Human firewall in countering cyber attacks

David Freer

The Jakarta Post

Publication Date : 13-03-2015

Indonesias Central Statistics Agency records over 80 million internet users within the country, which is the sixth largest amount of users globally. Unfortunately, the high internet penetration is also accompanied by low awareness of looming security threats.

According to Indonesias communications and information ministry, there have been 36.6 million cyber-attacks in Indonesia in the past three years. Most of the recorded attacks are attempts at data theft.

Not only are corporations and government institutions affected, but every other Indonesian is also susceptible to this type of attack on a daily basis.

You may have encountered an SMS malware circulating with the following message: Congratulations you won a prize! Please call us to claim your prize! accompanied by an illegitimate phone number getting people to transfer money, or an email that prompts internet users to install an app which actually leads them to download malware. These types of threats may happen to the best of us, and they share one common theme exploiting the human subconscious.

Many people may be familiar with renowned psychologist Robert Cialdinis Six Principles of Influence. In its most basic form, Cialdini offers a step-by-step psychological guide to getting people to say yes. Very effective in the workplace or that crucial sales meeting, but these principles arent necessarily confined to the noble quest of better business. In fact, cybercriminals are now swotting the latest social psychology tactics in order to get their hands on your data.

The prevalence of social engineering in many publicly disclosed cyber-attacks demonstrates either an inherent weakness in the acumen of victims to identify malicious communications, or that cyber criminals are using more complex methods to bypass the human firewall.

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Human firewall in countering cyber attacks