When most people think of hacking they usually only think about the technical aspects of the act.
They see images on the television of people sitting behind their computers and working through the night time hours and they think that is all it is.
But there is another part of hacking that does not get that much recognition from the general populace.
People forget that a lot of hackers also have to use the social engineering part of the discipline to be able to trick you and get what they want.
Most of the attacks that you see on the internet are not technical in nature.
They may use a little bit of technology but they are mainly trying to fool you into doing something that they want you to do.
In this article I will take a look at the ways that hackers will try to get important data from you.
Hopefully by being exposed to some of their techniques, you will be able to recognize it and then stop them.
protect your passwords from social engineering attacks
Fake Web Sites
A lot of the attacks that you will see coming are based on having a fake web site on the internet.
The general populace knows nothing about what goes into making a web site; they think that it is harder than it really is so they will take a look at a web site that they go to and not bother to look at the URL of the site.
If it looks like the site that they usually go to that is good enough for them.
But it is really not good enough.
It is easy for an attacker to duplicate the look and feel of a popular web site.
This is why you must check the URL of a site before you log on.
If not then you are asking for trouble.
The URL is the address that you type in at the top of your browser.
When you click a link you get directed to a web site so you do not have to type the address in but it still shows up – make sure that you are on the right address and everything should be fine.
Fake Emails
Another way they will try to get you is by sending fake emails to your email account.
The emails will look official and seems as if they have all of the proper information on them.
This again is not hard to duplicate.
So when you get an email that claims that it is an official correspondence then you should look at it with some skepticism.
If it has a link that it wants you to follow then do not click it.
Type in the URL address in the address bar that it wants you to go to.
This way they are not able to mask the link request.
Masking the link request means that they are showing one address but they are trying to send you to another.
If you follow that rule then you should be fine.
Through Your Social Media Account
Most people expect attacks in their email but they do not expect it in their Facebook account.
This is the new home for hackers and they are using every trick in the book to get all of the information that they can.
You have to be real careful when it comes to clicking links that are in your social network.
Even people that you consider friends may have had their account hacked and will send you a dangerous link.
Always be on guard when you are using a social media network account.
There are a dozen ways in which people will try to get your username and password from you.
Make sure that you are always on alert and you should not have a problem.
Article by Lee Munson
Lee's non-technical background allows him to write about internet security in a clear way that is understandable to both IT professionals and people just like you who need simple answers to your security questions.
Lee has written 2278 awesome articles for us at Security FAQs
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Using the phone or a face to face meeting.
People are sometimes way to willing to give info to a stranger who claims to be someone else.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again; people are the biggest security threat.
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