One of the most effective and dangerous techniques criminals use to commit their crimes is called social engineering and it’s vitally important that you learn how to recognize this serious threat.
Social engineering uses social interaction as the primary means to trick or persuade you to disclose confidential information that can then be used against you.
The main goal of social engineering is to trick you into providing the criminals with valuable information that can later be used to steal data and obtain funds illegally.
Cyber-criminals are excellent students of human behavior and will spend significant time studying the predictable behavior of their victims. The purpose of their study is simple – to create attack strategies and scenarios that will take full advantage of your predictable behavior, and use your mistakes to steal your information.
(PII is defined as “any information about an individual maintained by an agency, including (1) any information that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual’s identity, such as name, social security number, date and place of birth, mother’s maiden name, or biometric records; and (2) any other information that is linked or linkable to an individual, such as medical, educational, financial, and employment information.”)1
Because most social engineering attacks are attempts to gain information that an attacker can’t easily get elsewhere, the mere fact that a stranger asks for the information should be a clear warning. Recognizing the possible signs that a criminal is attempting to socially engineer you is now important every day.
We must think about our security every day. Don’t wait until you, your business or your family have been victimized to do something to protect yourself. It is so important to understand the day to day risk and help to ensure that your data is protected. Cybercriminals depend on your lack of vigilance to strike when you least expect it.
The Center for Information Security Awareness – CFISA, was founded to help educate employees on ways to protect themselves against cybercrime. In our training, we always stress that as citizens we need to protect ourselves, our community and the Nation from growing cyber security threats.
We all have a role in protecting our personal data, business data and the critical infrastructure and security awareness training can help to reduce risk. Being aware of new crimes and scams in the news is a fundamental part of the training.
Sharing new scams and crimes you hear about in the news with others, is important to ensure that the people you care about do not fall victim to these types of crimes.
Contact CFISA and we will help you with a training option to fit your budget!
Copyright © 2018 – CFISA
1 https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/SP/nistspecialpublication800-122.pdf
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