This course is concentrated on the sensible the aspect of social engineering while not neglecting the speculation, initial you’ll find out how to put in the required code (works on Windows, UNIX operating system and mackintoshOS X), then the course is split into a variety of section to represent the steps you’d go for with success hack a.
Social engineering is a technique hackers use to manipulate end users and obtain information about an organization or computer systems. In order to protect their networks, IT security professionals need to understand social engineering, who is targeted, and how social engineering attacks are orchestrated.In this course, cybersecurity expert Lisa Bock discusses the methods a hacker might use, including embedding malicious links and attachments in emails and using mobile devices and social media to deploy an attack. She discusses the concept of 'misuse of trust'—how hackers use charm, power, and influence to penetrate an organization—and why you need to be extra cautious with the disgruntled employee. Finally, Lisa discusses countermeasures security professionals can take to address these attacks.Note: This course maps to the Social Engineering competency of the Certified Ethical Hacking exam.
Review the exam objectives at. Since 2004, Lisa Bock has been teaching IT, everything from forensics to network security.Lisa is an associate professor in the Information Technology department at Pennsylvania College of Technology, in Williamsport, PA.
Courses she has taught during the past 13 years include: networking, security, biometrics, technical support, protocol vulnerabilities (using Wireshark), CCNA Security, and VoIP and Unified Communications. She holds an MS from University of Maryland University College (UMUC) along with numerous other certifications.
She has had training in forensics, networking, steganography, and network security. She is involved with various volunteer activities, has evaluated professional journals, and is an award-winning speaker. Lisa and her husband Mike enjoy bike riding, watching movies, and traveling. Related courses. Welcome- Voiceover Over time, industry has strengthened our network defenses with security appliances and anti-malware protection.
As a result, the Black Hat Hackers seek to penetrate a softer target, the people in an organization by using social engineering. Hello, my name is Lisa Bock, and I am a security ambassador. In this course, I'll explore another phase of ethical hacking, social engineering. I'll cover concepts such as how attackers visualize the victim, the skills that are necessary to become a social engineer, and how to recognize an attack. By the end of this course, you'll understand how social engineers exploit our trusting nature and use charm, power, and influence to obtain information or to get the target to complete an action, such as opening an attachment that contains malware or clicking on a link. I'll explain how social engineers use different methods such as browsers, mobile devices, and social media to launch an attack. In addition, I'll explain why you should be.
Practice while you learn with exercise files.
Social engineering is the art of manipulating people so they give up confidential information. The types of information these criminals are seeking can vary, but when individuals are targeted the criminals are usually trying to trick you into giving them your passwords or bank information, or access your computer to secretly install malicious software–that will give them access to your passwords and bank information as well as giving them control over your computer.Criminals use social engineering tactics because it is usually easier to exploit your natural inclination to trust than it is to discover ways to hack your software. For example, it is much easier to fool someone into giving you their password than it is for you to try hacking their password (unless the password is really weak).Security is all about knowing who and what to trust. It is important to know when and when not to take a person at their word and when the person you are communicating with is who they say they are. The same is true of online interactions and website usage: when do you trust that the website you are using is legitimate or is safe to provide your information?Ask any security professional and they will tell you that the weakest link in the security chain is the human who accepts a person or scenario at face value.
It doesn’t matter how many locks and deadbolts are on your doors and windows, or if have guard dogs, alarm systems, floodlights, fences with barbed wire, and armed security personnel; if you trust the person at the gate who says he is the pizza delivery guy and you let him in without first checking to see if he is legitimate you are completely exposed to whatever risk he represents. What Does a Social Engineering Attack Look Like? Email from a friendIf a criminal manages to hack or socially engineer one person’s email password they have access to that person’s contact list–and because most people use one password everywhere, they probably have access to that person’s social networking contacts as well.Once the criminal has that email account under their control, they send emails to all the person’s contacts or leave messages on all their friend’s social pages, and possibly on the pages of the person’s friend’s friends. Taking advantage of your trust and curiosity, these messages will:.Contain a link that you just have to check out–and because the link comes from a friend and you’re curious, you’ll trust the link and click–and be infected with malware so the criminal can take over your machine and collect your contacts info and deceive them just like you were deceived.Contain a download of pictures, music, movie, document, etc., that has malicious software embedded.
