Social Engineering Attacks: 3 Strategies to Mitigate Risk

Phishing comes in many forms—email phishing, spear phishing, and Business Email Compromise (BEC). Once targeted, a successful phishing attempt can trick users into revealing important data and downloading malware, leading to ransomware and other malicious cyber activity.

When planning these attacks, attackers want the maximum return for the minimum investment. Social engineering attacks attempt to use empowerment, intimidation, consensus, scarcity, and urgency to lure victims into achieving an adversary’s goals.

Since the dawn of the internet, cybercriminals have been able to communicate with anyone they want and reach their targets with ease. The best way for cybersecurity and other IT leaders to protect their businesses from victims of targeted social engineering attacks, which can be harmful to business, is to:

Educate and train personnel to recognize phishing attempts and how to respond.

Install anti-phishing software that can automatically detect and flag these threats.

Analyze web page structure and behavior to identify potential threats with browser security solutions.

Let’s discuss each of these in more depth:

Since the dawn of the internet, cybercriminals have been able to communicate with anyone they want and reach their targets with ease. The best way for cybersecurity and other IT leaders to protect their businesses from victims of targeted social engineering attacks, which can be harmful to business, is to:

Educate and train personnel to recognize phishing attempts and how to respond.

Install anti-phishing software that can automatically detect and flag these threats.

Analyze web page structure and behavior to identify potential threats with browser security solutions.

Let’s discuss each of these in more depth

Talent education and training

The first step in protecting your company from social engineering threats is being able to identify them and manage them effectively. Therefore, raising employee awareness of phishing attempts and what users should do in the face of phishing attempts is critical to protecting the business if anti-phishing software and other protections are not effective in stopping the threat. (Also read: The Human Element of Cybersecurity: What Puts You at Risk.)

Organizations can do this by continually educating employees, validating their knowledge, and encouraging vigilance. Sending occasional fake phishing emails to test employees’ knowledge can also be very helpful during training.

In addition to being told what to do when faced with a phishing attempt, users should also have a clear idea of what not to do. Telltale signs of phishing attempts that users should always be careful and know not to fall for include:

Shortened and misfilled URLs.

Insecure HTTP website.

Pages with broken images and links.

Suspicious emails asking for sensitive information or not following overall protocol.

Anti-phishing software

Anti-phishing software should also be implemented across the organization’s IT ecosystem to prevent social engineering attacks.

Sites that share lists of known phishing sites can be very useful, but anti-phishing software should not be based on lists of known phishing sites. This is because, unfortunately, these sites change frequently and there will always be patient zero. Unless the software knows which sites are phishing and which aren’t, it will unnecessarily restrict access to more sites, ultimately reducing employee productivity.

Some anti-phishing operating systems may miss real attacks, but alert on completely harmless activity. The right anti-phishing software intercepts emails and scans them for any potentially harmful material before delivering them to your inbox. It also prevents unauthorized spoofing by adding an extra layer of protection to user signatures so cybercriminals cannot impersonate domain names. Additionally, anti-phishing software is able to analyze and block malicious URLs before they reach users, blocking malicious URLs in real time.

Browser Security Solutions

The ultimate protection against phishing and other social engineering attacks comes from securing your browser as a whole. The right solution can prevent attacks before it’s too late and prevent all attacks, not just phishing. A robust browser security solution should analyze runtime telemetry while being completely independent and not relying on other third-party feeds to enforce compliance.

Browser security solutions need to be able to prevent all browser attacks, including exploits, social engineering attacks, and web application vulnerabilities. They must also be able to prevent users from violating policies. Since an enterprise’s security level is defined by the weakest point in its multilayered defenses, the browser must be the strongest point in the organization’s supply chain. (Also read: Insider Threat Awareness: Avoid Insider Security Breaches.)

In Conclusion

Unfortunately, phishing and other social engineering attacks are growing at an alarming rate: the number of phishing sites has increased by 4.4% in the first months of 2022. There were a total of 1,025,968 phishing attacks, making Q1 2022 the worst quarter for phishing observed to date. Phishing can easily become a “means” for cybercriminals to deploy malware, ransomware or other forms of malicious code and quickly destroy an organization.

To prevent these attacks and ensure consistent business operations while protecting valuable data, social engineering and prevention must be prioritized. Educating employees on phishing signs, prevention and response techniques, and emphasizing the importance of phishing knowledge is a critical first step in keeping your organization safe. Additionally, implementing anti-phishing software and a comprehensive browser security solution that detects threats in real time and prevents sensitive data leakage and user credential theft should be a top priority for businesses. By identifying actions that can only be pinpointed from the browser, these powerful solutions will secure organizations from targeted social engineering attacks.