Social engineering – how dangerous is the human factor in cybersecurity?

Social engineering exploits the biggest of all vulnerabilities for an attack: the human being. This is the cause of 85 percent of all security breaches^[1]. Attackers try to persuade the victim to take certain actions using techniques such as phishing. Whether it’s entering user data, opening attachments infected with malware or disclosing sensitive information. Hackers are becoming more and more inventive, and phishing e-mails are sometimes not directly recognisable as such. An attack through this gateway can quickly damage the entire company. The only effective measure against such attacks is to raise awareness among employees.

As a leading IT consulting firm in the real estate industry, PROMOS is of course intensely acquainted with all questions relating to cybersecurity. After all, we need to protect not only customer data, but also, and above all, the data of millions of tenants. #westayattentive

Raising awareness among a company’s employees is the most important tool in the fight against cyberattacks. But is it true that a person’s affinity for technology directly corresponds to their awareness of the risks?

A colleague on our IT security team is working on this question in her master’s thesis. We’d like to invite you to take part in the survey, which you’re also welcome to share with colleagues and acquaintances. Participation takes 10 minutes at most and is possible until 20 December 2021 at the following link: https://www.empirio.de/s/uaXVida101

The results of the survey will be announced in 2022. If you’d like to read the detailed results to derive important recommendations for action for your company, please send us a short message!

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