Social Engineen
Engineen Breach
Answers
Answer:
Social engineering, in the context of IT, often refers to the manipulation of people to perform actions or give up confidential information.
As long as there has been any proprietary or private information, bad actors have been attempting to steal it. Recently, with the acceleration of technology and the accessibility to the internet, hackers have refocused their strategy. Where, in the past, an assailant would be required to be physically in the room to breach a system, now a simple email is all that is necessary.
The goal of such an attack is to extract information, commit fraud, or gain system access by tricking an unsuspecting user by gaining their confidence.
Naturally, as technology becomes more widely adopted, there has been an uptick in such attacks. Social engineering attacks are worth keeping an eye on. At the very least, to monitor your company’s vulnerabilities.
The Sony Pictures Hack
On Monday, November 24, 2014, many of Sony Picture’s employees began to see skulls appearing on their computer screens with software rendering their machines inoperable. It was quickly discovered that many of Sony’s official Twitter accounts had been compromised as well. A group identifying themselves as the Guardians of Peace took credit for the hack and began to issue demands. They claimed that they were in possession of over 100 terabytes of stolen data and would start releasing it if their demands were not met.
Unfortunately for Sony, the e-mail, outlining the demands of the group, was missed, likely caught up in a spam filter or the daily barrage of messages we are all used to receiving. Shortly after the deadline for the demands had passed, Guardians of Peace began leaking unreleased films to social media. In addition to unreleased content, they also leaked personal information about employees of Sony Pictures including their families, inter-office e-mails, salary information, and more.
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