Do you think 007 movies employ some social engineering methods in some James Bond missions?
Do you know that 89.7% percent of emails coming to you about get rich quick themes are spam?
The attacks are no longer just in emails, now the use of images, logos and known company names are employed. The attack exploits vulnerability in 2Wire modems allowing attackers to modify the DNS servers. Mexico is one of the largest suppliers of this type of modem. There are hundreds of thousands of them. That means, more than two million users are at risk.
Many attacks are been carried out by means of social engineering, which is the practice of obtaining confidential information by manipulating legitimate users. "users are the weak link here". Practically, the commonly used methods are achieved via the telephone, web 2.0(social networks), internet etc. The engineers, either claim to be employees of a bank or company, a colleague, a technician or a customer.
Via the Internet or the Web, they constantly send requests to renew permit/access to web pages(like passwords). With this method, social engineers exploit the natural tendency of people to react in predictable ways in certain situations.
It also is the act of manipulating people to perform actions in order to get confidential information from them to achieve other goals. Most hackers would say its easier to get information from someone by persuading or tricking the person to give it to you, rather than breaking in or using other(hacking) means. A better defense against this vice is to educate and train users in the use of security policies and ensure that the precautions are followed.
One of the most famous in recent times is Kevin Mitnick. According to Mitnick, hacking is easier achieved by tricking people to give you information by means of social engineering than trying to go into a computer system. His fame around the world has been promoted by Hollywood in the movie take down. You see more about Mitnick in my Ethical hacking page.
Other examples are, Frank Abagnale (the movie catch me if you can tells his story), Stanley Mark Rifkin, David Buchwald (The leader of the Legion of Doom (LOD), an active hacker group in the 1980s to the late 1990s and early 2000).
countries that send the highest spam
countries responsible for the highest malware
Countries with the highest number of hack incidents
