Social Engineering on Social Networks

Social networks are a gold mine of information for attackers: posts about a new job, a pet, a vacation or a family member's name are often precisely the answers to security questions or the details that make a later pretext believable. An attacker can use this information to create fake profiles that look like real acquaintances, send friend requests to access private content, or craft a highly personalized, convincing phishing message. Reviewing and limiting each network's privacy settings, thinking twice before posting details that reveal routines or sensitive data, and being wary of contact requests from profiles with little activity or few mutual connections considerably reduces the attack surface available for this type of manipulation.