The internet is now present in almost every day-to-day, however, it is also exposed to cybercrime. More and more companies and individuals are being attacked by cybercriminals using social engineering, manipulating us psychologically.
Cybercrime consists of criminal activities carried out through technological means by attacking individuals, companies, entities of different types and governments. The aim is to damage computer systems and connections for fraudulent purposes, to obtain personal data or to defraud financially.
Most cyber-attacks focus on attacking the largest number of victims with the least possible investment, and that is where social engineering comes in. Users are the biggest weakness in the system, and this is due to the power of social engineering over us. By this we mean the techniques that criminals use to gain our trust and get us to do something under their manipulation, such as running malware, providing private passwords or buying from fraudulent websites.
The techniques used by cybercriminals to manipulate their victims usually follow some basic principles. They pose as entities that we respect such as State Security Forces and Corps, as fake company employees asking for data to gain unauthorised remote access, or offer a free service in exchange for private information.
For this reason, we would like to provide you with some advice on this type of cyber-attack so that you can surf the internet in the best possible way and with caution.
- Make sure that the sender of the email received is trustworthy.
- Use an alternative email account when registering for promotions or offers.
- If you are invited to click on a link, you should check that it matches the address it points to by typing the URL into your browser.
- Before downloading attachments, scan them with an antivirus.
- Activate the anti-spam filter in the e-mail account settings.
- Use strong passwords, password managers or two or multi-factor authentication systems.
