Increasing social engineering attacks - Smishing, vishing, and phishing

We live in a world that’s becoming more digitally dependent. Right from our social interactions to professional interchanges and financial transactions, most take place digitally. Smishing and vishing are two types of fraud that use SMS (smishing) and voice (vishing) to trick people into giving up money or personal information. They’re “social engineering attacks,” meaning that in a smishing or vishing attack, the attacker uses impersonation to exploit the target’s trust. Because 96% of phishing attacks arrive via email, the term “phishing” is sometimes used to refer exclusively to email-based attacks.

A recent survey revealed some alarming numbers about Indian companies managing personal identifiable data and electronic health records. While digital resources are enabling, they also leave us vulnerable to cyber criminals as a lot of information regarding our personal and professional lives rests in the digital domain. Cyber insurance or cyber security insurance provides coverage from activities such as identity theft, unauthorized transactions, and more. Buying a cyber insurance policy can safeguard against online frauds.

The policy can be bought by anyone who is 18 years and above and can be bought for family members. Nearly 58% of Indian companies have not opted for cyber insurance yet, indicating lack of awareness about cyber-attacks and cyber risk management strategies. The survey by RIMS and JB Boda Group says, as more attacks on utilities and industrial systems emerge, with Ransomware involved, it no longer is an IT related issue, but of the CFO and board.

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered digital transformation across companies, leading to the creation of a complex IT landscape in the form of public clouds, unfamiliar home networks, external systems connected through APIs, along with a plethora of access points into their sphere of monitoring and vigilance. Adequate cyber insurance is the need of the hour. The cost of paying an annual premium is negligible for an organization.

However, the price to be paid after a cyberattack is heavy, which can damage an organization’s reputation, financial stability, and its ability to remain a going concern. Cyber insurance provides cover against loss due to cyber frauds. The increase in penetration of the internet among the Indian population has brought an increase in the amount of personal data being generated, transmitted and stored on various devices. With Cyber Insurance, one can protect self and family members against financial risks due to Identity theft, Unauthorized Online Transactions, Cyber bullying, Cyber extortion.

S Mohini Ratna, Editor, VARINDIA