Network Security and Social Engineering

  

 Since computing and the internet went mainstream, there has been a lot of attention (rightfully so) on network security. In this essay we will further examine several ways that computer systems can be breached and how network security experts try to stop said attacks.  

    The first and most basic attack is a Denial of Service (DoS) in which the attacker sends a very large number of packets over as a PING to crash the server.  While these used to be very common and would cause havoc on servers, advancements in cyber security technology have made the repercussions of these types of attacks not nearly as extreme as they used to be. 

    A quite common type of attack currently is Phishing.  Phishing is where attackers will send emails to people posing as a credible company or service, perhaps even their bank or other financial institution and attempt to get them to click back to their fake and malicious website to enter their password or other personal information and capture it for ill willed use. As such, corporations spend significant resources to train their employees about phishing to combat this very deceptive practice as if an employee at a large corporation is phished, there is not only a monetary risk for the company but also a potential reputational risk if the cyber-attack is large enough.  

    Another type of attack that has gained prominence in recent years is social engineering.  Social engineering is not as technical in nature as the other attacks we have examined, it is more of a human attack where the attacker attempts to befriend someone online via social media or other means to get information from them to steal their identity or other valuable information to then be used for fraudlent purposes. Social engineering typically happens on social media with aggressors befriending unsuspecting people on social media sites or apps. The best way to thwart social engineering attacks is awareness and education.  Don’t trust people that you only know online and don’t put personal information out there where people that have mal intent can find it.  

 

Lain, D., Kostiainen, K., & Capkun, S. (2022). Phishing in Organizations: Findings from a Large-Scale and Long-Term Study. 2022 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP), Security and Privacy (SP), 2022 IEEE Symposium on, SP, 842–859. https://doi.org/10.1109/SP46214.2022.9833766 

 

Vahid, F., & Lysecky, S. (2019). Computing technology for all. ZyBooks. 

 

What is social engineering? A definition + techniques to watch for. (2021, July 26). Norton.com. https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-emerging-threats-what-is-social-engineering.html