# Threads and Vulnerabilities

The main purpose of social engineering is to gain unauthorized access to systems or information for the purpose of fraud, identity theft, industrial espionage, or other harm. It mainly uses psychological methods, namely the natural human tendency to trust.

The basic purpose of social engineering is the same as that of hacking: gaining unauthorized access to systems or information for the purpose of fraud, identity theft, industrial espionage, or other harm.\
The main difference is that social engineering mainly uses psychological methods, again - namely the natural human tendency to trust.

Social engineering attacks occur on two levels:

* Physical
* Psychological

**The physical level** is offices, telephones, trash cans, office mail. In the workplace, a social engineer can simply log in posing as a maintenance person and walk around until he finds a few passwords lying around on desks. Or unobtrusively watching a diligent employee enter their password (shoulder surfing).



### Social engeneering examples:

* Impersonation: the attacker pretends to be someone else and requests valuable information from the employee;
* Shoulder surfing: looking "behind the shoulder" of an employee entering his password;
* Dumpster diving: rummaging through the garbage of companies in order to find information that may prove to be valuable in some way;
* Phishing: a link that opens a website of the company that the email senders claim to represent (in fact, the website resembles the real one, but is fake). The victim enters a password and other financial information that goes straight to the scammers. Usually, the scammers ask the victim to click on a link that opens a website of the company that the email senders claim to represent (in reality, the website looks like the real one, but is fake). The victim enters a password and other financial information that goes straight to the scammers.
* Tailgating – the attacker sneaks with you through an access control point.

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## Physical security threats and vulnerabilities

Physical security – ensuring the physical security of the perimeter to prevent unauthorized physical access by implementing physical control mechanisms&#x20;

Examples - video surveillance, motion sensors, motion-detection lighting, etc.\
Access control – badges, biometrics, security guards, guard dogs, etc.

### Physical security threats and vulnerabilities

* Internal threats – employee before leaving;
* External threats – interruption of power supply or other services;
* Natural disasters – floods, fires, high temperatures and humidity;
* Human-caused – intentional and unintentional;

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## Network-based threats

OSI Model OSI (in English: Open Systems Interconnection Basic Reference Model) is a theoretical model describing the basic way of communication and the construction of computer networks. The so-called layers are used as the main building block — each layer provides an interface and services to the upper layer, while at the same time receiving services from the layer below it.

Information sent over the network is in the form of data or data packets. If two servers (A and B) wish to exchange information, the data from transmitter A must first be provided with service information about its transport and encapsulated (packaged). Information moves from A to B, and when passing through the various systems, the data undergoes a change as a result of the work and functions of individual levels (called layers). The receiving server B receives the data, where the processing of the information consists in removing the service information added for the purposes of transport at the sender.



### Network-based attacks

* Port Scanning Attacks – use of automated products (NESSUS);
* Attacks by eavesdropping on traffic (Eavesdropping) - use of automated products (WhireShark, Microsoft Network Monitor);
* DoS, DDoS attacks - denial-of-service attacks (in English: denial-ofservice attack, abbreviated DoS attack — DoS attack) is an attempt to make a given resource provided by a computer (called the victim) unavailable to the target its users. The attack can be by exhausting resources or by taking advantage of a bug in the victim's software. Popular web servers are most often attacked, with the goal of making them inaccessible from the Internet.

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## Wireless Threats and Vulnerabilities

Of all networks, wireless is the most vulnerable and vulnerable to attack because it can be accessed from beyond the physical boundaries of an organization; all wireless devices default to connecting to the network with the strongest signal, which may be made up of the attacker.

### Wireless Network Threats and Vulnerabilities – Examples

* Rouge Access Point – an unauthorized access point placed in the organization's network can;
* Evil twins – access point devices that look legitimate, usually installed in public areas, which lure users to connect to them;
* Interference with other signals – usually in a domestic environment, which causes the signal to break;
* Attacks on the used protection protocols;
