Humans are the weakest link in most IT systems. You might have advanced cybersecurity solutions in place but still fall victim to social engineering attacks such as phishing. A social engineering assessment helps you figure out the most imminent threats, potential attack paths, and your level of readiness.
5 Benefits of Social Engineering Assessment
This assessment mimics actual threats such as malicious email attachments and telephone pretexting to determine vulnerability. Its advantages include:
1. Reduced Risk Through Awareness Training
This is done by demonstrating how an actual attack would occur. Because cybersecurity experts are thinking like bad actors, they’re able to identify and seal vulnerabilities before they’re exploited.
Your employees are more likely to take security recommendations seriously if they experience simulated social engineering attacks. It also helps you zero in on specific areas of weakness and prioritize your response accordingly.
2. Peace of Mind
Social engineering attacks evolve fast. They take advantage of the latest trends to infiltrate your organization’s network and access valuable data. If not for social engineering assessment, you’d have a hard time keeping up with all these changes.
IT experts construct multiple scenarios and threat pretexts, then create solutions customized to your organization. Your employees can go about their online activities with the knowledge that they’re fully protected. This peace of mind ultimately improves productivity.
3. A More Comprehensive Cybersecurity Approach
Most organizations spend more on protecting their network perimeter from getting attacked by bad actors. If you don’t pay as much attention to your internal network, a successful breach could result in paralyzed operations.
A social engineering assessment helps you prioritize targeted network security solutions. It also provides detailed reports and applicable recommendations for increased cybersecurity. These include network segmentation and improving your incident response procedure.
4. Confidence in Your Organization
Implementing recommendations made from a social engineering assessment is beneficial to your company. Your clients, employees, suppliers, and other stakeholders are more likely to do business with you if they trust you. They know you take your security seriously, which makes their interactions with your business more secure by extension.
This assessment also satisfies the requirements of regulatory bodies such as the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC). Financial companies and other organizations that handle sensitive customer data must always be prepared against cyber-attacks.
5. Prevents Costly Spending
It’s better to prevent a cyber-attack than to deal with its consequences. Some of the biggest hacks in the world have been attributed to social engineering attacks. The results are compromised customer data, reduced confidence in your organization, increased regulatory scrutiny, and potential lawsuits.
Other than spending on mitigating the effects of an attack, you’ll also lose business due to a crippled network. It would take a long time to convince your customers to trust you again. Regular social engineering assessments help you avoid these unpleasant developments.
Who Needs Social Engineering Assessment?
Any company with employees who spend a significant amount of time online qualifies for social engineering assessment. Internet use is central to the corporate world, making it easier to fall victim to phishing attacks. Almost all companies maintain a customer database to help improve service provision.
These databases contain valuable information such as names, addresses, financial and contact details, social security numbers, and login passwords. This is the kind of information cyber attackers try to access through social engineering attacks. They do so through the following methods:
Phishing
It occurs when the attacker sends you a legitimate-looking email from your bank, boss, or other people you interact with. It tricks you into handing over sensitive information, which is used to launch a network breach.
Vishing
Also known as voice phishing, it’s the act of collecting personal information over the phone by promising a reward.
Smishing
This is similar to email phishing, though it’s used to compromise mobile phones. Malware is delivered through a message to the victim’s phone.
Pretexting
This occurs when hackers impersonate other people, intending to gain access to privileged information. They could pretend to be IT support, a department head, or customer care representative in a financial institution.
Most people tend to give otherwise private details such as passwords to such individuals when requested.
As long as your employees are susceptible to such attacks, it would be best if you had social engineering assessment. It helps you reduce the chances of attack through various countermeasures. These include training employees, performing event tests, and establishing security frameworks. By repeatedly mimicking these attacks, cybersecurity experts ensure your employees are familiar with them. This makes it harder for them to be persuaded by real attacks.
Hummingbird Networks Excels at Social Engineering Assessment
At Hummingbird Networks, we understand that your network’s weakest link is
humans. Our social engineering assessment solution focuses on bringing them up to speed on the latest cyber threats. We ensure they can identify phishing, pretexting, baiting, and other tactics employed in social engineering attacks. Our reports also include additional cybersecurity measures you can take to protect your network. Contact us today for more information.
