An overview of social engineering malware: Trends, tactics, and implications

Sherly Abraham and InduShobha Chengalur-Smith

Technology in Society, 2010, vol. 32, issue 3, 183-196

Abstract: Social engineering continues to be an increasing attack vector for the propagation of malicious programs. For this article, we collected data on malware incidents and highlighted the prevalence and longevity of social engineering malware. We developed a framework that shows the steps social engineering malware executes to be successful. To explain its pervasiveness and persistence, we discuss some common avenues through which such attacks occur. The attack vector is a combination of psychological and technical ploys, which includes luring a computer user to execute the malware, and combating any existing technical countermeasures. We describe some of the prevalent psychological ploys and technical countermeasures used by social engineering malware. We show how the techniques used by purveyors of such malware have evolved to circumvent existing countermeasures. The implications of our analyses lead us to emphasize (1) the importance for organizations to plan a comprehensive information security program, and (2) the shared social responsibility required to combat social engineering malware.

Keywords: Backdoors; Botnets; E-mail; Fast flux; Hijacking; Information security; Internet; Key loggers; Malware; Rootkits; SMTP engine; Social engineering; Social software; Whaling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X10000497
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:teinso:v:32:y:2010:i:3:p:183-196

DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2010.07.001

Access Statistics for this article

Technology in Society is currently edited by Charla Griffy-Brown

More articles in Technology in Society from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().