Cybercriminals use a variety of methods to steal customer information, one of them is pretexting attack. Because it hides well behind traditional modes of communication such as phone calls, emails, and texts, determining its presence and resolving the associated issue is difficult. Pretexting, if not addressed early on, can result in massive data loss. In this blog, we will cover everything you need to know about pretexting attack.
Table of Contents
What is a Pretexting Attack?
Pretexting attack is a kind of social engineering technique that tricks victims into disclosing personal information. A pretext is a fictitious scenario created by malicious attackers in order to steal a victim’s personal information. Malicious actors usually ask victims for specific information during pretexting attacks, claiming that it is required to confirm the victim’s identity. In reality, the malicious actors steal these details and then implement them in secondary attacks or identity theft.
Advanced and powerful pretexting attacks may try to manipulate victims into performing a certain action that breaches an organization’s physical and/or digital vulnerabilities. For example, a malicious actor may pose as an external IT services auditing firm and use this avatar to persuade an organization’s physical security staff to let the threat actor into the building.
Several threat actors who use this attack type pose as finance department staff or HR personnel. They can use these disguises to target C-level executives or other staff members with vast privileges, who are more beneficial to attackers. Pretexting attack, unlike phishing attacks, set up a false feeling of trust in a victim user. This necessitates malicious actors to develop a convincing story that does not make victims skeptical of any criminal conduct.
Pretexting Attack Techniques
Pretexting comes in a variety of forms because fraudsters have many ways to deceive people. Following that, we will go over some of its most popular techniques.
Tailgating
It is a form of pretexting that targets the victim/security resource. It is also known as piggybacking. The most common example is found in movies. You’ve probably seen scenes where an individual disguises himself as someone trusted, such as a mailman, a technician, a plumber, or even a worker, in order to gain forced entry into a house/company. This is a pretext for tailgating.
It works like this: an unauthorized resource/authority keeps a close eye on verified/authorized resources in order to seize the best opportunity to enter a protected facility/resource. Its goal is to compromise the access control system to gain access to a protected resource or premise. When it comes to software/application, the meaning of pretexting is very similar. It’s just that, instead of a person, a manipulated software/app acts as a trusted resource in this case.
Impersonation
The term itself refers to impersonating the behavior and manners of others. It’s popular among pretexters because it’s simple and produces impressive results. In this pretexting technique, the fraudster poses as someone whom the victim frequently attacks in order to gain access to a system. Depending on the circumstances, he or she may pose as the victim’s worker, relative, supervisor, or friend and attempt to obtain the victim’s email, bank passcodes, or other sensitive information.
This technique is well-known and has been used in a number of high-profile attacks. For example, Ubiquiti Networks faced it in 2015 and lost $46.7 million as a result of an impersonation-based pretexting attack. However, impersonation was not the only technique used to deceive the employee. Spoofing emails were also used.
Piggybacking
This type of pretexting is directed at the network. In this case, hackers take advantage of an already active session launched by a genuine user in order to gain access to managed channels. The victim rides the attacker to a trusted resource that the hacker cannot access. Piggybacking is forbidden when it comes to wireless links. The technique makes use of free network access and can limit the data stream for verified accounts. The two major types of piggybacking are IT piggybacking and Wi-Fi piggybacking.
Vishing and Smishing
Vishing is a type of phishing that occurs via voice/phone. Using this pretexting technique, attackers attempt to obtain sensitive details over the phone. It exists when there is a flaw in the voice transaction detection technique. Fraudsters take advantage of advanced VoIP features such as IVR, AI voices, and caller ID to appear authentic and genuine. Smishing occurs when only text is used for trickery.
How to Prevent Pretexting Attack?
Here are a few methods that businesses can use to secure themselves from pretexting attack.
DMARC
Pretexting includes impersonation, and the email should seem genuine in order to be successful. As a result, email spoofing is required. The most common form of email spoofing protection is Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC), but it is limited because it requires ongoing and complex maintenance.
AI-based Email Analysis
To prevent pretexting, business owners should aim for a more modern detection technique than DMARC. Artificial intelligence (AI) is used in next-generation anti-spear phishing advanced technologies to study user activity and detect signs of pretexting. Discrepancies in email accounts and email communications, such as display name spoofing and cousin domains, can also be detected. Natural Language Processing (NLP), a branch of artificial intelligence, examines language and can decode phrases and words used in spear-phishing and pretexting.
User Education
Finally, educate your users on how to recognize pretexting by sharing real-life pretexting examples with them. What often ends up making spear-phishing and pretexting successful is that users are unfamiliar with the above-mentioned pretexting techniques and notice nothing unusual about the demands they receive.
Pretexting vs. Phishing
Because both of these are forms of social engineering, it’s natural to consider them interchangeable. However, they differ in that phishing is done via email, whereas pretexting is done via phone/text. Phishing creates a sense of urgency, urging victims to act quickly. Pretexting is based on imitation and takes advantage of human lack of attention, fear, and mistake. Both, however, have the potential to cause massive damage if appropriate measures are not taken.
