With the advent of two-factor authentication, breaking into other people’s online accounts without their permission has never been easy ever since people are enabling 2FA on their accounts. Hackers have also been updating their methods of manipulation in order to extract sensitive information from users that can help them gain unauthorised access to their accounts.
What is Social Engineering?
Social Engineering is an art of manipulation that leads to extraction of sensitive information. This information can then be used to financially damage the affected person or to gain unauthorised access to their social media accounts.
How are Hackers doing Social Engineering?
Hackers usually pose as the official representative of the organization whose services you are using. They may also provide you with the information that only an official would know. This way they may win your trust. On the other hand, they may also trigger your emotions by posing as someone who accidentally sent you a verification code to your phone number. This way they can easily extract sensitive information from you.
Using your Acquaintance as Trojan Horse
Hackers may also hack your friend’s or family member’s account and using that account, they may send you a request through email, sms or WhatsApp and demand sensitive information from you. It is therefore highly advisable whenever you receive such a request,call that particular person and enquire if they really need that information.
Malicious Links
Hackers often resort to sending you spoofed emails or messages. They may also send you a fake website that looks exactly like the original website. However, they are very hard to spot for a novice user. It is therefore highly advisable to seek assistance from someone in your network who knows about computers before even interacting with any suspicious content.
Don’t Fall for Fake Prizes
Social engineers also resort to spreading fake contests in order to extract information from you. They may get leverage from the anniversary of an organization and pose it as themselves. It is therefore highly advised to fact check on Google or through a professional before ever giving your data to such surveys.
Conclusion
Social engineering has always been with us and it will continue to be one of the most popular ways to steal someone’s data. It is therefore required by us to be extremely vigilant of who we are interacting with on our mobile and internet.