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