Social Engineering! An important skill for any hacker or Cyber security expert. When it comes to hacking if you have enough knowledge about computers’ hardware, software, servers, programming, operating systems, etc. you can get into a computer. But, what about the person running the system? In order to fool that person, social engineering is important. and we’ll show exactly how you can do this in today’s lesson.
What is Social Engineering?
Social engineering is important, but how can we do this? So let me start by making one thing clear, social engineering is not a type of computer attack that you can perform on a laptop or with Kali Linux. It’s similar to hacking into someone’s mind to steal some important information without alerting them. In other words, we are using our communication abilities to collect personal information from our target. Because most employees are unaware of social engineering attacks, hackers mostly use these skills to access large organizations’ data.
So how do we start a social engineering attack? For example, if you want to hack a company, you must first conduct reconnaissance, also known as “footprinting,” which is the first step in the hacking process. After getting proper information on the target, such as its location, staff, the software they are using, and operating system, a hacker will target a member of that organization who has no knowledge of cyber security. The attacker will be friendly with that employee, and through conversation, he will get important information from him.
Common Target of Social Engineering
- Receptionists and Help-Desk Personnel:- By tricking them with communication skills, social engineers typically target help-desk employees of the target or business so once the attacker has the victim’s trust, they can persuade them to get access to important information like passwords, email addresses, and contact information.
- Technical support executives:- To obtain sensitive information, social engineers may contact technical support executives while assuming senior management.
- System Administrators:- A system administrator is in charge of the organization’s computer system. He must have critical information such as the type and version of the operating system, administrator passwords, etc.
- Users and Clients:- Hackers can approach users and clients of the target and pose as tech support representatives in order to obtain sensitive information.
Techniques
- Eavesdropping:-Eavesdropping, unauthorized listening to or reading of the target’s conversations or messages, interception of audio, video, or written communication. So Passwords, business plans, phone numbers, addresses, and other sensitive information can be obtained by an attacker.
- Shoulder Surfing:-Shoulder surfing involves looking over someone’s shoulder to obtain information such as passwords, PINs, account numbers, and. So, Shoulder surfing can also be done from a distance using vision-enhancing devices such as binoculars, etc.
- Dumpster Diving:-Dumpster diving is the search for treasure in someone else’s trash it may appear disgusting. But it entails the collection of phone bills, contact information, financial information, operational information otsnews, and so on. Hackers can use this information for a variety of malicious purposes.
Conclusion
Social engineering attacks are Extremely Dangerous and can have serious consequence for organisations.
