Dealing with the Digital Con: Social Engineering Takes Businesses for a Ride
Social engineering goes by different names and comes in a variety of guises, but every single scam involves criminals tapping into personal emotions in order to create real commercial harm for organizations.
We’ve all heard of the classic email scam. A Nigerian prince sends an urgent mail requesting assistance in transferring millions of dollars – some of which can be yours! – and swindles the trusting email recipient into offering up some of their own funds. However, cyber criminals now have a new mark and they’ve become more sophisticated than ever, prompting a look at the insurance coverage available in the market for a risk that insurers say is only expanding.
Social engineers targeting businesses avail themselves of the vast amounts of public information online via LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, financial statements, and corporate websites in order to gain the confidence of employees, usually in the accounting department, and convincing them to release funds to a third party. Classic examples include an email from a company chief financial officer requesting wire transfers for business purposes.
Read more at http://www.cyberrisknetwork.com/2015/06/26/dealing-with-the-digital-con-social-engineering-takes-businesses-for-a-ride/
Ayers, Erin. ‘Dealing with the digital con: social engineering takes businesses for a ride’. ©2015 Cyber Risk Network. 16 July 2015.