Security experience education is the number one way to stop social engineering attacks. People should be conscious. They should know that social engineering exists. Also familiar with the various usually used tactics.
Luckily, social engineering awareness presents itself to storytelling. And stories are much simpler to understand and much more enjoyable than evidence of technical flaws. Quizzes and attention-grabbing or funny posters are also useful reminders about not understanding everyone is who they say they are. But it isn’t just the ordinary worker who needs to be conscious of social engineering. Senior management and managers are primary enterprise purposes.
Some tips for defending against social engineering:
CSO contributor Dan Lohrmann suggests the following advice:
1. Train and train repeat when it comes to safety awareness.
Ensure that you have a complete security awareness education program in place that is continually updated to address both the common phishing warnings and the latest targeted cyber threats.
2. Present a complete briefing “roadshow” on the most advanced online fraud methods to key teams. Yes, include senior managers, but don’t forget anyone who has the right to make wire transfers or other commercial transactions. Remember that many of the true stories concerning fraud happen with lower-level who get tricked into accepting an administrator is asking them to transfer an urgent response — normally bypassing normal systems and/or controls.
3. Review living methods, procedures, and division of responsibilities for financial transfers and other important activities.
Add additional authorities, if needed. Identify that selection of responsibilities and other protections may be granted at some point by insider threats, so risk reviews may need to be reanalyzed given the increased threats.
4. Consider new methods related to “out of band” activities or essential official requests.
An email from the CEO’s Gmail account should automatically suggest a red flag to the team, but they need to get the latest methods being extended by the dark side. You need approved contingency procedures that are well-understood by all.
5. Review, filter and test your event administration and phishing reporting operations.
