Computer Security Literacy

CHAPTER 11

Social Engineering: Phishing for Suckers

11.1    INTRODUCTION

Just as malware exploits software vulnerabilities, social engineers exploit human vulnerabilities to accomplish their goals. Social engineering is the art of manipulating people to reveal information or perform actions that are not in their best interest. In many ways, it is much easier for a social engineer to trick you into giving him or her your credit card number or password or to install malware on your computer than it is for an attacker to accomplish the same goal through other more technical means. This is why many current malware propagation methods include some sort of social engineering trickery (e.g., Love Bug worm, fake antivirus) to accomplish their goals. ...