Page 22 - Outsmart Cyberthreats

The security mindset
But none of this happened because
of a failure in machine security. It was all human error, induced by so-called social engineering. Social engineering involves tricking people into believ- ing they are involved in trustworthy exchanges. In fact, these exchanges are only “engineered” to seem trust- worthy, tricks meant to deceive. Many bad things happen online because
people trust things that are not what they seem. And this trust leads them to do things they should not do.
One of the most common forms of social engineering online is “phishing,” which resembles the Space Noodle text. A message arrives pretending to be from someone already familiar to the recipient. It asks for information that
WATCH WHAT YOU SAY OR SEND OR SNAP
Kids love their messaging apps. It's so easy to dash off a what’s-up or a joke, a funny selfie, a video, whatever. And then the
message disappears, drowned in a quickly ris- ing thread, as the moment passes. Except when the message doesn’t disap-
pear. And it’s something private, like a picture that the whole world should definitely NOT be seeing. Teenagers’ worst selfie
PAGE 22 ➜ OUTSMART CYBERTHREATS