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How to Prevent Social Engineering Attacks Business
From the innocuous use of personal devices (bring your own device, or BYOD) to social engineering attacks, the cyber threat is all around us, often creeping out of places we least suspect. Not only are these threats becoming more widespread, but dedicated attacks are also more complex and convincing. Even the biggest companies are not immune to the potentially disastrous effects of a sophisticated social engineering attack or device mismanagement. The information provided will be used in accordance with our terms set out in our . Please confirm you have read and understood this Notice. By submitting the form, you are agreeing to receive insights, reports and other information from Verizon and affiliated companies in accordance with our . California residents can view our . Verizon may wish to contact you in the future concerning its products and/or services. If you would like to receive these communications from Verizon, indicate by selecting from the dropdown menu below. Please note that you can unsubscribe or update your preferences at any time. Indicates a required field. The content access link will be emailed to you. You will soon receive an email with a link to confirm your access, or follow the link below. You may now close this message and continue to your article. From the innocuous use of personal devices (bring your own device, or BYOD) to social engineering attacks, the cyber threat is all around us, often creeping out of places we least suspect. Not only are these threats becoming more widespread, but dedicated attacks are also more complex and convincing. Even the biggest companies are not immune to the potentially disastrous effects of a sophisticated social engineering attack or device mismanagement. Many potential weak links and vulnerabilities can be exploited in business settings, whether in microenterprises, medium-sized companies or large corporations. Some weak links require a high level of technical knowledge to detect, making them difficult to protect against attacks. Others, however, are easily exploited and often overlooked, presenting low-hanging fruit for threat actors. Unfortunately, in the latter case, humans are an ever-present weakness that can be easily exploited, unwittingly exposing enterprises to risks—whether it is by fraudsters targeting them mercilessly with sophisticated scams, such as smishing and robocall attacks, or because employees are simply bypassing security tools to optimize their work. In today's remote/hybrid corporate world, BYOD policies are more widely implemented to boost employee productivity and reduce hardware costs, although both of those reasons may not always hold true in practice. While BYOD may bring these benefits, it also potentially carries a significant cyber risk. With the increasing sophistication of social engineering (and today with the use of artificial intelligence [AI] and deep fakes to create highly convincing voice impersonations), even the savviest users can have difficulty detecting these attack schemes. Scammers will typically seek out the weakest link in an organization, which often is the human element—such as disgruntled employees, lost personal devices used for work or executives who think they are communicating with someone they know. Wherever your weak link lies, there is a prime opportunity for threat actors to gain access through phishing (email/messaging), vishing (phone/voice) or smishing (text/Short Message Service [SMS]) attacks. For instance, a global ride-sharing company's network when an attacker targeted a contractor who was using a personal device. After the device was infected with malware, the threat actor bought the contractor's corporate password on the dark web. After repeatedly rejecting multifactor authentication requests, the contractor eventually accepted a request, allowing the threat actor to gain network entry. As another example, one of the world's largest media and entertainment companies recently had to after it appeared that hackers successfully impersonated an employee and convinced the IT help desk to obtain the user's credentials to access and infect the system. Just through some basic online research on social media, the hackers seemingly managed to eventually take control of a multibillion-dollar company's computer systems. If these types of attacks and scenarios can happen to global brands with nearly limitless resources, what does that say for midmarket organizations?,With such a high level of network access, threat actors have a great deal of leverage, ready to demand a ransom or go straight to disclosing or selling your sensitive data on the dark web. Breaches of this nature can also significantly damage your brand reputation, translating to potential drops in share prices and the possible alienation of consumers with data privacy concerns. Enterprises must also contend with the fact that humans have the natural inclination to make their lives as easy as possible, always looking to simplify and streamline operations. This inclination has translated into the growing use of personal devices, which can present a dangerous risk to enterprises as they lose visibility and control not just over business processes but also over corporate security. This risk is not always created maliciously by the employee. Instead, it simply reflects a very human impulse to get things done in a convenient and timely fashion. While there are potential advantages of using personal devices in terms of business productivity, their use can nonetheless compromise the integrity of the work environment. Most worryingly, they can lead to regulatory compliance failures and expose the enterprise to financial liability. This is similar to what happened recently in several high-profile cases in the U.S. financial services industry, which came to light in 2021. A number of large financial services providers were heavily fined (from US$10 million to more than US$100 million each) by federal agencies such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for improper policing of employees' use of off-channel messaging services and