{"id":50861,"date":"2022-12-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/social-engineering-attacks-3-strategies-to-mitigate-risk\/"},"modified":"2023-03-06T09:42:11","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T09:42:11","slug":"social-engineering-attacks-3-strategies-to-mitigate-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/social-engineering-attacks-3-strategies-to-mitigate-risk\/2\/34899","title":{"rendered":"Social Engineering Attacks: 3 Strategies to Mitigate Risk"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2021, phishing and similar fraud was the most common type of cybercrime reported to the U.S. Internet Crime Complaint Center<\/a>, with 324,000 individuals affected.<\/p>\n

Phishing<\/a> comes in many forms — email phishing, spear phishing<\/a> and business email compromise (BEC)<\/a>. Once targeted, successful phishing attempts can trick users into revealing important data and downloading malware<\/a>, which can lead to ransomware<\/a> and other malicious cyber activities.<\/p>\n

When planning these attacks, assailants are looking for the biggest return for their lowest investment. Social engineering<\/a> attack attempts use authorization<\/a>, intimidation, consensus, scarcity and urgency to entice the victim to achieve the adversary’s goals.<\/p>\n

Since the internet's inception, cybercriminals have had the ability to communicate with anyone that they want and achieve attack targets very easily. The best ways for cybersecurity and other IT leaders to protect their enterprises from falling victim to targeted social engineering attacks — which can prove detrimental to business<\/a> — are:<\/p>\n

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  1. Educating and training personnel on identifying phishing attempts and how to respond to them.<\/li>\n
  2. Installing anti-phishing software<\/a> that can automatically detect and flag these threats.<\/li>\n
  3. Leveraging a browser security solution that analyzes web page structure and behavior to identify potential threats.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Let's discuss each of these more in-depth:<\/p>\n

    1. Personnel Education and Training<\/span><\/h2>\n

    The first step in protecting a company from social engineering threats is being able to identify and effectively manage them. So, raising employee awareness around what a phishing attempt can look like and what users should do when faced with one is crucial in protecting the enterprise should anti-phishing software and other safeguards not effectively keep threats at bay. (Also read: <\/strong>The Human Factor of Cybersecurity: What's Putting You At Risk<\/strong><\/a>.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Organizations can do this by constantly educating employees, validating their knowledge and encouraging vigilance within their workforce. Occasionally sending out a fake phishing email to test employee knowledge can also be very helpful in the training process.<\/p>\n

    In addition to being informed on what to do when facing a phishing attempt, users should also be well aware of what not<\/em> to do. Telltale signs of phishing attempts that users should always be careful of and know to not fall for include:<\/p>\n