Cybercriminals can damage your company’s assets by taking a strategic approach. This includes identifying cybersecurity vulnerabilities and implementing the right technology. It also involves upskilling your workforce and changing the company’s work culture. Cybercrimes are on the rise, as is the cost of data breaches. Information security threats have been exacerbated by remote working environments. Cybersecurity Ventures estimates that global cybercrime costs will rise by 15% by 2020, reaching $10.5 trillion by 2025. Ponemon Institute reports that 57% of small business attacks are caused by social engineering. Organizations have found it difficult to prevent social engineering attacks, as they involve the weakest links of cybersecurity.
This article will explain what social engineering attacks are, and how they affect your business. CompTIA Security+ training will help you to prevent social engineering attacks against your company.

What is Social Engineering Attack and how can it impact your business?
Social engineering attacks involve hacker impersonating victims to gain access to their data or systems. Hackers can impersonate representatives of legitimate organizations (such as banks or IT support) in order to gain access to passwords and other information that the hacker can use to gain business data. Emails, texts, and phone calls can all be used to social engineer. The hacker is made to manipulate the employee into sharing the information.
Your business can be affected by social engineering attacks. Depending on the size of your business, the cost of data loss or recovery can run into the thousands to the millions. These attacks can cause disruptions that disrupt the operation and lead to productivity loss. Social engineering attacks can put your customers’ data at risk. These attacks can cause irreparable damage to your business’ reputation.

Types of social engineering attacks
Angler phishing
Angler phishing attacks target social media users. The hackers create a fake customer support account and use it for personal information from unhappy customers looking for customer service.
Email Compromise for Business
One of the most common attacks on businesses is email account compromise or business email compromise. This can have a significant financial impact. Hackers send emails that appear to be legitimate in order to obtain business information. Hackers can also attach malware to your emails in order to attack your business’s systems and networks.
Fraud in the CEO/Whaling industry
Whaling attacks, also known as CEO fraud, are a technique in which a hacker pretends to be the CEO or other high-ranking employee of an organization to gain access to its systems or information. To gain access to the information/access, the attacker could use email and website spoofing.
Baiting
Baiting attacks can also be used by hackers to spread malware via digital attachments and physical sources, such as flash drives. The system can be infected if employees use such sources on their work computers.

How to Prevent Social Engineering Attacks against Your Organization
Hackers use social engineering to gain access to your company’s data. Phishing attacks have affected 75% of the world’s companies. These vital steps will help you to avoid social engineering attacks against your company.
Increase employee awareness
The organization must have a program of awareness for its employees to keep them informed about the threats. Your employees need to be aware of the best practices and habits to protect your organization from cyber-attacks. CompTIA offers a variety of authorized cybersecurity training programs that can be used to upskill your employees and better prepare them for security challenges.
Multi-factor Authentication
Multi-factor authentication can be implemented by your cyber security team for email accounts. You may need additional verification methods, such as the OTP, if employees access your company’s systems via different devices.
Identify and Monitor Critical Systems
It is important that you identify critical systems that contain sensitive information. Hackers could use malware to attack these systems and stop your operations. You should use monitoring tools and processes to monitor the systems and take regular protection measures.
Do a Cybersecurity Risk Assessment
Cybersecurity risk assessment can help you identify information assets that could be impacted by a cyber-attack.