for failing to maintain and preserve all official communications by their employees. The fallout was costly, both from a reputation and financial standpoint. The human risk factor cannot be understated. As so many unfortunate tales making recent news headlines highlight, the digital landscape is fraught with danger and risks. The challenge for enterprises now is to constantly manage both attacks and device misuse while minimizing the potential blast radius on business operations. From a risk perspective, there is no doubt that some of the low-hanging fruit involves human weaknesses. How are these weaknesses being actively exploited or triggered? Verizon's "" (DBIR) outlines some of these threat vectors. People include not just employees and executives but also customers and third parties in the supply chain. They can be targeted with spray-and-pray email phishing tactics, but increasingly we are seeing spear phishing (targeting specific individuals), whaling (spear phishing attacks targeted at high-level employees), smishing (phishing attack via text messaging/SMS) and vishing (phishing attack via phone call/voice) attacks deployed as well, with successful outcomes. These types of attacks often require little technical knowledge. Background secondary research on social networks and some inventive scamming are usually more than enough for the threat actor. Technologies that may be vulnerable include personal computers, mobile devices, network systems, cloud infrastructure, software and applications. Remote work is here to stay in the post-pandemic world, with of remote workers using their personal devices for work tasks. They also use these devices for entertainment (social media, mobile apps, etc.), posing potential cyber risks. This is a huge challenge for enterprises due to policy and regulatory compliance risks and corporate data leakage. Verizon's Mobile Security Index (MSI) reports that more than 50% of personal devices [used in the workplace?] fell prey to a mobile phishing attack in 2022, with text messaging (SMS) attacks increasing the odds sixfold to tenfold (compared to email phishing attacks). The problem is that these personal devices may be managed by the individual employee, with enterprises having little to no control or visibility over device use. As a result, employees may unknowingly engage with a threat actor, and their company may not be aware of that activity until it is too late. It should be noted that some companies are still willing to accept the risks of BYOD. Some choose to allow personally liable devices because they are perceived to improve employee productivity or because they reduce IT spending. However, the cyber risks associated with a lack of control over employee personal devices are a tough pill to swallow. Another factor to consider is the lack of supply chain management for BYOD and choose your own device (CYOD). As referenced in , your employees are potentially using devices that have been rooted, jailbroken with vulnerable apps or even infected with malware without the user knowing. If you cannot pinpoint the origin of your employees' devices, your IT team may already be at a disadvantage. Ultimately, enterprises are paying the price for human weakness and BYOD policies. But the outlook is not hopeless. Plenty of security technologies can be implemented, and Verizon is one provider working hard to mature, evolve and create comprehensive solutions in this space. You can spend hours searching the web for articles like the one you're reading now, or you can sign up to receive relevant articles from us that are meant to help keep you informed and grow your business. Verizon has been working to enhance security for enterprise customers across various sectors. Notable work comes in helping defend organizations in heavily regulated spaces such as financial services that face growing challenges from two fronts: stricter regulatory pressure and increasingly complex social engineering attacks. At a minimum, corporate devices are a requirement for regulated companies. Using personal devices without recordkeeping software carries heavy legal and financial consequences for regulated organizations, as noted earlier. In the United States alone, more than in penalties have been racked up since the SEC started investigating recordkeeping tactics at financial institutions. That includes 16 Wall Street firms that were fined for allowing employees to discuss deals and trades on personal devices via text messages/WhatsApp. As useful as mobile device management (MDM) software may be in curbing cyber threats, personal devices still carry significant risks; it's still up to the end user to remember to maintain the security posture. Corporate devices have security benefits you cannot get with BYOD. Swapping personal devices for corporate-issued ones can allow IT staff to gain a better grip not just on internal/external communications but also on various integrity and security aspects of mobile devices. When organizations offer corporate-liable devices from Verizon, they are gaining enhanced security protections and controls not available on personal devices. This can help to address common vulnerabilities for organizations. For example, when trying to comply with regulators, many companies are contenting with high levels of robocalls. Unfortunately for banks, robocalls have become tougher to detect because threat actors use advanced deep fake technologies to recreate synthetic speeches, allowing them to impersonate banking customers. Among the Verizon solutions that can be used to counter such attacks are compliant calling, voice authentication and defense solutions. Financial services are not the only regulated organizations under intensive attack. Healthcare providers are also being targeted by opportunist social engineers, with fraudsters focusing on employees similarly through smishing and vishing attacks. Third-party, low-quality internet service providers (ISPs) may sometimes provide numbers to threat actors, who subsequently use the numbers to conduct targeted attacks against those employees. Organizations can take a proactive perspective, as Verizon offers executive protection services. Our