Download presentation
Presentation is loading. Please wait.
Published byClinton Fowler Modified over 9 years ago
1
Social Engineering: The Human Element How Does Social Engineering Work and to What Purpose? Chuck McGann
2
Objective: A discussion on types of “social engineering” and how it can be both damaging to your business and to home environments. [We may touch on the dangers of Social Media if there is time.]
3
Defining "Social Engineering" Social Engineering is defined as the process of deceiving people into giving away access or confidential information by establishing a contrived relationship of trust. Wikipedia defines it as: "is the act of manipulating people into performing actions or divulging confidential information. While similar to a confidence trick or simple fraud, the term typically applies to trickery or deception for the purpose of information gathering, fraud, or computer system access; in most cases the attacker never comes face-to-face with the victim." [1] [1]
4
Defining "Social Media" Social media is the collective of online communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration. Websites and applications dedicated to forums, microblogging, social networking, social bookmarking, social curation, and wikis are among the different types of social mediaforums,microbloggingsocial networkingsocial bookmarkingsocial curationwiki
5
Quick Video Placeholder for the below video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkgLHoaFeFk&__hssc=&__hstc& hsCtaTracking=70edc2a8-64cf-47f8-9f30- 6581d17e4660%7Cd07bcdc2-0e2c-4028-8505-343bc3d1e11d http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkgLHoaFeFk&__hssc=&__hstc& hsCtaTracking=70edc2a8-64cf-47f8-9f30- 6581d17e4660%7Cd07bcdc2-0e2c-4028-8505-343bc3d1e11d
6
The Human Element of Trust Trust is integral to the idea of social influence: it is easier to influence or persuade someone who is trusting. The notion of trust is increasingly adopted to predict acceptance of behaviors by others, institutions (e.g. government agencies) and objects such as machines…
7
Audience/Targets/Victims Employees Customers Competitors Hackers Family Friends
9
Targeted Organizations 9
10
By Industry 10
11
Real World Example Fall of 2012, USPS was targeted by an external social engineering attack Over 150 USPS users opened the phishing eMail 80 recipients provided their User ID and Passwords CIRT issued a requirement to reset all WebVPN user account passwords Lost work hours
12
Research by Check Point Software Technologies 850 IT and Security professionals in North America, Australia, and New Zealand were surveyed 48% of large businesses have suffered from socially engineered attacks at least 25 times Resulting in losses of between $25,000 and $100,00 per incident
13
Social Engineering Types of Attacks Phishing – Spear/Whale Impersonation of Help Desk Agent Fake software Trojans Watering Hole Drive by download
14
Phishing Use of deceptive mass emailing Can target specific entities (“Spear phishing and Whale phishing”) Prevention: Honeypot email addresses Education Awareness of network and website changes Awareness of links and format of actual address Note - http://www.usps.com http://www.usps.com
15
Phishing Example ----- Forwarded message ----- From: Express Mail Service [mailto:support@universalpost.com] Sent: Friday, April 26, 2013 10:13 AM Subject: Shipping Info Delivery information, Your parcel can not be delivered by courier service. Status:Postal code is not specified. LOCATION OF YOUR ITEM:St.Louis STATUS OF YOUR ITEM: not delivered SERVICE: Local Pickup NUMBER OF YOUR PARCEL:U588850982NU INSURANCE: No Print a label and show it at your post office. An additional information If the parcel is not received within 30 working days our company will have the right to claim compensation from you for it is keeping in the amount of $6.10 for each day of keeping of it. You can find the information about the procedure and conditions of parcels keeping in the nearest office. Thank you for attention. DHL Customer.
16
Impersonation on Help Desk Calls Calling the Help Desk pretending to be someone else Usually an employee or someone with authority with a need-to-know Prevention: Assign pins for calling the Help Desk Don’t do anything on someone’s order Stick to the scope of the Help Desk
17
Fake Software Fake login screens The user is aware of the software but thinks it’s trustworthy Prevention: Have a system for making real login screens obvious (personalized key, image, or phrase) Education Antivirus (will not be able to detect zero day exploits – new virus signatures)
18
Trojans Appears to be useful and legitimate software before running Performs malicious actions in the background Does not require interaction after being run Prevention: Don‘t run programs on someone else’s computer Only open attachments you’re expecting Use an up-to-date antivirus program
19
Security Awareness Testing Method, Tools, and Approach Email Email will contain an URL which would be redirected to a data collection and metrics web site Data Collection and Metrics Web Site Redirect user to a webpage which will contain information for security awareness
20
What Can You Do? Keep software and antivirus current Strong security awareness program Use “least privilege” for users Periodic technology assessments Assign the responsibility to someone
21
Places for Help SANS – Securing the Human http://www.sans.org/security-awareness/ Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MSISAC) http://msisac.cisecurity.org/resources/videos/free-training.cfm http://msisac.cisecurity.org/resources/videos/free-training.cfm Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS.Gov) http://www.hhs.gov/ocio/securityprivacy/awarenesstraining/awarenesstrai ning.html http://www.hhs.gov/ocio/securityprivacy/awarenesstraining/awarenesstrai ning.html Stop Think Connect http://www.stopthinkconnect.org/
22
Weakest Link? No matter how strong your: Firewalls Intrusion Detection Systems Cryptography Anti-virus software "At the end of the day, people are a critical part of the security process as they can be misled by criminals and make mistakes that lead to malware infections or unintentional data loss“ – Oded Gonda (VP of Check Point) "The weakest link in the security chain is the human element" -Kevin Mitnick
23
Questions
24
Reference (2013, September 11). Trust (Social Sciences). Retrieved: September 13, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trust_(social_sciences) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trust_(social_sciences) http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/social-media Schwartz, Mathew J. (2011, September 21). Social Engineering Attacks Cost Companies. Retrieved: September 13, 2013, from http://www.informationweek.com/security/vulnerabilities/social-engineering-attacks-cost- companie/231601868 http://www.informationweek.com/security/vulnerabilities/social-engineering-attacks-cost- companie/231601868
Similar presentations
© 2024 SlidePlayer.com. Inc.
All rights reserved.