There are different types of social engineering exploits. The most popular method of social engineering used by attackers is one in which they try to gain sensitive information from the firm to use as ransom.
In other methods, the attackers can trick the employees to transfer company funds or even make purchases on their behalf.
In recent times, the annual cost of a social engineering incident has quadrupled, according to a cost of phishing study by Ponemon , which is a popular cybersecurity company. In 2015, the average annual cost was 3.8 million USD, which has increased to 14.8 million USD in 2021.
Social engineering coverage is offered to help recoup some of the losses incurred by a firm that becomes a victim of a social engineering incident.
Cyber Coverage
Most firms try developing a security policy against cybercrime. Firms take proactive steps to keep themselves safe from different kinds of cyberattacks.
These include employee training, network security, and, incident response plans.
However, despite having a cyber security policy in place, many companies still fall victim to a cyberattack. This is because of the sheer amount of cyber attacks faced by the company.
These days, becoming a victim of a cyberattack is pretty much inevitable. No firm is completely safe from the threat of a cyberattack, which is why all companies must have a cybersecurity policy in place to protect them and their customers from the financial ramifications caused by a cyber incident.
Cyber liability insurance helps firms by supporting their security measures, this is done by providing third-party regulatory coverage. Cyber coverage also consists of first-party responses and recovery payout.
Common social engineering threats
In order to be safe from such incidents, a company should train all its employees against common social engineering tactics. In addition to that, all employees should have access to a company helpline which they can use to confirm whether they are being manipulated by a social engineering attack.
Employees should also be made aware of the different kinds of social engineering scams so they are able to be prepared against them. Let’s take a look at the most common types of social engineering scams briefly.
- Business email compromise
This is the most common type of attack. In a BEC attack, the attackers will look out for weaknesses in your company’s security system. Once they have discovered a weakness, they will then try to trick an employee to transfer money into their account.
Usually, attackers will closely watch your company traffic, they will try to identify important accounts, their habits, and communication methods. Once they have enough information, they will use it to trick a subordinate to transfer money into a certain account.
- Keep your software updated
Unlike past cases in which hackers persuade employees to compromise a company’s IT systems, hostile actors become familiar enough with the company’s server to break in and steal your login credentials using funds transfer fraud.
Employees are not subjected to any psychological manipulation. Hackers just keep an eye on the system, looking for network flaws, and then breaking into its authentication system to obtain passwords.
These kinds of attacks have been on a rise, with many cases being underreported by the FBI and Secret service, according to ICE MILLER.
- Cryptojacking attacks
Hackers get access to your company’s server resources, leeching off your device’s energy for their own purposes, most commonly mining digital currency. This process will slow down your employee’s systems.
Slowing your processing power will have negative consequences for your business, resulting in revenue loss. Customers who are dissatisfied with your slow response time are likely to switch to a rival.
- Telecommunications fraud loss
In this type of social engineering incident, the attackers gain access to your company’s phone networking system. Which they will then use to make long-distance calls.
According to a joint report by the European Cybercrime Centre and Trend Micro, these long-distance calls caused a loss of about 32.7 Billion USD for companies in 2019.
- Invoice manipulation
For invoice manipulation, the attackers will impersonate your firm to trick your customers, causing them to send payments into fraudulent accounts. This type of social engineering is rarely covered by insurance companies.