Information System Security of a Company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Information System Security of a Company - Essay Example The essay "Information System Security of a Company" talks about the measures companies should take against ‘social engineers’. Phones are the most dangerous tools that hackers use in stealing out information from an organization. Because of their skills in deceiving naà ¯ve people into revealing proprietary information, these hackers are termed as social engineers. They attempt to gain information by enticing people into simple gimmicks and taking advantage of the people’s trusting nature. Quoting an example of a real life case where a hacker manages to get a spyware installed on a Vice President’s PC, the author points out about the vulnerability of human beings and the ease at which any clever hacker can succeed. The hacker or social engineer first manages to get the contact number of a new employee from the HR department and then, pretending to be one of the vice presidents, he calls the employee and fools him into downloading a file on the actual VP’s computer. This does require technical skills to create the malware files and a sufficient amount of information about the organization and its employees, but the core essence is the ability to sound genuine on the phone and trick the other person into believing you. This method is very dangerous and using such techniques, social engineers can easily gain control of company’s computers and telephone systems and pretending to be company’s employees, they can even access company’s confidential information such as customer lists and financial data.