Social engineering has become the best weapons for cybercrime and state-sponsored hackers, thanks to the personal info shared by users on social media

Social engineering has become the best weapon for cybercrime and state-sponsored hackers. After the cyber attacks phenomenon exploded, many users started to look more in depth at their cyber security, improving the network and computer defenses, and patching the systems and the software. But too many forgot to improve also their security on social media, reducing personal details and information shared with the Net. So the hackers did their job that is finding and exploiting the flaws. Not in the hardware and software, but this time in the human being. Thanks to this, cyber scams are growing as a Technical support fraud. Bad guys pose as employees of trusted organizations such as IT companies, Internet Service Providers, and so on. They phone the victim, claiming there is a problem with their account/internet/computer, and that they need remote access to the victim’s device to fix it. 

The Technical support fraud phenomenon is growing. Microsoft revealed that in 2017 received 153,000 complaints about this cyber scam from around 183 countries, a 24% increase from the previous year

Many people, thanks to the personal details known by the cyber aggressors, trust them, granting the access to their devices and networks. As soon as the cybercrime hackers are inside the systems, they install a key logger or other malware, launch phishing attacks against the victim’s contacts or access his personal information. From passwords to banking details. This way, the Technical support fraud affects businesses as well as individuals, with some malicious hackers regarding businesses as more lucrative victims. Just thanks to the fact that many users shared their personal info on the social media and the Web. Microsoft reported that it had received 153,000 complaints about the cyber scam from around 183 countries in 2017, a 24% increase from the previous year. So, beware of phone calls by unknown people and be careful on what kind of contents you publish on the Internet. Prevention is always better than cure.