UNDERSTANDING THE GROWING ISSUE OF SOCIAL ENGINEERING: A LEGAL TAKE ON HUMAN-BASED ENCROACHMENT

Abstract

In this era of technological growth and advances, ensuring cyber security becomes one of the greatest challenges everywhere. One such threat to cyber security is social engineering. Social engineering can be defined as wide array of malignant activities which is usually achieved through human interactions. It majorly involves psychological manipulation to a point where the users make security mistakes which generally results in giving away sensitive information. Social engineers are con-artists or fraudsters who mainly rely on gaining the trust of the authorized users in order to steal significant credentials. There are many people who unknowingly deal with this serious and ongoing issue. According to the 2018 Webroot Threat Report, there exist numerous criminals impersonating many financial companies and organizations. One of the most prevalent types of social engineering is phishing. It requires a situation where the fraudster imitates a trusted source and ostensibly devises a rational scenario for delivering login credentials or any other important and delicate data. Though, stopping cybercrimes is the burden of the governmental agencies working on behalf of it, there are certain ways to keep our personal data safe and protected. The study aims to shed light on certain cyber safety tips that could
offer protection and might prevent the very activity from happening. More importantly, it is crucial to be aware of all the cyber protection software and options available such as anti-virus software. This study has a pessimistic approach so as to understand the magnitude of effect caused by such deceitful activities and also attempts to suggest and cite solutions pertained to this cyber issue.