Pretexting is a malicious technique that is mainly done to get the personal information of a person which is mainly done by manipulating the victim to transfer the information and is mentioned as an action that is known for exploiting the weakness of the organization that are physical or digital.
It is mentioned that in the technique of pretexting, it mainly found that a story or a pretext is used to gain the trust of the victim and hence is found to manipulate the victim to share their sensitive information as well as sending money to criminals along with harming the victim or the organization that the victim is attached to is also harmed.
What does Social Engineering Refer to?
Social Engineering refers to a tactic that is performed by the hacker in which it can be seen that the criminal is depicted as a person whom the victim is known for trusting and hence will be easily able to access the sensitive information of the victim. It is mentioned that the social engineer is known for using psychological manipulation so that the victim himself can give away personal or financial information to the criminal.
Many attacks are found to happen in one or many steps by social engineering that are planned to take the necessary as well as sensitive information from the victim. The attacker is mentioned for working in the form of pretexting that is known to gain the trust of the victim and hence to manipulate the victim to give away the personal information themself.
Types of Pretexting Attack Technique/Social Engineering Technique:
Several types of attacks are categorized under social engineering attacks and are mentioned to take information from the victim the types are mentioned as common social engineering attacks done digitally:
- Phishing: Phishing is a type of attack that is done by the attacker to get information from the victim that is sensitive such as card details and passwords related to any social media or email and is found to be done by sending a link similar to the social media handle link.The link is forwarded where the user is found to insert the details that can be noted by the attacker and hence can be mentioned as the victim suffering from the type of pretexting attacks the target through spear phishing. It is also mentioned that pretexting is known to increase the cases of phishing attacks to be successful.
- Baiting: Baiting is a type of attack that is done by making an attractive message that is promising and hence is known for winning the trust of victims and trapping them in the attack. It is seen that the attacker sent the bait that is mentioned as malware-infected drives that are found in places that are visited commonly. It is located in the device in such a way that the victim will notice the bait and will insert it into their work device which will be able to deploy the software of the victim’s device with the malware inserted and is also mentioned as a pretexting attack.
- Scareware: Scareware is the pretexting attack in which the victim is notified with a false alarm which is known for making the victim aware that their device is infected with the viruses or threats and hence asked to install the software in their device so that they can remove the malware that is found and is affecting the device. It is seen that this type is attack is mainly done when the user is browsing on the website with a pop-up notification related to viruses and threats that are found in their device and is also known to be distributed to encourage the victim to purchase the scareware software with the help of emails.
- Vishing: Vishing is mentioned as a type of attack that is done using phone calls that are done by the attacker to trick the victim so that the victim is found to give access to their device. It is mentioned as an attack in which the attacker pretends to work like an officer who is found to scare the victim so that they give access easily and is mainly found that the victims who are aimed for vishing are people of old age group as they can be tricked easily by the attacker.
- Impersonation: Impersonation is a type of social engineering attack in which it is found that the attacker is found to imitate the person who is found to be trusted by the victim and is mentioned to use the phone numbers or email addresses of the attacker.
The attacker sends the emails or calls using the SIM swap scam that is used to swap the phone number so that the attacker can imitate a known person of the victim and hence can get the information from the victim easily.
Protective Measures to Prevent Pretexting Attacks:
To prevent the victim from being attacked with pretexting attacks, it is mentioned that the people should be made aware of the security best practices and should be educated so that the victims can be protected.
Below are some of the best ways that serve the purpose of protecting the people from pretexting attacks:
- People should be educated to not share their passwords or sensitive information with anyone, especially through phone numbers or emails as legitimate organizations will never ask for sensitive information from any user for any type of verification.
- People should be aware when they are communicating with an unknown person who is asking for personal information and stay alert while communicating.
- The passwords that are created by the user should be strong and unique for different websites all across different websites.
- If the person suspects any suspicious activity that is not familiar to the person, it should be reported and hence will lead to avoiding pretexting attacks and preventing further harm.
- To prevent an organization from being attacked by any social engineering attack it should be made sure that the company adapts the policies of cyber security and should be updated regularly with the policies.
- Multiple factor Authentication should be used by the company to add an extra layer of protection from any type of pretexting attacks.
At the end of the article, it can be concluded that pretexting is a type of attack that is mostly faced by people in daily life that are done using texts or emails from the attacker that win the trust of the victim and they share their sensitive information easily to the attack. Several measures should be taken by the user as well as organizations to avoid further attacks and prevent harm through these attacks.
