Social engineering- A bait that can rob you of everything

by Martina Laura I love to learn about technology which has led me

Computer security software developers define the term as hackers studying the victim with a reason to approach them with familiarity and take them into confidence so as to steal passwords or rob them of the money.

Many crackers have been found to hang around the victim's social media accounts, know what excites them or what they are greedy about and then reach out to them in the most familiar way. This more often or not builds the trust of the person and he ends up giving away the credentials.

Types of social engineering techniques

If we believe pc security software companies then the following ways are opted by the cybercriminal,

1. Phishing – It is defined as enticing the user through threatening emails so that they end up sharing passwords, bank details, etc. in some cases, the victim might download a malevolent script that can run in the background and steal all the information.

2. Vishing – It is defined as voice phishing where the criminal builds trust on the phone and get the financial details to later rob the bank accounts.

3. Baiting – It is referred to as leaving the system or a physical device with harmful software so that when the victim uses it, personal information could be traced and given to the hacker.

4. Water holing – It is the process where the attacker targets a community of people by corrupting a website which they are sure to visit and then hijacks the entire network.

5. Honey trap – As sweet as sounds, the attack is itself very vicious. The person builds a personal relationship with the victim and then in the name if trust gets all that he needs.

6. Rogue – It is a malicious program that pretends to be authentic anti-suspicious software and hence gets the customers to pay for it in return.

7. Diversion theft – As the word suggests, it creates a diversion in the actual and coded pick-up or drops location so as to hinder the transactions.

8. Pretexting – it is defined as gaining the trust of the victim in order to get privileged information.

9. Scareware – The process is defined as tricking the person by scaring him of the system being infected with a malicious piece of code and thus, get him to download outlawed data.

10. Tailgating – This is defined as stealing and using someone else's identity in order to get the access to the building or a piece of hush-hush information.

How to remove social engineering?

Since there is no physical existence of the technique, therefore, one cannot remove it until it exists in some form of anonymity or a harmful piece of code. In such case, computer security software like Advance PC Protector can be used to detect and delete the threat.

However, in the remaining cases, one can only prevent it by,

• Avoid taking service from a third party or an unknown source just because they are providing it at a low cost.

• If you are not sure of a link given in an email then avoid clicking on the link and delete the email.

• In case of any bank emergency, an issue will become a breaking new, therefore, do not get tricked into giving a card or accounts details to an anonymous source.

• Check twice or thrice before taking a discussion ahead with any unknown person rather reject their request.

The main reason for using this technique is to get your personal information. So, if anyone tries to con you directly or indirectly into sharing private information, just block them or move away from them. Use best computer security software to remove any other sort of malware codes.