Fear As A Weapon To Get You To Open Infected Zip Files
- Posted by: Top Speed
While not in person, this kind of email is as much an attack using social engineering as some unknown tech who shows up saying they are there to repair your copier when you weren't expecting it, but is really there to gain unauthorized onsite access to your network.
The desired outcome is the same - access! Their weapons is social engineering, cunningly forcing the person in front of them to suspend doubt and allow them access to the building (in the case of the copier repairman) or access to launch an attack on the company's network (in the case of the zip file).
The response to this email is natural, what do you mean my account was declined?!?
And before common sense kicks in the zip is opened the files extracted and wham the malicious content of the zip file is let loose on your company's network.
