Tips to avoid being a victim of social engineering

What is social engineering

First we are going to talk about what are Social engineering attack. Basically we can say that they are strategies that hackers use to cheat the victim. They can, as a legitimate company, for example, and thus request information from the user.

This type of problem is very much present in attacks. Phishing. They later seek to gain the trust of Internet users to carry out the attack. For example, impersonating a trusted website and requesting the victim to log in. With this they receive data to end up on a server controlled by the attacker.

Therefore, the purpose of social engineering attacks is to mislead the victim. They typically use services such as email, social networks, or messaging programs. We should always take precautions and protect.

Tips to avoid social engineering attacks

We are going to make some recommendations to avoid falling prey to social engineering attacks. Keeping some important points in mind to prevent them from stealing our personal information, passwords or compromising devices.

Avoid leaking information

To avoid falling prey to social engineering attacks, some basic thing is not to leave a mark on the Internet in public. Avoid putting our for example Email address or phone number In open forums or pages where we post comments.

In this way we will prevent bots from tracking that information and being used in phishing attacks and similar campaigns. The less data we make public on the web, the better it is for our privacy.

Save device

Must also be Properly protected equipment. A good antivirus can prevent the entry of malicious software that can compromise our security. There are many tools that we can use for all types of operating systems. There are both free and paid.

Protecting our computers or mobile devices can prevent personal information from leaking or prevent Trojan and other varieties of malware from entering us to carry out social engineering attacks.

Always install updates

But you also have to keep in mind the importance of being yourself. Update tool. There are many weaknesses that can arise. There were many flaws which hackers could take advantage of.

Thanks to patches and updates we can correct them. In addition, we will improve performance by including the latest versions. This is one of the factors that we should always keep in mind.

common sense

Another tip, though perhaps the most important, is common sense. Most social engineering attacks will require the interaction of the victim. For example, download malicious attachments by email or open a link that we receive through social networks.

It is important to always maintain common sense and do not make mistakes that may compromise us. In this way we will avoid surprises that may put us at risk.