The Main Social Engineering Techniques Aimed at Hacking Information Systems

Abstract

This article examines the main methods of phishing (a type of online fraud in which an attacker wants to obtain authentication data from a victim) as a social engineering tool. Social engineering attack is the most common attack method used by attackers. Methods of social engineering aimed at hacking information systems are described in the article. Such phishing attacks as vishing (phishing with the implementation of a telephone conversation), smishing (carried out by scammers by sending SMS messages), spear phishing (aimed at a specific person or group of persons), whaling (aimed at the management of organizations), clone phishing (can be aimed at a large audience). These attacks expose confidential information and spread malicious software to victims' personal devices. The user (person) himself was identified as the most vulnerable element of the information security system, and social engineers are aimed at their rash actions. The phishing technique is the most widespread in the world practice for stealing the login-password combination; for its varieties, the basic schemes of interaction between the user and the attacker are described.