By Henry Brown

As we grow our businesses and add more technology, employees and assets to our name, we gradually expose ourselves to more exploitation and abuse. This is because the larger our business is, the more weak points we have. A good example of this is social engineering. As security services improve, fewer hackers are using brute force to crack passwords because it’s just not practical anymore. Sure, hackers can use lists of commonly used passwords to attempt to break into an account, but it’s going to take forever and there’s a chance that none of the passwords on a common list is going to work.

Instead, hackers are turning to social engineering to expose your business and abuse it for personal gain. Whether they’re stealing private data or planting bugs into your business to collect and sell customer information, it’s important that you learn about social engineering and how it can potentially ruin your business.

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In the context of information technology, social engineering is somewhat of an art. It’s a series of tricks that are used to manipulate someone into willingly handing over important information. One of the most basic forms of social engineering is to pose as an important individual and request private data. For example, imagine if your boss sent you an email and asked for your password because the system at work is having troubles. Would you email back the password?

It’s hard to say. It all depends on how elaborate the scam was and how gullible you are. If you have a good relationship with your boss, then you’ll likely believe it, but if you only have a professional relationship with them, you might question it and ask what the problem is.

This is a basic form of social engineering that rarely works. This is because it has been tried many times in the past and few people fall for it. However, more elaborate tricks such as phishing websites are becoming harder to distinguish from the real thing, creating a serious security concern for businesses.

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Of all the investments you can make for the future of your business, there are two that stand out the most when it comes to avoiding falling victim to social engineering scam. First, educating your employees. Make sure your employees are fully aware of the dangers of social engineering, common forms of it and how they can better prepare for those issues.

Secondly, invest in a managed security service such as ProviDyn. Protecting your business from cyber attacks and other threats is incredibly important, but you need to have the right service at your back to suggest changes to make, technology to use and practices to adopt to be as safe as possible.

Conclusion

You need to make sure that your business is protected at all times in order to prevent social engineering attempts. Awareness is arguably the most effective tool for combating social engineering, and it can go a long way toward helping you secure your business and making it immune to cybercriminal activity.

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Henry Brown is an online marketing executive. When he isn’t talking shop he’s roaming the streets of London, uncovering the extra-ordinary in the ordinary.