Social Engineering

What is Social Engineering anyway?  See Wikipedia.org definition below. 

Social engineering, in the context of information security, refers to psychological manipulation of people into performing actions or divulging confidential information. A type of confidence trick for the purpose of information gathering, fraud, or system access, it differs from a traditional "con" in that it is often one of many steps in a more complex fraud scheme.

The term "social engineering" as an act of psychological manipulation is also associated with the social sciences, but its usage has caught on among computer and information security professionals.

Today I wanted to warn you of some very common examples of social engineering that is causing havoc for computer owners.

• Phone calls pretending to be Microsoft of other technical support company
• Convincing pop-ups and websites
• Email scams

Phone calls pretending to be Microsoft of other technical support company

Hackers/con-artists will use their computer to call millions of phone numbers hoping to get a potential victim to answer the phone.   Once they get you on the phone they typically try to convince you that they are a reputable company and that something is wrong with your computer that needs to be fixed.  It's very common that they will want to remote in to your computer to show you all that is wrong.  It will sound very convincing but far from the truth.  What ever you do, do not let the caller remote in to your computer and do not give them your credit card information.

Convincing Pop-ups

Beware of bogus pop-up messages and websites.  They are getting more and more convincing. They will either convince you that you did something wrong or that something is wrong with your computer.  It's very common that the pop-up will display a phone number that the hacker wants you to call.  Just like the fake tech support calls, they will want to remote in to your computer to make you believe that you are having issues.  Then they typically ask for credit card payment to take care of all your issues.  This is a scam and social engineering at it's best.  Don't fall for it.

Email Scams

Fake emails posing as a legitimate company, customer, or vendor can be very difficult to spot.  The email can look like it came from a legitimate email address.  Hackers will use language that sounds very convincing.  They might even use official company logos in the email to make it look even more realistic.  And pay special attention to the links in the email.  If you hold your mouse of the link you can normally tell what website is not legit.  Clicking on the bogus link can take you to the hackers website where you can be infected with spyware, unwanted programs, or virus.  An easy way to avoid these type emails is not to open an email that you are not expecting.