cyber

Social Engineering Attack – What Your Organization Should Know

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Social Engineering Attack What Your Organization Should Know

Social engineering is a human threat vector from cybersecurity point. It simply means the criminal action of exploiting human nature rather than technical path to gain unauthorized access to people’s minds, digital systems, data and other assets. We cannot talk about this threat enough; it is oftentimes the most relegated and the most exploited of all paths. This very brief article will cover the following sub-headings; meaning of social engineering facts about it human cognition often exploited by it broad types of social engineering common tools of it anatomy of social engineering countermeasures against it Facts about social engineering It is built on manipulation, regardless of the type. It is considered the path of least resistance to cyberattacks. A high number of successful security attacks have started with or involved a social engineering method. People should be critical part of firewall – human firewall, if you don’t mind.  awareness of it must be prioritized. Human cognition oftentimes exploited In the context of this piece, human cognition involves the mental process of understanding and reacting to unfolding events.  Average criminals, have always believed that these human traits would increase chances for success, as such they can’t do without them. See the highlight below. Authority – people most of the time respect and obey authority. Trust – it is natural for most people to trust, especially someone with authority. Responsiveness – a responsible person would want to be responsive to events. Fear – people fear not to get into trouble or found wanting of anything. Urgency – urgent reaction is natural, especially under duress. Threat – people want to avoid threatening event that steal their peace. Reward – it is often enticing and enriching to be rewarded. Curiosity – the inquisitiveness and excitement to face and close out challenge. Ignorance – is a liability to the holder, and an opportunity to the exploiter. Priority – people choose what to prioritize per time. Types of social engineering  Phishing: this is email based social engineering. It can be Spear phishing – targeting certain category of persons. Whaling – targeting rich and public personalities. Smishing: this type uses sms text to attack. Vishing: this one is voice/audio based. Watering hole: uses website or social media avenue to attack. Physical types of it Shoulder surfing: unauthorized covert observation. Piggy backing or tailgating: concert entry or exit to circumvent protocol. Dumpster diving: searching dump sites or bins for confidential data. Baiting: uses infested USB or other similar gifting to entice and attack. Other types known as synthetic content Synthetic content types of social engineering include; Disinformation: intentional spread of false and misleading information. Shallow fake: refers to alteration of original media content to misrepresent fact. Deep fake: uses artificial intelligence to generate and spread deceptive content. Common tools of social engineering Website Social profile Spoofing toolkits Clothing and apparel Appeal/charisma Phishing toolkits Audio recorder Infested USB Spy cameras Romance Anatomy of social engineering attack Establish objective – from outset social engineering attackers set out what they want to achieve. Determine target – they would establish who should be targeted, oftentimes perceived success rate is used to make this choice. Do reconnaissance – background investigation would be carried out to have better insight to routine behaviors of targets. Develop tools – necessary toolkits will be developed. Mobilize resources – other resources needed to accomplish the attack will be mobilized. Launch attack – at this stage, attack would be launched, sometimes in small scale. Evaluate success rate – the rate of success would be gauged. Revise/modify – if necessary, some modification would be applied to increase success rate. Relaunch attack and keep modifying as needed. Reap results – this maybe positive or negative. Countermeasures against social engineering Technical: policy, firewalls, authentication, and alert. Non-technical: training, awareness, and simulations. Social engineering is one of the most dreadful cyber threats of modern time. It can be a stand-alone; or a path to many other cybersecurity incidents. What is more? Cyber criminals find it very handy, reliable, and result-orient. They take advantage of human nature to deploy social engineering. Awareness and knowledge are key to avoid falling victim and compromising your personal identifiable data or that of your organization. ALSO READ: 4 Types Of Phishing Attacks And 10 Signs To Know A Phishing Email

Top Cybersecurity Threats of 2024

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Top cybersecurity threats of 2024