If you download–which you are likely to do since you think it is from your friend–you become infected. Now, the criminal has access to your machine, email account, social network accounts and contacts, and the attack spreads to everyone you know. And on, and on.Email from another trusted sourceare a subset of social engineering strategy that imitate a trusted source and concoct a seemingly logical scenario for handing over login credentials or other sensitive personal data. According to, financial institutions represent the vast majority of impersonated companies and, according to Verizon's annual, social engineering attacks including phishing and pretexting (see below) are responsible for 93% of successful data breaches. Using a compelling story or pretext, these messages may:.Urgently ask for your help. Your ’friend’ is stuck in country X, has been robbed, beaten, and is in the hospital. They need you to send money so they can get home and they tell you how to send the money to the criminal.Use phishing attempts with a legitimate-seeming background.
Typically, a phisher sends an e-mail, IM, comment, or text message that appears to come from a legitimate, popular company, bank, school, or institution.Ask you to donate to their charitable fundraiser, or some other cause. Likely with instructions on how to send the money to the criminal. Preying on kindness and generosity, these phishers ask for aid or support for whatever disaster, political campaign, or charity is momentarily top-of-mind.Present a problem that requires you to 'verify' your information by clicking on the displayed link and providing information in their form. The link location may look very legitimate with all the right logos, and content (in fact, the criminals may have copied the exact format and content of the legitimate site). Because everything looks legitimate, you trust the email and the phony site and provide whatever information the crook is asking for. These types of phishing scams often include a warning of what will happen if you fail to act soon because criminals know that if they can get you to act before you think, you’re more likely to fall for their phishing attempt.Notify you that you’re a ’winner.’ Maybe the email claims to be from a lottery, or a dead relative, or the millionth person to click on their site, etc. In order to give you your ’winnings’ you have to provide information about your bank routing so they know how to send it to you or give your address and phone number so they can send the prize, and you may also be asked to prove who you are often including your social security number. These are the ’greed phishes’ where even if the story pretext is thin, people want what is offered and fall for it by giving away their information, then having their bank account emptied, and identity stolen.Pose as a boss or coworker. It may ask for an update on an important, proprietary project your company is currently working on, for payment information pertaining to a company credit card, or some other inquiry masquerading as day-to-day business.Baiting scenariosThese social engineering schemes know that if you dangle something people want, many people will take the bait.
These schemes are often found on Peer-to-Peer sites offering a download of something like a hot new movie, or music. But the schemes are also found on social networking sites, malicious websites you find through search results, and so on.Or, the scheme may show up as an amazingly great deal on classified sites, auction sites, etc. To allay your suspicion, you can see the seller has a good rating (all planned and crafted ahead of time).People who take the bait may be infected with malicious software that can generate any number of new exploits against themselves and their contacts, may lose their money without receiving their purchased item, and, if they were foolish enough to pay with a check, may find their bank account empty. Response to a question you never hadCriminals may pretend to be responding to your ’request for help’ from a company while also offering more help. They pick companies that millions of people use such as a software company or bank. If you don’t use the product or service, you will ignore the email, phone call, or message, but if you do happen to use the service, there is a good chance you will respond because you probably do want help with a problem.For example, even though you know you didn’t originally ask a question you probably a problem with your computer’s operating system and you seize on this opportunity to get it fixed.
The moment you respond you have bought the crook’s story, given them your trust and opened yourself up for exploitation.The representative, who is actually a criminal, will need to ’authenticate you’, have you log into ’their system’ or, have you log into your computer and either give them remote access to your computer so they can ’fix’ it for you, or tell you the commands so you can fix it yourself with their help–where some of the commands they tell you to enter will open a way for the criminal to get back into your computer later.