ADVISORY HIGHLIGHT
Top Social Engineering Attacks and How to Protect Your Business From Falling Victim
With the digital landscape continuously evolving, cybercriminals are finding new, innovative ways to gain access to sensitive information. A common technique on the rise, social engineering uses human emotion to trick targets into performing an action, such as sending money, divulging sensitive information or disclosing authentication credentials.
Social engineering currently includes tactics such as phishing( mass and spear), business email compromise, vishing and deepfake-assisted impersonation. This year, the human element is involved in a very high percentage of breaches. Verizon’ s 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report claims more than 22,000 incidents and 12,195 confirmed breaches, with phishing and stolen credentials among the top initial access vectors. One single victim can wreak havoc on an entire organization.
Common Social Engineering Techniques
Explore the top social engineering techniques, including the most common attacks and what your business can do to safeguard it from falling victim.
Phishing
While phishing scams are commonly heard about, it’ s still one of the most frequently used techniques to gain quick access to data. Attackers leveraging phishing have gotten smarter and more sophisticated, which makes defending your business from them harder. Normally in the form of an email, it typically appears as if it is from a legitimate source. Some attackers look to coerce the victim into giving away credit card information or other personal data, while others are sent to obtain employee login information or other details to trigger an attack against their company. Ransomware often starts with a random phishing attempt and escalates into a larger attack. More recently, many attackers are even targeting Microsoft 365, sending emails that appear to be from Microsoft and requesting the user to reset their password.
Business Email Compromise Attacks
Fraudsters are now masking themselves as C-level executives and attempting to trick key employees into performing a business function, such as wiring money or other risky actions. These types of attacks can be especially dangerous, as they appear legitimate from one employee to another.
USB Baiting
While USB drives are not used as frequently as they used to, they are still a target for cybercriminals. Criminals are installing malware on USB sticks hoping someone will retrieve it and plug it into a corporate environment, unleashing malicious code.
Safeguarding Your Business
Awareness is key when it comes to cyber attacks. Companies can mitigate the risk of social engineering by simply training their employees. Your organization should have clearly set security policies to support employees in making the best decisions when social engineering attempts are made.
Effective mitigation also requires a layered approach, which includes effective password management, email security, phishing simulations and more.
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