Social Engineering & Ransomware

Social Engineering & Ransomware

If you were asked to describe a hacker, what image comes to mind? If you’re like most, you are probably picturing unintelligible text flying across a monitor as young men in black hoodies attempt to break into networks, engaging in a very technical dance and speaking in terms the average layperson would not understand. While that may be an apt description of the hacker of yesterday, today one of the most effective means of hacking is surprisingly the least technical. It is called social engineering, and it can be loosely defined as manipulating a person to perform an action or to divulge information.

Rather than trying to break into your computer, the hackers are finding it far easier to simply trick you into handing over login information. A common example of social engineering is a hacker impersonating someone in a position of authority in an attempt to obtain someone’s password.