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Ways to Recognize a Social Engineering Attack

By:
Chris Gaetano
Published Date:
Dec 8, 2017
Phone Fraud

You can have the most sophisticated network security in the world, but it's all worthless if someone replies to the wrong email. We speak often of what to do in the event of a cyber attack, but many of those are preceded by simple social engineering. What are the signs that someone is trying to manipulate you into giving up valuable information? Lifewire outlines four different ways to recognize a social engineering attack. While the article goes into things in more detail, in short people need to be wary of the following: 

1) When tech support calls you instead of the other way around (tech support is usually so busy with incoming calls it's unlikely they'll go to the trouble of calling you) 

2) When someone comes in claiming a surprise inspection (just because someone has a clipboard doesn't mean they're a legitimate inspector: check with management first)

3) When someone wants you to act RIGHT NOW (instilling urgency is a common social engineering tactic) 

4) Related, when people use fear as the main reason why you should do what they say (e.g. your boss will be mad, my boss will be mad, etc.) 

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