Social Engineering Attacks and How to Secure Your Business

Acknowledging that your business might be vulnerable to social engineering is the first step toward securing it. As a leader, you have a unique view of how people, processes, and systems interact daily. Unfortunately, even the strongest technical defenses can be overcome by hacking the human… meaning human manipulation. This is where social engineering comes into play, and it’s a major risk to the reputation and security of your business.

In this article, I’ll dive into the dangers of social engineering and the damage it can cause to your business. I’ll cover the most common tactics, like phishing, spoofing, whaling, and baiting, and explain how these attacks work and how to protect yourself.

What Is Social Engineering?

Let’s start with the basics. Social engineering is when someone tricks people into giving away confidential information or access. It’s like a con game. Instead of attacking your company’s security systems, cybercriminals focus on your employees. They use psychology to manipulate someone into clicking a bad link in an email, sharing a password, or installing harmful software.

Think of it like this: no matter how secure your company’s firewall or security software is, an attacker can get into your network if someone lets them in the building. That’s what makes social engineering so dangerous. It preys on human nature—curiosity, trust, fear—and exploits it. Once inside the network, attackers can cause countless problems, stealing sensitive data, spying on you, and even shutting down operations entirely.

How Social Engineering Affects Your Business

Social engineering can have serious consequences. The impacts can ripple through the entire business. Here are some impacts you could see:

1. Financial Loss: Attackers can steal company funds by tricking employees into transferring money by identifying an invoice when they broke into your email and changing the banking information on the invoice or calling as if they were the legitimate customer and providing “updated” account numbers (falsely – of course).
2. Data Breaches: Social engineers often aim to steal customer data, intellectual property, or sensitive business information. This can result in costly data breaches that damage the company’s reputation.
3. Disrupted Operations: Once an attacker has access, they can shut down your systems or deploy ransomware, locking you out of critical systems until a ransom is paid.
4. Reputation Damage: Losing customer trust is hard to recover from. A data breach or financial fraud can severely damage your company’s image and relationships with partners and clients.
5. Legal Trouble: If a breach happens due to social engineering your company might face legal consequences, especially if customer data is exposed. This can lead to fines and lawsuits.

Phishing: The Most Common Social Engineering Attack

Of all the social engineering tactics, phishing is probably the one you’ve heard of. It’s the most common and easiest for attackers to pull off. Phishing is when cybercriminals send emails that look legitimate but are designed to steal information or install malware. The goal is to trick an employee into clicking a link or downloading an attachment. It doesn’t matter who the employee is; it could be the janitor, someone in HR, or the CEO. Of course, the most Gucci target is someone with administrative rights to the network.

Example of Phishing:

Imagine that you receive an email that appears to be from your company’s HR department. It asks you to click a link to review your benefits package. Everything seems normal, so you click. But instead of going to the real company site, you’re taken to a fake one that looks identical. You enter your credentials, which are sent to the attackers, and the login fails.  The webpage redirects you back to the real website and you log in and see nothing from the HR department and grumble about how inefficient the HR department is for sending you an email when no action is required. At this point, it’s too late; the adversary already has your login info. You gave it to them.

Phishing attacks can happen to anyone in the company. They’re quick, sneaky, and often look so real that even the most careful person can fall for them. Check out this real-world example of a phishing campaign where the emails appeared to come from big entities like Disney, Nike, IBM, and Coca-Cola.

Spoofing: Impersonating Someone You Trust

Another common attack is spoofing. Spoofing is when a cybercriminal pretends to be someone else, often a trusted coworker or business partner, to trick you. This could be done through email, phone calls, or even websites. The attacker changes their contact information to make it look like the message is from a legitimate source.

Example of Spoofing:

Let’s say you get an email that looks like it’s from the CEO. It asks you to send over some sensitive financial information or login credentials. The email address looks legitimate, and the message sounds like something the CEO would say. But it’s actually from a hacker. By the time you realize the truth, the damage is done.

Spoofing attacks can be incredibly damaging because they exploit trust. When someone believes they’re interacting with someone they know, they’re more likely to follow through without questioning the request.

Whaling: Going After the Big Fish

Phishing and spoofing cast a wide net for any employees, but whaling targets high-ranking executives. The term “whaling” refers to the fact that attackers are hunting for the “big fish”—executives who have access to critical company resources. These attacks are more carefully crafted, with attackers doing their homework to create very convincing messages.

Example of Whaling:

Imagine an attacker spends weeks researching your CFO. They learn about their daily routine, recent business trips, and the vendors they deal with. The attacker then sends a personalized email that looks like it’s from a trusted vendor, asking for an urgent payment to settle an invoice. The email contains details that make it hard to spot as fake. If the CFO doesn’t notice the deception, the company could lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in minutes.

Baiting: Luring Victims with Temptation

Baiting is a social engineering tactic that preys on curiosity or greed. In a baiting attack, an attacker offers something enticing—like free software, a USB drive, or a prize—hoping the victim will take the bait. Once the victim interacts with the bait, they unknowingly allow the attacker access to the system.

Example of Baiting:

A common example of baiting is leaving a USB drive in the office parking lot labeled “Confidential – Bonuses.” An employee picks it up, wondering if they’ve stumbled upon some inside information. They plug the USB into their computer to check, but instead of seeing bonus details, malware is installed on their system giving the attacker access to the network.

Baiting works because it taps into basic human curiosity. Even with the best intentions, people can easily fall into the trap of thinking they’ve found something valuable or useful. This type of attack is often used by penetration testers trying to break into a building.

How Can You Protect Your Business from Social Engineering?

Now that we’ve discussed phishing, spoofing, whaling, and baiting, it’s clear that social engineering attacks can happen to anyone at any time. So how can you protect your business? Here are some key steps:

1. Educate Employees: Awareness is your first line of defense. Everyone in the business, from the front desk to the C-suite (meaning the CEO, COO, CFO, CTO, CIO, etc.), should be trained to recognize phishing emails, suspicious requests, and other signs of social engineering.
2. Use Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Even if an attacker gets a hold of someone’s login information, MFA can add an extra layer of security. This means that even if an attacker gets the password, it isn’t enough—they’ll need a second form of verification, like a code sent to a phone.
3. Implement Email Filtering: Advanced email filtering systems can detect and block many phishing and spoofing attempts before they reach employees’ inboxes. Monitoring these filters is essential to catching suspicious activity early.
4. Have a Clear Incident Response Plan: When (not if) a social engineering attack happens, time is of the essence. Employees need to know exactly what to do if they suspect an attack, and your business needs a plan to investigate and respond quickly.
5. Verify Requests for Sensitive Information: One of the easiest ways to prevent social engineering attacks is to require extra verification for any request involving sensitive information or financial transactions. A simple phone call to confirm a request can stop an attack in its tracks.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) run by the US government posted an article called Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks that discusses what to look for if you are being socially engineered.

Conclusion

Social engineering isn’t just a problem for the IT department; it’s a risk that affects everyone in the company. Whether an attack comes through phishing, spoofing, whaling, or baiting, attackers are looking for any opportunity to manipulate people into letting them in.

The good news? You can make a difference. By staying alert, questioning suspicious requests, and following best practices, you can help prevent these attacks from impacting your company. Remember, social engineering preys on human nature—but with the right training and safeguards, you can stop it before it’s too late.