Social Engineering

Posted by: dropped packet [ITS Security] under Informative

What is Social Engineering? Well you could say that it is very similar to what is known as Phishing but on much broader terms. The idea behind social engineering is to gain information from you directly without you knowing what information you have given away. This process can start from a conversation with a store clerk or a simple phone call. They may start by asking for someone who is not there and then ask if you could help them. Their goal might not be to target you, but to target a business. To prove this point I was asked by the owner of a company that I worked for to gain as much information as I could, using only the phone and two weeks. At the end of the two weeks I was able to get security codes to cars and property along with some banking information and, I never spoke to any one person more than twice.

My point here is that you should never give out any information to anyone even if you think they could be legitimate. NEVER give out information to anyone. Would you hand over the key to your new car to someone you don’t know? Of course not. So why would you give your social security number or bank account information to someone you don’t know. Banks and other institutions will never call you and ask for information like account number, passwords, and balances, since they already know this information. Now on the other hand, if you call your bank they should ask you questions that only you should know, to make sure that you are you.

Unfortunately the world is a cruel place and we as consumers must protect ourselves from others that wish to do us harm. In this day and age you can’t see your attacker. So what should you do? You should be proactive.

• Check your credit report
• Know your criminal history, yes criminal history. It is very possible to have someone else’s criminal history on yours. This is normally an innocent mistake but could cost you that job or loan.

(Article) Social Engineering

Dropped Packet
Iowa Telecom