Social Engineering: What Is It and How to Defeat It

Social engineering is a method of mental manipulation used by cyber criminals to deceive people, pretending to be someone else or a company, with the intention that they share sensitive data or make decisions that endanger the security of their information. Instead of exploiting technical flaws, this type of fraud is based on human errors.

The reasoning is simple but very effective: overconfidence can be expensive. Despite having firewalls, encryption and two-step authentication, a single click on a dubious link, answering a fake email or taking a call carelessly can endanger the security of an individual or an organization.

Social engineering operates by taking advantage of the trust, distraction and lack of information of the affected person. The offender gathers details, creates a credible story and presents himself convincingly, leading the person to act without realizing that he is being manipulated.

Before carrying out the attack, the scammer often initiates an information gathering stage that is known as reconnaissance. You can get relevant data from social networks, company websites, forums, previous leaks or even by observing the victim's behavior in public places or online.

These attacks use emotions such as fear, urgency, curiosity or empathy. This is why they are so dangerous: many times, the victim only realizes the deception when it is already too late.

Social engineering is one of the most complex threats to detect within cybersecurity. Unlike conventional attacks, it is not based on technical flaws. It only takes one impulsive act for the deception to succeed.

Therefore, in addition to investing in security tools, it is essential to focus on digital education and awareness raising. Recognizing warning signs, being wary of strange requests and adopting safe practices are actions that can make a difference.

Preserving and strengthening individuality

In an interconnected planet, where networks play a fundamental role in almost every aspect of our life, there is a greater vulnerability than one might think. In reality, the way we perceive the world can be shaped by large companies that dominate the media, technology, food production, the armed forces, the financial sector, and all the areas that manage the global economy.

For this reason, it is argued that large-scale social engineering becomes an instrument of control that can affect the social, political, cultural and economic dynamics of society. In other words, they can generate realities through manipulation to achieve predefined goals that do not always serve the common good, but focus on individual interests.

In this scenario, emotions are mobilized that alter the balance of the human being, such as fear, which is a basic emotion and causes a state of vulnerability, reducing the critical or reflective capacity to make decisions and, therefore, to act in a certain way.

The repetition of the same ideas and images generates realities that lead the group towards a similar action. If you reflect on your memories, it is likely that you will remember collective moments of surprise that you experienced and then you have thought: if I had known this, I would have made a different decision.

There are common elements that can help trigger warnings to avoid falling into manipulation that affects our ability to act. It is essential to protect our free will, or in other words, to safeguard informed decision-making. To achieve this, it is essential to sharpen our critical thinking to discover what is really hidden by the promises of a supposed improvement that they use more to get our attention than to really increase our quality of life.

Messages influence the perception, behavior and decisions we make, both individually and as a group. Understanding the current situation is crucial, because right now the future of humanity is being forged, in a world that could be as dystopian as in George Orwell's novel 1984.