threat hunting team can scour the dark web and help remove personally identifiable information (PII)—such as email addresses, phone numbers and physical addresses—about high-level employees that can be used to target them (and their family and social circles) in social engineering attacks. The first step any business must take in defending its network from social engineering attacks is to understand the nature of the cyber risks being faced. An outline should be created to establish a clear understanding of how to mitigate, minimize, transfer or accept the identified risks. This risk assessment is a critical step because it allows you to identify your assets, threat entities and risk appetite. From there, putting together a comprehensive defense plan becomes much easier because you know what your security goals are and what red flags to look out for. A defense plan against social engineering attacks comprises two main functions: threat detection and trust enforcement. Both functions apply equally to help detect and counter high-level threats and low-level vulnerabilities. Threat detection is a cybersecurity discipline that focuses on identifying and dealing with threats such as cyberattacks, compromises, data breaches and incidents once they occur. This is done by spotting and helping stop unauthorized access, malware, social engineering schemes, etc. Trust enforcement is all about getting out in front of potential attacks by leveraging techniques such as identity management, passwords, encryption, access control, authentication, etc. Both of these functions form the bedrock of a broader defense plan against social engineering attacks that protect networks, applications, devices and identities. Verizon provides both of these functions in five key areas of control: awareness training, mobile security policy, security protection controls, detection and response, and monitoring and testing across devices, applications, identities and networks. Security-conscious network providers like Verizon can have an advantage over traditional security vendors with their bird's-eye view of traffic, devices, technologies and users. For all customers, from small business to enterprise, Verizon offers a broad range of solutions including customer reporting, ongoing threat monitoring and sending out advisories. In this regard, every piece of data is ingested, analyzed and then conveyed into actionable insights. Verizon's customers gain the newfound ability to "see" what was always out of sight. This outlook grants them a high level of visibility across the entire spectrum of assets being used at any given time as well as all the interactions between them. From this bird's-eye view, we provide enterprise customers with comprehensive management, from device to network, on which they can layer vetted security controls. That means they can benefit from inherent security at the network level, such as registered short codes to provide hard-to-spoof identification, texting "off" to 4040 to stop unwanted email-to-text messages, 7726 spam message reporting and filtering, attestation of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) via STIR/SHAKEN, and distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) protection on the Verizon VoIP network. At some point, all organizations will require real-time supervisory control over employee devices to help curb increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. Verizon is well prepared to fill this final security gap (keeping in mind that it simply cannot be fully achieved with BYOD devices). We provide both a baseline security package for the entirety of our wireless network and customized security for enterprise clients, either through corporate-liable end-user devices or dedicated security services. We leverage our understanding of the issues involved in migrating away from BYOD policies—such as security challenges, high stipend costs, and complexity in developing separate configurations and applications for personal devices—to assist clients transitioning to corporate lines. Moreover, Verizon can tailor a custom cybersecurity solution as part of a customer's holistic defense plan against social engineering threats. Ditching BYOD and going with Verizon corporate lines can help provide you with the granular cyber insight needed to properly assess modern social engineering tactics and identify them promptly. With a tailored deployment, we can help enact dedicated protection mechanisms to help keep your assets safe and reduce risks, including deploying security analysts with threat hunting backgrounds to scrutinize customer information on a daily basis as well as identify and respond to suspicious patterns and attacks. As previously alluded to, these outcomes are challenging when your employees use their personal devices. Beyond this, Verizon can offer a range of solutions that can address trust enforcement and threat detection. But importantly, as noted, it all starts with risk assessment. Our consulting services can help enterprises assess risks and provide advice on security posture, whether these are high-level threats or common, everyday risks. Verizon's cybersecurity expertise and role as a network provider create the perfect combination to provide a holistic view and comprehensive security strategies for companies. Partnering with us, your organization can have a network that, with the application of key security products and services, can help provide protections against those simple, everyday cyber attacks as well as more complex threats covering people, technologies and processes. Effectively assessing the social engineering risks that your organization's mobile device policy may pose starts with you asking the following questions:,If you need to learn more about these mobile security threats and how your organization should tackle them, a good starting point is,Verizon is offering a customized five-point social engineering defense plan for businesses. To learn more, contact your account representative or have a specialist contact you. "Security update," Uber newsroom, September 16, 2022. "MGM Resorts computers back up after 10 days as analysts eye effects of casino