Specialists in the fields of media analytics, cyber security and public leaders joined the cyber police project to improve media literacy. In a new series of online programs “Kyberbezpeka.UA” explaining to the audience what social engineering is. Cyber policeman Vitaly Kuzmenko, rap artist Alyona Alyona, IT specialist Vitaly Yakushev, and director of the Cyber Media Track Media Analytics Center Anastasia Kondryko talk about the popular techniques of Internet fraudsters and provide recommendations on how to protect yourself from their psychological manipulations. About this reported in the Cyber Police Department of the NPU.
Social engineering is the study of how human behavior can be influenced by certain factors, although it is not itself a form of fraud. Fraudsters use the principles of social engineering to manipulate victims, encouraging them to provide the necessary information or perform certain actions on their own.
“Clicking on links, downloading files and opening them are actions that a person could not perform without the intervention of a manipulator,” — explained the Deputy Head of the Department of Operational Support and Analysis of the Cyber Police Department of the NPU Vitaliy Kuzmenko.
Experts also mention the method of “reverse social engineering”, in which the attacker creates conditions under which the victim is forced to seek help. For example, a scammer might first send a fake message with contact details purporting to be from support, and then cause a problem on the victim’s computer, expecting them to call for help.
Experts provided the main recommendations for combating criminals who use social engineering methods on the Internet:
- Be wary of any offers from strangers, especially those that seem too tempting.
- Do not panic and do not rush to comply with demands or requests from unknown persons.
- Be wary of unknown links and attachments — don’t open them unnecessarily.
- Do not enter personal data in the presence of strangers, especially card details (number, expiration date, CVV code, pin code), online banking passwords or other codes received via SMS.
- Install and regularly update anti-virus software.
- Use different passwords to access personal and corporate email, social networks and banking applications.
