We’ve all seen our friends and family sharing quizzes on their social media profiles, prompting people to find out what their celebrity stage name or what Hogwarts house you would be in, or to share what their first concert experience was. These fun, lighthearted quizzes are a great way to get to knowmore about the people we’re connected with. That’s the biggest problem. They are phishing scams in disguise.
Let’s go over how these quizzes can easily obtain information needed to gain access to a person’s social media profile.
“Your New Last Name is the Name of the High School You Attended!”
The big problem with these quizzes is that they seem innocent. However, a lot of the questions they ask line up with security questions that numerous accounts like your bank and credit cards use.
Or, when “you” try to recover your password.
These security systems can’t tell who it is typing in these answers, they can only tell whether or not the provided answer matches the one they have on file. Your bank doesn’t know that you revealed your first pet’s name in a random quiz. From the bank’s perspective, you just forgot your password, and need to use your recovery questions to reset it.
When you consider these online quizzes, they line up with the recovery questions that a lot of platforms request. Common seccurity questions include your first pet’s name, your mother’s maiden name, the model of your first car. So, by sharing the answers to these questions, you are potentially giving someone easy access to your accounts.
These Questions are Effectively Phishing on Social Media
Phishing is nothing to take lightly in any of its forms—including that which appears on social media. It is important that you and your team always have an eye out for these attempts in the office and out. Keep an eye out for some of the hallmarks of a phishing attack—misspelled addresses, overly alarmist subject lines, and unprompted attachments—and impress these practices on your employees as well.
Unfortunately, cyberthreats are not confined to either the office or the home, so vigilance is always somewhat necessary. However, VISTECH is here to help keep an eye on your work processes. Give us a call at 860.251.8003 or contact us to learn more.