For as long as people have had “stuff,” there have been other people trying to trick them out of that “stuff.”

These days, the “stuff” some people want to trick you out of is your sensitive information. To do that they use social engineering.

Social engineering can take many forms:

  • Someone pretending to be the CEO and insisting you wire money to a bank account.
  • Someone pretending to be technical support and asking you for your password to “fix” your computer.
  • An email sending you to a web page to “verify” your credentials.
  • A USB thumb drive “lost” by an attacker at the entry of your workplace, hoping you will plug it into your work or home computer.
  • “Get rich quick” scams, like helping that poor foreign prince transfer his millions of dollars.

If you suspect you’re a target of social engineering via an email, a notification or a log-in screen, call CIS at 671-3400.