cyberattacks," The Associated Press, September 21, 2023. "SEC Charges 11 Wall Street Firms with Widespread Recordkeeping Failures," U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission press release, August 8, 2023. "New Lookout Research Highlights Increased Security Risks Faced by Organizations Due to Remote Work and BYOD," Lookout press release, April 3, 2023. "Guidelines for Managing the Security of Mobile Devices in the Enterprise," National Institute of Standards and Technology, May 2023. "SEC Charges 11 Wall Street Firms with Widespread Recordkeeping Failures," U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission press release, August 8, 2023. "U.S. fines 16 Wall Street firms $1.8 bln for talking deals, trades on personal apps," Reuters, September 27, 2022. Call Sales,Chat with us,Have us contact you,Already have an account?,. * Indicates a required field. We will follow up from your contact request using the information provided. These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information. These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. We use both third party and first party cookies for this purpose. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance. These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly. These cookies may be set through our site by Verizon and third parties. 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Learn moreSecureLogix Voice Security Solutions
Restore customer trust. Stop unwanted traffic. These solutions help provide robocall and malicious call protection, authentication to verify inbound calls and detect spoofing, and call branding to restore trust and get your outbound calls answered. Automated inbound call verification uses a variety of metadata services to score each call to help prevent fraud and lower contact-center operational costs. Our voice security firewall filters inbound traffic to screen out attacks, threats, robocalls, spam and bad actors. Restoring trust and brand loyalty can increase call answer rates. Help protect your lines of business and contact centers from attack, disruption, robocall, spam, fraud and abuse. Help lower contact-center operational costs by automating fraud detection and call authentication. Maintain control of your voice security policies. Help improve call answer rates on outbound calls through delivery of enhanced caller ID visualization and call details. Provide near real-time detection and protection against spoofing attempts that try to use your corporate phone numbers. Restore brand reputation for corporate calling numbers and remove fraud spam labels from legitimate numbers. Deliver call trust scores for all inbound calls to your contact center agents to help prevent fraud and reduce call processing times. Filter restricted, malicious or unwanted call traffic into your organization and contact center. Choose vendor agnostic solutions from customer premises equipment (CPE) to cloud services to fit your organization's preferences. Help to restore and maintain the healthy reputation of your corporate calling numbers. SecureLogix call assurance solutions. Engage customers, empower agents and build personalized experiences that help set your business apart. Enable customer interactions with an advanced, cloud-based contact center platform. IP Contact Center (IPCC) is a Voice over IP (VoIP)-based voice calling solution for contact centers that includes multiple originating calling options and number types, as well as terminating options including IP Interactive Voice Response (IVR). Dramatic increases in unwanted robocalls in recent years have led many people to stop answering inbound calls unless they know who is calling. In fact, calls from unwanted callers are the number-one consumer complaint to the FCC. As a result, many legitimate calls from unidentified and/or unfamiliar corporate calling numbers go unanswered—analysts estimate that to be greater than 90%. In addition, robocall blocking apps and services sometimes mistakenly label legitimate enterprise calls as fraud or spam, further deteriorating call answer rates. An enterprise can substantially increase its answer rates with branded caller ID services that help customers better identify their calls. In addition, SecureLogix can work with appropriate reputation protection vendors to help ensure customers' outbound calls are not inappropriately labeled as "Spam" or "Fraud.",Voice networks are under attack from a growing number of highly sophisticated scammers, hackers and fraudsters. Attackers increasingly favor high-value targets, such as contact centers, 911 facilities and critical government resources where they can steal money or cause the most business disruption and damage. SecureLogix solutions from Verizon can provide protection against voice security issues through inspection of each call and the ability to implement policies to block or redirect calls, as well as send alerts. Securing voice networks and authenticating calls help protect customer voice networks and contact centers from being exposed to malicious attacks. This includes Telephony Denial of Service Attacks (TDoS), toll fraud (both inbound and outbound), call pumping, robocalls, no-value callers, social engineering, fraud and other abuse. Additionally, contact centers can save money when they automatically authenticate calls instead of using live agents. Plus, they can improve customer experience by not having to ask a lot of verification questions during the call. Call sales,Chat with us,Have us contact you,Already have an account?,These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information. These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. We use both third party and first party cookies for this purpose. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance. These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly. These cookies may be set through our site by Verizon and third parties. They are used to present Verizon advertising on third party sites that you may visit. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising from Verizon. BackClear Filters,All Consent Allowed
Learn moreHow to Help Improve School Safety and Campus Security Business
