Social engineering
Social engineering
The human factor has been, is, and will continue to be the most common vector of attack in corporate cybersecurity. Social engineering is an ethical hacking technique that uses psychological tricks and manipulation of human behaviour to obtain sensitive information or perform unauthorised actions.
How does social engineering work?
You can have state-of-the-art firewalls, multi-factor authentication and advanced threat detection. Yet one careless click is all it takes to bring down your company's security. Social engineering remains the most common way for attackers to gain access to corporate systems – and with the advent of AI, attacks are becoming more convincing, more targeted and increasingly difficult to detect.
Thanks to the spread of AI, phishing emails no longer contain grammatical errors. In addition, they can be tailored to specific individuals using OSINT techniques. In addition to emails, other attack channels are also on the rise, from fake phone calls (vishing) and fraudulent SMS messages (smishing) to deepfake videos and fake QR codes.
The goal of these attacks remains the same: to convince your employees to enter sensitive data on fraudulent websites or otherwise unintentionally open the door to attackers within your company.
The only defence is to regularly test your employees and raise awareness of these fraudulent techniques. We use carefully prepared social engineering scenarios to test your company's resilience in practice. Each campaign is an opportunity to educate your employees and reduce the risk of you becoming a victim next time.
The most common types of attacks
Phishing
The most widespread form of attack, which comes via email. The attacker pretends to be a trusted entity (e.g. IT department, company management or supplier) and asks for access data, to click on a link or to open an infected attachment.
Vishing
The attack takes place over the phone. The attacker calls and, under the pretext of an urgent situation – such as an alleged incident, inspection or intervention by technical support – uses manipulative techniques to persuade employees to take a certain action. To increase the success rate, phone number spoofing is also used to make the call appear trustworthy.
Smishing
Similar to phishing, but via SMS or messengers such as WhatsApp, Messenger or Telegram. The attacker creates a sense of urgency or trust (e.g. password change, delivery of a parcel) and obtains sensitive information via a link or reply.
What does a social engineering test offer you?
The goal is not to ‘catch’ employees, but to find out how easily the human factor can be exploited – and how this weakness can be systematically addressed. You will gain:
real data on how your people would respond to an attack
identification of high-risk employee groups
increased security awareness across the company
Why choose Citadelo?
We tailor our social engineering tests to your industry, environment, and current security level. Our experienced ethical hackers draw from real-world campaigns and red team operations, so they know exactly how attacks work in practice. We always emphasize an ethical approach, employee safety, and clear communication of the results. Our reports are designed to be understandable not only for your IT team, but also for HR, legal, and company leadership – because the human factor affects everyone.
Are you interested in improving your company’s security?
Book a free 15-minute consultation with us and find out how we can help.
Rezervovat hned
Sign up for our newsletter for all the important cybersecurity and ethical hacking news.
© 2024 citadelo AG. All rights reserved.
