Social Engineering: How Threat Actors Manipulate Their Targets

Threat actors always take the path of least resistance to their payday. But it's a mistake to think they aren't willing to put in the work to get a human to hand feed them.Their attempts to manipulate their targets into taking action are called social engineering. What role do people play in cybersecurity?In this episode, Daniel Blackford, Threat Researcher at Proofpoint, explains how bad actors capitalize on our humanity to attack us.Join us as we discuss:What lies beneath 95% of cyber attacksThe two factors that reduce people's sensitivity to threatsWhen social engineering content might be waiting for you    Check out these resources we mentioned:https://www.proofpoint.com/us/blog/threat-insight/operation-spoofedscholars-conversation-ta453https://www.proofpoint.com/us/blog/threat-insight/i-knew-you-were-trouble-ta456-targets-defense-contractor-alluring-social-mediahttps://www.proofpoint.com/us/blog/threat-insight/triple-threat-north-korea-aligned-ta406-scams-spies-and-stealhttps://www.proofpoint.com/us/blog/threat-insight/operation-spoofedscholars-conversation-ta453https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/kansas-man-faces-federal-charges-over-water-treatment-hack-a-16328https://twitter.com/selenalarson/status/1224674562882834432  Keep up with the latest tales from the threat research trenches by subscribing to DISCARDED in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts. Thanks for listening!