How Emerging Technologies Spawn New Social Engineering Paradigms

Abstract

Cybersecurity criminals often use social engineering techniques to meet their objectives. The most egregious cybersecurity attacks may be designed to get an organization to override defenses, change standards, or convince governing bodies to change laws and regulations through political pressure, espionage, or litigation. By creating cultures of trust or mistrust, organizational leaders can be persuaded to declassify information or make changes that allow such adversaries to gain access to things that are unavailable to them. Through time and strategy, cybercriminals can weaken cybersecurity defense capabilities and awareness. Organizations people trust may use social engineering against consumers through online advertisements, cookies, and spyware to gather data, like IP addresses, location histories, and browsing preferences, for gain and profit. This study highlights areas where social engineering tools are designed into devices and activities to influence behavior in personal and professional settings.