The Commonalities in Social Engineering Attacks through E-Commerce Shopping Platforms & Online Gaming Programs

Abstract

After the pandemic, the usage of internet and remote working is on the rise, and the malicious users have also increased. Many users are getting affected by social engineering attacks every day. Social engineering is the practice of gathering personal information from individuals by deceiving them. There are multiple ways in which malicious users can perform social engineering attacks, with approaches like phishing, baiting, pretexting, etc. The gamut of social engineering attacks spreads across anything online i.e., it could be a shopping website, online gaming network, enterprise mailing platform, etc. How to take preventive action against such attacks is very important. In this paper, two user groups are considered - online gamers and shoppers, and their vulnerability to such attacks. The social interactions and psychological factors of online gamers which make them vulnerable to social engineering threats are reviewed. This paper covers extensive secondary research and analysis, on the different types of social engineering attacks and the psychological factors making an individual vulnerable to such social engineering attacks. Few studies have analyzed the behaviors and relationships of gamers and their online interactions as well. This work also examines different preventive action tools that malicious attackers typically use. This study provides a framework for different types of social engineering attacks on online gamers, psychological and behavioral patterns that make them vulnerable, and what preventive actions/tools can be leveraged.