HLS 625 DF8

HLS 625 DF8 Name Institution Social Engineering Social engineering refers to manipulating people psychologically so that they can carry out certain actions or give away confidential information (Hadnagy, 2011). It is a kind of confidence trick whose purpose includes gathering information, system access or fraud and it is very different from a traditional "con" in the sense that it is normally one of the many stages in a more complicated fraud scheme. Most exploits of social engineering plainly depend on the willingness of people to be helpful (Black, Pepper & Bagshaw, 2009). For instance, the invader may pretend to be a colleague having some kind of problem that is urgent that needs access to extra network resources. Examples of Different Attacks There are various examples of social engineering attacks. One example is baiting. In this kind of attack, the invader leaves a physical device like a USB flash that is infected by malware in a place that it can be definitely found (Mitnick, Simon & Wozniak, 2011). The person who finds it then picks it up and loads onto their computer, unknowingly setting up the malware. On the other hand, this scheme may appear as a remarkably great deal on auction sites, and classified sites among others. To alleviate one's suspicion, the site is given a very good rating. Individuals who fall to the bait may end up being infected with malicious software that can produce any amount of fresh exploits against themselves, may end up losing their finances without getting payment for the bought item, and may lose money in their accounts if they out of ignorance use a check to make payment. Another example is pre-texting. In this kind of scheme, a party lies to the other to get access to data that is confidential (Stuttard & Pinto, 2008). For instance, a scam of this type could entail an attacker acting as if they need financial or personal data so as to validate the victim's identity. Phishing is as well another kind of attack. Phishing occurs when a fraudulent mail masqueraded as a genuine email is sent by a malicious party, normally claiming to be a trustworthy source (Carr, 2012). The purpose of the message is to scam the recipient into giving out financial or personal information or opening a link that sets up malware. Another social engineering attack is spear phishing. It is similar to phishing, but modified for a particular organization or person. Scareware is the last type of the attack. It entails swindling a victim into believing that their computer has a malware or has downloaded content that is illegal (Brenner, 2010). The victim is then offered a solution that "will help fix" the fake problem. In the real sense, the victim is scammed into downloading and setting up the malware of the attacker to their computer. A Situation of a Victim of a Social Engineering Attack Just the other week, a friend of mine received an email that appeared to originate from a legal, famous bank. The message in the email explained that there was a problem he was required to "verify" of information by pressing on a link that was displayed and that he was to enter details in their form. The locat...