware.  

2. Baiting  

It involves the attacker making a false promise to the victim to lure them into a trap. It can involve the attacker in sharing the user’s details for a “Free” offer. 

3. Vishing

Vishing attacks involve the attacker connecting with the victim on a voice call and showing a sense of urgency to share details on a call.  

4. Smishing

It is the same as vishing, but the method or the targeted attack medium is SMS instead of a voice call. An attacker can send you an SMS with some suspicious offer or a link that shows the urgency to share your details to access your private information.