I have a psychology background and Social Engineering is considered a good thing in there. On the contrary in the internet social engineering is nothing but bad.
The best advantage in the internet – people can be connected with any other person in the internet without knowing/caring where the other person is – can be its main threat.
Reading about Social engineering makes me even more paranoid about internet and its safety. I am probably a common user. I am suspicious enough in the real life as well, so I have never believed an email saying I have won something that I previously had never signed for.
I really liked a definition of social engineering in “internet safety wiki” –
Social engineering is Techniques used by a malicious person to get someone to divulge confidential information.
My view has always been that Google has enormous amount of data about me but what I had not think about so much is that the Google password that opens so many doors for me can also open all these doors to some bad person who have stolen the password. If I am one of those person that uses same password for years in different places, then it would not be hard to track it down. But then again - why they should choose me?
Behind internet organized crime are actually lightheaded people. This example of social engineering in a firm that contains not only actually using internet but being in the company by person, is well organized one and every step well thought trough. While int this case the people who "attacked" the company were inside the building in person, then basically it would not be always needed. The same way someone can currently "walk" through my computer and collect data I have not protected correctly.
How should I protect myself? The first thing to do is acknowledge that there is this kind of threat, social engineering in the internet is a security risk in every moment. I need to learn about new threats and keep my constant paranoid thinking working, this will help me with most of the threats.
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