We're all human; we make mistakes. But there are plenty of people out there trying to take advantage of a simple mistake that could cost a business millions of dollars.
Social engineering is the act of taking advantage of human behavior — or that one little mistake — to steal confidential information. It's a scam that has been around for decades but it's become a bigger problem thanks to the internet and the rise of various forms of electronic communication. In fact, 60 percent of businesses fell victim to a social engineering attack in 2016.
|Exploit natural inclination to trust
Social engineering works because it's easier for hackers to exploit the natural inclination to trust someone than to figure out a new way to access a computer.
Google confirmed this month that a massive phishing scam hit millions of Gmail users in the form of an email from a trusted contact who appeared to be sharing a Google doc. To the unsuspecting eye, the email looked almost as authentic as an email from Google, down to the URL and login page. If a user clicked the link and granted permission to a fake app called Gdoc, they might have exposed their contacts, emails and any personal information contained there. Luckily, Google caught the attack quickly.
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