March 6, 2024 at 09:25AM
Social engineering is rampant in 90% of phishing attacks, particularly in business email compromise (BEC) attacks. These attacks exploit human vulnerabilities, often targeting company executives and new employees. Threat groups like Octo Tempest and Diamond Sleet utilize social engineering to steal sensitive information. To defend against such attacks, organizations should stay informed and educate employees on security measures and the danger of oversharing personal information online.
After reviewing the meeting notes, the key takeaways are:
1. Social engineering plays a significant role in cyber-attacks, particularly in business email compromise (BEC) attacks.
2. Social engineers manipulate human behavior using tactics like creating a false sense of urgency, inducing emotional states, and leveraging existing habits.
3. Threat actors often target executives, senior leadership, finance managers, human resources staff, and new employees to gain access to sensitive information.
4. Four prominent threat actor groups that leverage social engineering and BEC attacks: Octo Tempest, Diamond Sleet, Sangria Tempest (FIN), and Midnight Blizzard.
5. Measures to protect against social engineering fraud include keeping personal and work accounts separate, enforcing the use of multi-factor authentication (MFA), educating users on the danger of oversharing personal information, and securing company computers and devices with endpoint security software, firewalls, and email filters.
These takeaways underline the importance of understanding social engineering tactics and staying up-to-date with the latest threat intelligence to defend against cyber-attacks.