Why human vulnerability is cybersecurity's most significant and costliest weakness
Malicious actors and fraudsters appear to have discovered their newest favorite exploit: human nature. In today’s digital age, where organizations and their individuals are more interconnected than ever before, cyber threats evolve just as quickly as technology itself. Much of the focus in the realm of cybersecurity has been placed on technical defenses like firewalls, encryption, and antivirus software, but these technologies cannot account for the immaterial factor, human perception and emotion.
Rather than embedding ransomware or other nefarious code or executing DDoS attacks, fraudsters are shifting their focus to social engineering, manipulating human nature, and especially targeting employees with access to funds and the authority to change payment details and approve transfers. Using AI-generated attacks to compromise an organization’s security, their ultimate goal is to exploit the inherent weaknesses of human behavior and bypass traditional defense methods, making it one of the most effective and dangerous tools at a cybercriminal’s disposal and the most prevalent risk businesses face today.
What is Social Engineering, and Why Now?
Social engineering is the manipulation of individuals into divulging confidential information or performing actions that compromise an organization’s security without their knowledge or consent. Instead of hacking into systems, social engineers prey on human psychology. They exploit emotions such as fear, curiosity, empathy, or trust to manipulate individuals into taking actions they wouldn’t otherwise take. Social engineering tactics are often more successful than technical exploits because they bypass even the most advanced security measures, targeting the one consistently susceptible area: the human user. Social engineering is not a new tactic for cybercriminals; however, recent advances in AI technologies have made these attacks particularly pervasive, lowering the barrier of entry for those seeking to commit fraud. This enables their attacks to be more frequent and sophisticated.
Social engineering serves as a broad term for various types of attack methods, including phishing, deepfakes, and impersonation attacks. Phishing involves sending fraudulent emails that utilize AI to make them appear legitimate, often directing victims to malicious websites or requesting personal information. These emails are particularly dangerous, as AI models can scour social media profiles and publicly available information to personalize them, lowering the guard of their target.
Next comes deepfakes, which take social media trickery to the next level. Tapping into Gen AI, fraudsters are mimicking the voices and even the faces of colleagues, loved ones, or authority figures, tricking them into thinking they’re speaking with the actual person.
And let’s not forget impersonation attacks, such as Vendor Email Compromise (VEC) or Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks, where attackers impersonate trusted individuals or entities to deceive individuals within an organization into revealing sensitive information or transferring funds. In 2023, BEC attacks alone accounted for over $2.9 Billion in losses.
The Psychology Behind Social Engineering
Understanding why social engineering works so effectively requires insight into the psychology behind it. Humans are inherently emotional creatures, with our interactions being driven by feelings of trust, fear, hope, and empathy with others. Cybercriminals hijack these emotions, leveraging them to manipulate individuals into making decisions that can have disastrous consequences.
One of the common psychological principles at play is the concept of trust. When an individual feels a connection to someone —be it a colleague, friend, or family member —they are more inclined to help that individual and are less likely to be suspicious of a request. Exploiting the trust inherent in interpersonal relationships, or even between a company and vendor, drops the guard of their intended target and enables fraudsters to slip by.
Another key psychological element is authority. Individuals are more likely to trust and follow instructions from someone they perceive as an authority figure, making it a favored tool for cybercriminals. Not only are people more likely to trust and follow instructions from an authority figure, but they are also more likely to bypass security and review protocols to swiftly execute the order given to them by a perceived authority figure.
Urgency is another principle that social engineers often leverage. By adding layer of urgency to a request, especially when paired with authority, individuals become anxious. They will act in a manner where solving the situation as fast as possible is the priority. The resolution will often come in the form of passing along sensitive information or sending a payment.
Why Human Vulnerability is the Biggest Vulnerability
While technical vulnerabilities, such as outdated security solutions, can undoubtedly lead to stolen funds, it is often human error that allows cybercriminals to access them, as they are the ones with the power to access funds, approve transfers, and provide critical information. The fact that sensitive information and payments can be exposed by a single click, a lapse in judgment, or a sophisticated and tailored campaign makes the human element a significant liability in any cybersecurity strategy. This problem is only exacerbated by the growing prevalence and advancement in AI technologies, as cybercriminals can harness them to create fraudulent emails, links, websites, and even videos that are nearly impossible to recognize as fake with mere human perception.
Organizations often invest significant resources into traditional security solutions, yet these fail to address the human aspect of cybersecurity. Employees may not recognize the subtle signs of an AI-generated phishing campaign, or AI-powered deepfakes may fool them. Suppose an organization doesn’t have the means to detect what is real and what is malicious autonomously. In that case, it’s only a matter of time before it becomes yet another victim of social engineering. Therefore, organizations must invest in behavioral AI solutions that grant them visibility over their entire organization. These solutions should integrate with existing ERPs and autonomously detect anomalies, thereby saving the organization from that one fateful click.