We've got some great deals going on right now exclusively for our online customers... chat now to hear more! How to help improve school safety and campus security,Author: Katie McNeil,School safety and security continues to be top of mind for parents, students, educational institutions and other stakeholders. As of late 2022, there have been more than 40 school shootings in the year, . Meanwhile, nearly half of all school and district leaders say they are than before the pandemic. Given this environment, it is perhaps unsurprising that all levels of educational institutions are , according to a survey by Campus Safety magazine. Trends in school safety,According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Report on Indicators of School Crime and Safety, the school security is mixed. K-12 schools,Key findings for K-12 schools include:,Some of the school security measures implemented in the previous decade include:,Higher education,Postsecondary school safety findings include:,School security technology,There are a number of technology solutions available to schools and universities for school safety. Video,As the NCES report shows, security camera systems are now a de facto security measure on campus. Security camera use in schools has , and cloud technology has played a significant role in this increase, allowing schools to monitor their security cameras remotely. This only emphasizes the need for a strong, reliable network when it matters most. can provide advanced video analytics, including archived video synopsis, near real-time video analysis and dashboard visualization metrics. When suspicious activity is detected, an alert can be immediately sent to relevant staff. This enables faster responses and better, quicker decision-making. Lighting,Schools can employ a variety of lighting methods to ensure spaces are not only well-lit for learning but can identify and deter intruders. These include standby lighting (activated by a sensor), emergency lighting (used as a backup), and moveable lighting (used for searchlights). allow schools to either remotely operate lights or set parameters to automatically adjust lights based on schedules. This can not only help address school security concerns but also help to decrease energy costs. Building security,Locking doors from the interior can be critical in helping to increase school security and secure classrooms. Pew Research has found that around three-quarters of K-12 campuses have . are another option for remotely securing campuses. These systems allow staff to use an app to effectively lock down a school by closing and locking exterior doors with the push of a button. Access control,Schools can use different methods to grant access to campus buildings. Access control options range from mechanical (keys) to , such as smart cards or mobile phones. Near-field communication access control uses high-frequency radio waves to verify and grant access to users. These radio waves transmit data between a credential and a reader to grant access wirelessly. Emergency call systems,Public can provide an additional element of school security by allowing anyone to call for help when and where it is needed, regardless of power, cell signal or remote location. These emergency phones can operate 24/7 and can be integrated in mass notification systems and even send SMS text notifications to first responders. Mass notification systems,Crisis communication is an important element of school security. As the says, The right message at the right time from the right person can save lives. can broadcast alerts to a large number of people in real time. School security personnel use these systems to send urgent information about potential threats, emergencies, and directions on how to respond. Systems use a variety of channels including phone calls, emails, text messages, and mobile app notifications. Some schools use , an emergency response communication system that uses television signals to provide critical information, such as layouts and safety plans, to first responders. Wireless Priority Service,Verizon's Wireless Priority Service (WPS) is a federal government program that authorizes commercial service providers to . In times of congestion, WPS provides voice priority for agency personnel during planned and unplanned events, resulting in a higher probability of call completion. In those rare instances when the wireless network is fully utilized, preemption is automatically activated which reallocates network resources to maintain a connection into the network, thus enabling WPS users uninterrupted connectivity. Educational institutions are eligible to apply for WPS through the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)/Emergency Communications Division (ECD). The importance of a reliable network for campus security,With so many technology solutions for school security, education institutions will benefit from a as nearly all of these technologies are likely to be connected to the campus network. Mitigating your security risks means strengthening, securing, and . Learn more about how . National Center for Education Statistics, , page 2. Ibid. National Center for Education Statistics, page 3. National Center for Education Statistics, page 2. If you'd like to receive new articles, solutions briefs, whitepapers and more—just let us know. . * Indicates a required field. We will follow up from your contact request using the information provided. Choose your country to view contact details. Manage your account or get tools and information. These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information. These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. We use both third party and first party cookies for this purpose. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance. These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly. These cookies may be set through our site by Verizon and third parties. They are used to present Verizon advertising on third party sites that you may visit. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising from Verizon. BackClear Filters,All Consent Allowed
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