Social Engineering

Social engineering attempts to take advantage of human interaction and tries to extract as much information from the use of social skills. Social engineering is the umbrella term for which the following attacks are categorized under.

Phishing

Phishing is a type of social engineering that typically uses email or websites to persuade someone to act. For example: click a link, open an attachment, send a wire transfer, or even fill out a form that is asking for personal information.

Vishing

Vishing is similar to phishing, but instead of evoking user interaction through the use of email, the attacker uses a phone call to elicit information. Vishing can be used with a phishing attack where an attacker convinces the victim over voice communication to open a malicious email attachment.

Smishing

Smishing is similar to phishing but through the use of text messages or SMS messages. These types of attacks are commonly paired with another malicious component that can be in the form of a link to a phishing website or a phone number that will call the attacker.

Learn more about the different types of social engineering and methods that attackers use to compromise your information: Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks

See Also: Email Scams