Longwood Community,

Welcome to the first week of the Social Engineering Fire Up campaign, where we’ll help you better understand the core concepts behind social engineering. While you’ve heard of scams and you are familiar with what con artists do to trick people into getting what they want, are you familiar with what a social engineering attack is and how it might affect your work or personal life?

Social engineering is the foundation for many of today’s cyber attacks. Essentially, social engineering is nothing more than human manipulation. Cyber attackers will try to trick you into doing something you should not do. The internet has made it easier for cyber attackers to pretend to be anything and anyone they want to be and to target anyone they want. Surprisingly, they rely on social engineering tactics far more often than high-tech hacking techniques.

So, how do you spot and avoid a social engineering attack? And why does it matter to you?

Since social engineering is a key part of so many of today’s attacks, we want to ensure you not only understand how social engineering works, but also know how to spot the most common clues. We want you to be equipped to stop an attack in its tracks.

This article includes a Social Engineering Fact Sheet and a Social Engineering Video that feature call-outs on how to spot a social engineering attack. By reviewing these materials, you can learn critical actions to take if you suspect you may be a target. 

If you have any additional questions about further protecting yourself from being a social engineering target or have suggestions about how to improve our cyber security efforts, please contact Information Security, who is directly responsible for our security awareness program and will be happy to hear from you.

Best,

The Information Security Team

infosec@longwood.edu