Social Engineering: Meaning and Impact

Definition

Social Engineering is the means of deception to extract sensitive, personal information that can then be used for further purposes, such as bank fraud, account takeovers, or identity theft. Cyber hackers primarily use social engineering when attempting to steal information of online users unaware of a hack currently happening. The main type will include phishing which fraudulently fishing for people’s information online through malicious contact.

Importance of Social Engineering

So why is cyber engineering important? Well, it can impact any of us at any time. Think about this. Currently, hackers have software applications designed to override firewalls and cybersecurity worth millions of dollars. However, hackers know technology is strict; a firewall will not listen give up information easily, but humans will. However, in a world of technology and hacking, hackers use human emotion and volatility as its main weapon. Hackers can sue the main target or those who directly know them to get any sliver of personal information that can help them in their quest. This is why every cyber user (which is most to all of us) needs to be aware of social engineering and its extreme dangers.

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Impact of Social Engineering

Every day, cyber-attacks occur on users without them ever having the proper protection against the attack. Then, they lose precious financial or personal information to hackers. Social engineering will continue to happen and impact us as long as certain things remain constant. If users are still inputting too much personal info into websites that can be hacked at any time. If people remain unaware of releasing personal info of themselves or others to a hacker. Or if their cyber liability coverage does not protect themselves or their company against social engineering.

An Example

The scariest part of social engineering is sometimes the hackers never need to come in contact with the targeted account’s user. Once you give your personal information to a website like Facebook or Twitter, the social media company and all its employees with high-level access can access your data and sell it for profit.

In late July 2020, there was an aggressive twitter hack, According to a WSJ article, a user named “Kirk” on a hacking forum claimed he was a twitter employee who had gained access to many twitter accounts and was selling them from $500-$10,000 an account, including Joe Biden, Elon Musk, and others.

The problem with these social media companies is due to the employees’ level of cyber knowledge they will give everyday employees who make normal amounts of money way too much access to the internal networks of its website. These employees can take this information used for large-scheme hacks like that seen a week ago. Or, they can give bits and information to hackers of different user’s accounts, without the user ever knowing.

Social Engineering is a component of cyber liability coverage that is often overlooked by businesses in any ndustry. However, it should be a crucial component of any written policy regarding cyber liability protection, individually or company-wide. For more information, click here.