Hackers have a plan to exploit your trust. It’s called social engineering.

Click. Click. Click.

Every time you hop on the internet to shop, research or goof off, you are doing something cybercriminals absolutely love. You are putting your faith in the system.

Sure, trusting the system is a good thing. But it also exposes you and your staff to social engineering, in which hackers manipulate trust, influence decisions, and use deceit to gain control over your computer system and ultimately, your data.

As the world continues to work remotely, social engineering has become even more of an issue for companies working arms length from staff. Here are a few key techniques you should know.

Pretexting. Ever receive an email from a known friend claiming to be stuck without money or a passport somewhere overseas and begging for money? Pretexting is using an invented scenario that uses some familiar information to gain trust and even more information.

Phishing. Shopify users with good sales traffic often receive phishing emails appearing to originate from the shopping platform, fraudulently alerting the account holder that their funds transfer didn’t work. In these and similar campaigns, a closer look at the originating email address will expose it as fake.

Spear phishing. Like phishing, spear phishing uses emails but in a much more targeted and personalized way.

Water-holing. Water-holing is a method of gathering intel about users to identify popular websites, which are then tested for vulnerabilities. Users can be infected with a virus, giving hackers access to the secure system.

Rogue software. Known by a host of names, rogue software or scareware misleads users into thinking they’re infected with a virus, then directs them to make a payment to remove the fake virus.

Learn more about how to protect your company from social engineering at info@intega.ca.