Social Engineering and Manipulation

Course details

Social engineering is a relevant terminology in today's world with the unprecedented use of social networking websites. As per Wikepedia's definition "Social engineering in the context information security, refers to psychological manipulation of people into performing actions or divulging confidential information." In simple words, social engineering refers to some kind of con pulled by fraudsters on the internet to extract valuable information from the users of social networking websites. Most of the social engineers are quite adept in using computers. The reason why such people become successful in their fraudulent tactics is because of the innate human nature to believe others. It's important for an individual not to be lured by such attacks.

Without any proper training, an individual can face such attacks leading to loss of confidential data for it. Common ways through which such attacks happen are:

• Telephone: Acting as a spokesperson, a social engineer can convince an individual to talk something crucial to the company.
• Online-The chat sessions on the internet or the emails exchanged by individuals can also be used to get valuable information by social engineers.

Unlike a simple con, the act of social engineering involves many steps right from luring the concerned person and then making him say something confidential. Pop-ups and phishing are also used to access the emails of any individual. There are pop-ups sent on an individual's computer asking him to install software claiming to be spyware. Prior to installation such spyware asks for some form-filling asking for personal information. After supplying such information, the email account of an individual gets hacked.

Phishing involves sending fake emails to a person asking him his confidential information like bank account details. At Vidhyavilla we train students how to prevent such social engineering attacks by installing proper anti-virus and spyware on PCs where such attacks have happened or can happen.