The Michigan IT Experts

Let’s start with a look at what social engineering is and why it works so well on users.

Social Engineering Targets the Human Part of Your Brain

Social engineering is designed to get you to act impulsively. In other words, it’s the manipulation of your emotions and thought processes. If we hear that something needs to be done, and it comes from someone whom we believe and respect, then we will naturally want to perform the task, even if it might not necessarily make sense in the moment.

In regards to business and social engineering, the stakes are considerably higher than if someone were to play a prank or a trick on you. In these cases, social engineering tactics prey on the fears and anxieties associated with the workplace. All of this takes some preparation on the hacker’s part. Here are some of the steps involved in this process, from the hacker’s perspective.

The Steps Involved in a Social Engineering Attack

Depending on the target and the victim, the social engineering attack might go through various stages. More often than not, the attacker will plan out their attack through the use of research. Let’s get in the mindset of an attacker to see it from their perspective.

If you wanted to attack a company, for example, you might first collect as much data as you could. The Internet can be a treasure trove of information on its employees thanks to its open nature, and you might be able to find information publicly on social media and networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and others. You might discover some of the likes and dislikes of these employees. Afterward, it is just a matter of using this information in a way that gets the user to act a certain way.

There are other ways of going about an attack, too, like fear tactics. Employees don’t want to get in trouble in the workplace, and if they get a message from someone claiming to be their boss, they will likely act to keep their integrity and job in check.

A resourceful attacker might use a combination of both to get their way. If someone posts a picture on social media with their webcam in the background, the attacker could use this to instill fear in the user’s heart that they have been caught doing incriminating things. The attacker might then threaten to release the footage to personal or professional contacts, and then they might demand a ransom in exchange for not doing so.

How Can Your Team Avoid Social Engineering Attacks?

If you want to help your team avoid social engineering attacks, it starts with helping them spot some of the dead giveaway signs:

• Messaging and tone that incites fear or makes a threat
• Links that were not requested and don’t match their apparent destination when you hover over them
• Close-but-not-quite email addresses and domain names
• Malicious email attachments

It also never hurts to confirm the identity of the message’s sender through secondary means. You might go check on your boss to make sure that the message came from them, or you might contact the third party that the message claims to be through a number you might have on record. As long as your employees are aware that social engineering exists and that they can become the target of attacks, then you can’t go wrong here.

Let Us Help You Get Ready for These Threats

We want to help you ensure that your team is ready to tackle important security problems in a way that doesn’t put your organization at risk. To learn more, reach out to us at 810.230.9455.

Fortunately, the technology available today gives you a few different options. Let’s touch on them to see what would work effectively for your needs.

What Can I Do to Help Ensure My Employees Remain Healthy?

Depending on the processes you’ve established for your workplace procedures, the right technology can facilitate more health-conscious practices. For instance, the fewer the number of people actually in the office, the less likely it is that a pathogen will be carried in and spread.

Remote/Hybrid Work Offers Health Advantages

Like we said, the fewer people that are in the office at any one time, the less likely it is that a germ is being carried inside. Remote and hybrid work allows your team to remain productive while spending at least some of their work time outside the office—so, while you’re keeping a germ from spreading through your workforce, you aren’t necessarily losing valuable time. Honestly, it’s a win-win.

Taking advantage of this win-win situation, however, will require some preparation. Namely, you need to ensure that your team members and business have access to the technology that remote work relies on, and that you have policies that address these options specifically.

Refurnish Your Office (and Reconsider How You Use It)

Changing workplace conditions is nothing new—it’s why computer mice are increasingly molded to better fit in one’s hand, and more and more focus has gone into break rooms and other amenities. Lately, people have been questioning how healthy it is to spend so much time seated at a desk, or seated in general. Studies have shown that remaining seated for such long periods can increase the chance of a heart attack… yikes.

Nowadays, standing and convertible desks are available to help encourage employees to stand every now and again. Likewise, you can also change the way that you carry out certain business functions. Maybe that regular meeting you have with one or two people can transition into a walking meeting.

Mental Health is Health, Too

It isn’t uncommon for people to focus on physical health—the size of their gut or the pain in their backs—over the needs of their mental health, despite the latter being a major aspect of their health overall. Having safeguards in place to ensure that your employees’ mental health is well taken care of is therefore a wise investment. Develop a positively-charged workplace and give them the support they need (seeking out feedback so you can do so effectively) to see some real benefits in their work and work lives.

Health and Safety Leads to Productivity

If you were able to improve your business’ success through simply making it a safer and healthier place to work, why wouldn’t you? NuTech Services can help you ensure your team remains healthy in any form by providing the technology that enables their operations either in the office or remotely. Find out more about our managed services by calling 810.230.9455.

Use Your Mobile Hotspot Over Public Wi-Fi

It is safer to use your smartphone as a mobile hotspot than using public wireless connections, and it is well worth paying a little bit extra. You’re not going anywhere without your phone, so it makes sense that you use your mobile hotspot to connect your laptop, tablet, or other device to it rather than use a potentially unsecured wireless network. As long as you have decent cell service, it’s guaranteed to work, unlike a public Wi-Fi connection.

Connect to Public Wi-Fi Only When Necessary

We think it’s safe enough to pull up directions or to look at your flight itinerary while using public Wi-Fi, but you should be a little more careful with checking your email, logging into your social media, or anything else involving sensitive information. The longer you remain on the network, the longer you are at risk of having your data stolen.

If you have a virtual private network, however, you can use that to create a secure connection for work-related information. Your business should be using one of these anyway, especially in the wake of a pandemic which forced countless employees to work remotely.

Be Careful of What You Share on Social Media

If people know you aren’t home, then who’s to say that they won’t try to break in? The automated outdoor lights are not going to be enough to stop someone who is intent on breaking and entering. It’s better to just not advertise online that your home will be empty for a week. We aren’t saying that you will be robbed while on your vacation, but it’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility.

People could even come up with elaborate schemes to make your life more difficult, too. Imagine some hacker or scammer sees that you are on vacation for a couple of weeks, then uses your identity to get the help of a random Facebook friend with some nonsensical story about how you lost your wallet and need help getting home. When you consider how often accounts are hijacked, it’s not a stretch to think it could happen to you.

Make Sure Your Traveling Accounts are Secured

Traveling often means that you are creating new accounts, whether you are flying on an airline for the first time, using a ride-sharing service, staying at a hotel, or even something as simple as ordering food. Make sure that you aren’t getting too lax with your personal information, and ensure that you are always using complex, secure passwords for your accounts, stored in a password manager rather than your web browser. It can sometimes be easier to plan ahead so you don’t have to worry about it at the moment.

Let Us Take Care of Your Technology

If you are going on vacation, we hope you get as much rest and relaxation out of it as possible. The past couple of years have not been kind, and we could all use a break–especially now. Take some of the worrying out of your vacation by trusting your IT management to NuTech Services. We’ll make sure things run smoothly while you’re gone. To learn more, reach out to us at 810.230.9455.