Concepts Flashcards
What is social engineering attack?
It is the use of deception to make people submit their personal information online.
What is Diversion Theft?
It is a social engineering attack, where social engineers trick a courier company into sending the package to a different location and intercepting the mail.
What is Baiting?
It is a social engineering attack, where an attacker leaves a physical device infected with a type of malware in a place where it can be found. Like a USB that gets left around.
What is Honey Trap?
It is a social engineering attack, where a scammer pretends to be an attractive person online to build a fake relationship online to earn money or collect personally identifiable information (PII) such as the victim’s phone number and email account.
What is Pretexting?
It is a social engineering attack, where the attacker is practically lying in order to gain access to personal data or other privileged information. It is the use of believable reasons for the target to go along with whatever the person perormfing the social engineering is attempting to do.
I.e. an attacker may pose as a third-party vendor and claim that he needs to know a person’s full name and title to identify her identity.
What is Phishing?
It is a social engineering attack, where an attacker collects sensitive information such as login credentials, credit card numbers, bank account details, often posing as a trusted resource.
Phishing emails usually create a sense of urgency so that a victim feels that it is important to disclose information quickly. Despite being a relatively straightforward attack, phishing is one of the biggest cybersecurity risks.
i.e. A typical example is the use of email spoofing to disguise itself as a trusted resource like a financial institution to trick the target into downloading an infected attachment or clicking a malicious link.
What is Qui Pro Quo?
It is a social engineering attack that exploits the human tendency to reciprocate to gain access to information.
I.e. an attacker can provide free technical assistance by making a phone call to a victim and requesting assistance by making a phone call to a victim and requesting that they disable antivirus software or install a Trojan that takes over a computer.
What is Smishing?
It is a social engineering attack, is phishing done via SMS instead of email.
What is Spear Phishing?
It is a social engineering attack that targets a specific individual or organization. These types of attacks are aimed at infecting the victim with ransomware or tricking them into revealing sensitive information and data.
What is Rogue Security Software?
It is a social engineering attack, it is software that claims that there is malware present on your computer. The end-user receives a pop-up message requesting payment for the removal. If payment is not made, the pop-ups will continue, but the files are generally safe.
What is Vishing?
It is a social engineering attack, of phishing over the phone and directed at users of voice over IP (VoIP) services such as Skype. Vishing along with deep, false voices is a huge cybersecurity risk.
What is Tailgating?
It is a social engineering attack, where an attacker follows a person to a safe area. This attack relies on the person being followed, assuming they have legitmate access to the area.
What is Whaling?
It is a social engineering attack like spear-phishing yet targets high-profile individuals, like politicians, celebrities, and public company objectives.
What is Waterholing?
It is a social engineering attack, which occurs when an attacker targets a specific group of people by infecting a website they know and trust.
What are the 5 Principles (components) of Social Engineering (attacks)?
1) Authority of intimidation.
2) Consensus
3) Scarcity
4) Urgency
5) Trust and Familiarity
What is meant by the Principle of Social Engineering, of Authority or Intimidation?
Attackers use this principle of attack by playing the role of a person in leadership. They make use of this role to intimidate the target into action, or into revealing information.
What is meant by the Principle of Social Engineering, of Consensus?
This is when a hacker declares that action is normal or generally accepted in the context of an attack. Attackers use this technique when they receive skepticism from their target.
What is meant by the Principle of Social Engineering, of Scarcity?
Scarcity is similar to urgency, but the attacker will claim that there is a limited supply. The target is under the pressure to make a decision or is at risk of losing the offer due to a limited number.
What is meant by the Principle of Social Engineering, of Urgency?
This is when the attacker claims that something will only exist for a limited time. Scams like this are common for bitcoin.
What is meant by the Principle of Social Engineering, of Trust and Familiarity?
This is where the attacker tries to take advantage of exploiting a target by presenting it with something familiar. This is often something the target likes or supports.
What is up to 10 different strategies to prevent social engineering attacks?
1) Regularly conduct penetration tests using social engineering techniques. This helps identify who needs training.
2) Start a security training program targeted to create awareness.
3) Implement secure emails and web gateways to scan emails for malicious links and filter them into the trash.
4) Keep anti-malware and antivirus software up-to-date to prevent malware in phishing emails from being installed.
5) stay up-to-date with software and firmware patches on the endpoints.
6) Implement 2FA.
7) Keep track of employees with advanced authentication or who handle sensitive information.
8) Training against social engineering, password hygiene, and secure remote work practices.
9) Make sure employees don’t use the same passwords for work and personal accounts.
10) Implement spam filters for email.
What is Malware?
Nefarious software is designed for nefarious purposes.
What is Polymorphic Malware?
It changes the form and shape of code after each replication. This makes the code and signature more difficult to detect.
What is a Virus?
It is a piece of malicious code that replicates itself and is attached to another piece of executable code. Viruses are system based problems.