Cybersecurity threat is any criminal activity that has potential to take place through the use of computer devices and the internet. There are many types of cybersecurity threats today, they come from different sources technically known as vectors. Such sources may include state actors, terrorist groups, organized criminal groups, hackers, malicious insiders like; employee, supplier, vendor, competitor, etc. Contemporary world is increasingly being shaped and controlled by automation powered by artificial intelligence, internet-of-things, cloud infrastructure and others; dependence on digital handlers are no longer optional. This development comes with its inevitable security risks. Cyberspace has become the current battle field where criminal elements have continued to innovate various methods of attacks on existing vita resources. Knowledge of these attacks and the vectors is key to planning and implementing preventive and responsive security measures. In no particular order; see below highlight of some top cyber security threats of 2024. Social engineering: this sort of crime occurs when a cybercriminal deceives internet users to provide sensitive personal information; the information given is oftentimes used to commit various kinds of crimes against the person or the organization they represent. Social engineering plays on human intelligence and emotion; it uses of tricks and games to generate personal and confidential information from ignorant people and use same to commit further cybercrimes. Third party exposure: talks about level of potential cyber threats an organization is exposure to due to its relationship with vendors and suppliers within its information technology supply chain. Configuration mistake: otherwise known as misconfiguration, refers to errors in information technology system configuration settings; examples may include fraudulent dataset, hidden data, unstructured data, wrong formatting, failure to patch or wrong patch, non-configuration of firewalls, non-segmentation of network, not using multi-factor authentication, ignorant workforce. These mistakes can occur in any stage of development, deployment and operation of an information technology infrastructure. Artificial intelligence threat: this malicious act could occur when cybercriminals use AI techniques to exploit system vulnerabilities and launch attack. Mobil device threat:  is a threat that take place through use of mobile device. Suffice to say that most known cybersecurity threats can occur via mobile devices. This power tool is also a powerful threat. Insider threat: Insider threat is any security risk that come from people within an organization. This maybe anyone who by virtue of their roles have access to sensitive information and other corporate resources capable of being used against the business. There are two types of insider threat. One is intentional threat, the other is accidental threat. The former is oftentimes premeditated and by impulse, the latter is by ignorance or accidental. State sponsored threat:  this sort of event occurs when some rogue nation states sponsor or directly carry out cyber-attacks against fellow states, prominent organizations or individuals. DNS tunneling: this sort of attack allows hackers to bypass network security by using Domain Name System as conveyor for malicious data traffic. Tunneling is a powerful tool for hackers, and a serious threat for resource owners and managers. Ransomware: this event occurs when malware takes control, locks and encrypt a resource (this could be data, files, or system), render it inaccessible, then makes a demand as condition for its release. Trojan horse: is a virus that disguise as genuine or legitimate program to gain access to a system. Attackers oftentimes use social engineering as delivery channel for this sort of threat. Drive by attack: also known as drive-by download use “exploit kits” to launch automatic download of malware onto a system without a user’s consent. It is usually associated with compromised webpages or plug n play devices. Poor cyber hygiene: cyber hygiene means maintaining healthy cyber practices for security of systems, devices, networks and data. Main goal is to secure sensitive data against attacks. When this is lacking – poor cyber hygiene is the case. Example may include poor network security, lack of configuration management, lack of cybersecurity training for employee. Cloud vulnerability: this refers to weakness in cloud infrastructure which attackers can take advantage of and gain unauthorized access to data resources. Poor data management: this refers to fluid practices that negate the security of data resources. Cyber bulling: this sort of event happens when digital communication channel is used to send intimidating, assaulting and damaging messages to a target. Cyber stalking: this sort of event occurs when digital communication channel is used to track and harass a target (usually a person). DDoS attack: Distributed Denial of Service is a malicious act of disrupting and denying normal traffic flow to a web resource through the use of overwhelming requests that renders the resource incapable. Brute force: is a hacking method that applies trial and error to crack login credentials, encryption keys and pass words to gain unauthorized access to a network or account. It is reported that brute force success rate is rising; making it a simple and reliable tool for cyber criminals. Man-in-the-middle:  also known as MITM or path attack occurs when a cybercriminal secretly intercepts and alters a flowing conversation between two parties without their knowledge or consent. Poor post incident management: this results when after-incident is not properly managed to prevent recurrence. Cybersecurity threats are a serious challenge to businesses. Managing it requires good understanding of different methods in which they may occur. What was discussed in this article is not exhaustive, as such there should be ongoing efforts to uncover and have good insight to more. ALSO READ Cybersecurity Threat Of Social Engineering

Your Email Security Best Practices

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Your email security best practices

Email has become a significant part of modern-day digital relationships. You can hardly have online presence without a functional email address. Most digital interactions in one way or the other would require sign-in, sign-up, or both using email address. For instance, handheld mobile device like iPhone or android cannot function without optimizing it through email sign-in. What this means is that if you do not have working email address, you cannot fully access and activate the capabilities of these mobile devices. Our email; whether private or professional one deserves special security attention. Hackers knew the importance of this tool as introduced above, hence it has become their main route to scout for unsuspecting or ignorant online users from whom confidential private information is generated for criminal acts. For instance; through emails these hackers deploy phishing, spoofing, whaling, and baiting as popular methods to gather private information from online users. having said this, note your email can be safely used when you are conscious of the presence of cybercriminals who are targeting victims in various ways through it. Make effort to protect your emails by following best security practices. See below list and brief description of some best practices for your email security. Use strong password: for password to be considered strong, it must have minimum of eight letters. These letter must contain alphanumeric characters like abc123&*@. Strong password is a good security practice that will keep your email protected from cybercriminals who may attempt to have unauthorized access to such it with intent to steal confidential information. Keep your password confidential: your password is part of your private information, as such it should never be disclosed to anyone. protect and keep it confidential. Review and update password periodically: to use one password too long will make your email vulnerable and expose it to avoidable security risk. Change and update your password from time to time. Active two-factor authentication: this is an electronic access authentication method whereby a user will be asked to present two or more levels of private information as proof of identity and ownership before access is granted to an application. Activating two-factor-authentication (2FA) will further protect your email from unauthorized access by criminals. Avoid opening strange links: online shared links received from unexpected and unknown sources should first be seen and treated as malware. Cyber space is full of malicious files, codes, applications and software. These malwares are oftentimes shared to unsuspecting and ignorant online users as links. To protect your email; open only links received from known and trusted source, and delete the ones from unknown sources. Avoid public wifi network: free public wifi is a potent avenue for security attack. Cyber criminals sometimes provide and use it to monitor and generate confidential information from unsuspecting and ignorant users. To play safe and protect your information requires you should avoid it. Pause and check before you click: the human error of unconscious surfing internet is what hackers take advantage of to share malwares.  It is a good security practice not to haste to click on anything, e.g., pop-ups, links, download, etc. Always stop, check, and verify what it is before you decide. Avoid download from strange source: it is a good security practice to avoid random online downloads. Files shared from unexpected and strange sources should be seen and treated as malware. Download files from trusted source. Avoid strange sign-in or sign-up: most online transactions would require you to sign in or sign up. In either case, use of email is a precondition. When this request come from unexpected and strange source, it should be avoided. Update system software periodically: to keep a system (computer or mobile device) safe, its software and applications need to be updated from time to time. Such updates can enhance its security capability to protect against malwares and other security threats. Review and update security and privacy setting: your email contains privacy and security setting where it is required that updates should be carried out periodically. It is a good security practice to routinely check it and activate necessary updates. Email has become a very important part of our digital lives. It has also become prime target for cyber criminals. To use it safely requires conscious security practices. ALSO READ: Cybersecurity Threat Of Social Engineering