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Social Engineering

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Social engineering 

Social engineering is generally a hacker’s clever manipulation of the natural human tendency to trust. The hacker’s goal is to obtain information that will allow him/her to gain unauthorized access to a valued system and the information that resides on that system. It is also used to gain access to a physical area where confidential information is kept in paper form.

Security is all about trust. Trust in protection and authenticity. Social engineering preys upon the natural human willingness to trust and accept someone at his or her word; this leaves many of us vulnerable to attack and is generally agreed upon as the weakest link in the security chain.

If you think that you might have revealed sensitive information about the organization or the employees, report it to the appropriate person within your organization. Immediately change all passwords for each logon account. Consider reporting the event to the police and file a report with the Federal Trade Commission (http://www.ftc.gov/).