Social engineering, big data top security priorities for 2013: Gartner

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.csoonline.com/article/721278/social-engineering-big-data-top-security-priorities-for-2013-gartner

By Hamish Barwick
IDG News Servic
November 09, 2012

The technique of using deception and manipulation to gain sufficient 
knowledge to dupe an unwary individual, employee or company into 
revealing personal information has the potential to be one of the 
biggest security threats in 2013 according to a security expert.

Gartner Australia research director, Rob McMillan, who is due to speak 
at the analyst firm's annual Symposium on the Gold Coast next week, told 
Computerworld Australia that social engineering has emerged over the 
last four years as a growing threat, especially for non-IT professionals 
who do not understand the techniques used by scammers.

For example, the long running Windows Event Viewer scam involves 
telemarketers calling people, telling them they have a virus and 
requesting the recipient's authority to run a Windows program called 
Event Viewer in order to fix 'so-called' bugs in the operating system. 
Other callers claim they can remove the virus for a fee and ask for 
people's credit card details.

According to research from Sophos, scammers have called people posing as 
a member of their company's IT department and named the person's boss in 
order to gain their trust.

[...]


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