What Are Social Engineering Attacks? How Can You Protect Yourself?

Social engineering attacks are at the core of all cyberattacks, as threat actors use many different types of psychological manipulation to kick off their cyberattacks. In this episode of the Faegre Drinker on Law and Technology Podcast, host Jason G. Weiss welcomes Peter Baldwin — who focuses his practice in white collar criminal investigations and cyber-incident response — and they explore the ins and outs of social engineering attacks, how to identify them and how to defeat them.

In this episode with a special twist, Pete takes the “host microphone” and chats with Jason, who takes on the role of podcast guest tackling a number of questions, including:

• What are the main underlying pillars of a social engineering attack? What is their foundation and what makes them successful?
• How do the more common social engineering attacks work? Such as phishing, spear phishing, whaling, business email compromises, dumpster diving, smishing, vishing, catfishing, gas lighting and SIM swapping?
• What are the top targets in health care, financial services and manufacturing?
• What are some good defenses to help people prevent many of the more common social engineering attacks?