Social Engineering

Explore Dionach’s expertise in safeguarding your organisation against the subtle art of social engineering, where trust is tested, and vulnerabilities are fortified.

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What is social engineering?

Social engineering is the art of manipulating people into divulging confidential information, performing actions, or otherwise compromising their security. Unlike hacking into a computer system, social engineering exploits human psychology and behavior, often tricking individuals into willingly providing information or performing actions that can lead to data breaches, financial loss, or other forms of harm.

It’s well-recognised that your people play a fundamental role in protecting the enterprise from malicious threats. The consequences of inadvertently opening the doors – both digital and physical – to cyber attackers can be wide-ranging, from short-term operational disruption to serious, long-term reputational damage.

Failing to address the human element of cyber risk exposure could rapidly undermine your technical defenses. Security assessments that incorporate social engineering are designed to reveal how well your staff follow company policies and procedures, highlighting where you need to adapt or refresh security processes to mitigate risk.

What we do

The precise scope of our industry-leading social engineering assessments can be tailored to your business, but the overall goal is to test how easily we can gain privileges and access to your systems, information and premises.

We test your susceptibility using a variety of techniques such as phishing attacks, Trojan viruses, phone phishing and attempting to gain unauthorised physical access. You will gain answers to questions such as: Would a member of staff share their password with a stranger posing as an auditor? Will employees hold the door open for someone wearing an ID badge without checking its authenticity?

The result is a comprehensive report that may make for uncomfortable reading but should provide a springboard to much-improved risk mitigation.

Need help with cybersecurity solutions? We are experts!

TYPES OF SOCIAL ENGINEERING ATTACKS

Phishing

Phishing involves sending deceptive emails or messages that appear to be from a trusted source, aiming to trick recipients into revealing sensitive information, such as passwords or credit card numbers.

Pretexting

In pretexting, attackers create a fabricated scenario or pretext to manipulate individuals into divulging information or performing actions they wouldn’t under normal circumstances.

Baiting

Baiting involves offering something enticing, such as a free download or USB drive, infected with malware. Once the victim interacts with the bait, the attacker gains access to the victim’s system.

Quid Pro Quo

Attackers promise something in return for information or assistance. For instance, an attacker might pose as technical support and offer to fix a non-existent problem in exchange for login credentials.

Tailgating

Tailgating occurs when an attacker gains physical access to a restricted area by following an authorized person. This can happen in office settings or secured facilities.

Impersonation

Attackers impersonate authority figures, coworkers, or other trusted individuals to manipulate victims into revealing sensitive information or performing actions.

Phishing

Phishing involves sending deceptive emails or messages that appear to be from a trusted source, aiming to trick recipients into revealing sensitive information, such as passwords or credit card numbers.

Pretexting

In pretexting, attackers create a fabricated scenario or pretext to manipulate individuals into divulging information or performing actions they wouldn’t under normal circumstances.

Baiting

Baiting involves offering something enticing, such as a free download or USB drive, infected with malware. Once the victim interacts with the bait, the attacker gains access to the victim’s system.

Quid Pro Quo

Attackers promise something in return for information or assistance. For instance, an attacker might pose as technical support and offer to fix a non-existent problem in exchange for login credentials.

Tailgating

Tailgating occurs when an attacker gains physical access to a restricted area by following an authorized person. This can happen in office settings or secured facilities.

Impersonation

Attackers impersonate authority figures, coworkers, or other trusted individuals to manipulate victims into revealing sensitive information or performing actions.

Mitigation and preventation

HOW WE WORK

We deliver the whole spectrum of cyber security services, from long-term, enterprise wide strategy and implementation projects to single penetration tests.

Our team works with you to identify and assess your organisation’s vulnerabilities, define enterprise-wide goals, and advise how best to achieve them.

Our recommendations are clear, concise, pragmatic and tailored to your organisation.

Independent, unbiased, personalised – this is how we define our services. We guide you to spend wisely and invest in change efficiently.

Find out how we can help with your cyber challenge

dISCOVER OUR RELATED RESEARCH

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Mitigating Social Engineering Risks

Social engineering is the process of manipulating people through various channels such as phishing, phone calls and physical instrustions. This post provides a walkthough of an example attack using emails and phone calls, and what organisations can do to reduce the risk of these kind of social engineering attacks.

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Physical Intrusion Social Engineering

Social engineering is a service that my team and I get involved in on a fairly frequent basis. While for the most part this involves remotely trying to convince targets to click on links in emails, browse to fake login pages, download carefully constructed files which lead to 

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