Social Engineering: The Art of Manipulation
Spot Social Engineering Scams Before They Strike, before be too late…
Imagine you have the best door and lock on your house, but someone tricks you into opening the door for them, like Jehovah's Witness, a serial killer, or a tax collector. That’s exactly how social engineering works in cybersecurity! Instead of hacking computers directly, attackers manipulate people into giving them access to sensitive information, like passwords, credit card numbers, or even entire systems.
How Does It Work?
Hackers can use psychological tricks to deceive and make the victim trust them or act without thinking. Here are the most common tactics:
Pishing: By fake emails or messages pretending to be someone trustworthy (like a bank or your boss) to steal login credentials.
Pretexting: Trying to deceive you emulating some else like tech support to access to your system.
Baiting: A hacker leaves an infected USB drive in a public place, hoping someone will use it in their laptop out of curiosity.
Tailgating: A hacker can try to infiltrate in a corporative building by following others employee and making them think he has forgotten his ID badge.
But be aware, they can be very creative on this and exist in many ways to deceive like telephonic calls, WhatsApp messages or inclusive home visits, all with the finality to achieve their purpose.
Famous Examples of Social Engineering Attacks
🔹 The Twitter Bitcoin Scam (2020): Hackers tricked Twitter employees into giving them access to high-profile accounts (like Elon Musk and Barack Obama), then posted fake tweets asking for Bitcoin.
(Major US Twitter accounts hacked in Bitcoin scam - BBC News )
🔹 The Target Data Breach (2013): Attackers tricked a third-party HVAC company into revealing login credentials, allowing them to steal credit card data from 40 million customers.
(Target Settles 2013 Hacked Customer Data Breach For $18.5 Million )
🔹 Kevin Mitnick (1990s): One of the most famous hackers, Mitnick used social engineering to trick employees into revealing passwords and gained access to major corporations' systems.
(Kevin Mitnick, genius and one of the most famous hackers in history )
How to Avoid It
Thing Before Act: More pressure or urgency, more risk to be fake. Common messages like your system has been hacked, your bank account has been canceled, or you are going to be deported, but you aren't in the United States. Be very cautious, it’s here, on rush, where we can make big mistakes. Take your time to proceed.
Is legitimate? Are you expecting this message? Is claiming for private information? Is asking for an urgent action? Suspicion 😶.
Verify Identities: Contact with the company, ask for their identification, ask for advice from people close to you, check if they can have access to information that they should already know.
Be Alert: With AI, it is not crazy to receive a call from a relative who is not that person, or even that video call from Leonardo Di Caprio asking to marry him, especially if you are a man or over 25. A spelling mistake or a different way of expressing oneself. Any detail can save you from falling into the trap.
Make It Hard: Keep different hard passwords, use a double identification factor, limit all personal information that you share.
Social Engineering works because people are the weakest link in security. The best defense is awareness, skepticism and keep a good comunication with others.