By Erich Kron, Security Awareness Advocate at KnowBe4
Social Engineering Day brings the perfect opportunity to discuss why organizations must prioritize awareness and preparedness in the face of the growing threat of social engineering. Social engineering is the use of emotional manipulation to execute a cyberattack. Threat actors will often prey on the emotions of their victims, especially fear, making this tactic highly effective.
For example, KnowBe4’s March 2025 Phishing Threat Trends report revealed that phishing emails increased 17.3% over a six-month period, highlighting the critical need for awareness and preparation. The increase shows this tactic remains a preferred method for cybercriminals, especially as they continually improve their tactics. For this reason, organizations must proactively prepare for possible social engineering crises.
Understanding Social Engineering
Social engineering attackers are skilled at exploiting human vulnerabilities, such as trust and urgency, to gain unauthorized access to organizational systems. Often, threat actors will impersonate internal departments like HR or IT. According to the same report, nearly 49% of top-clicked phishing links originate from email addresses pretending to be these departments.
Likewise, ransomware phishing attacks, such as the notorious LockBit ransomware delivered via phishing, increased 22.6% within just a six-month period. Meanwhile, high-profile attacks using AI-driven polymorphic phishing techniques now represent 92% of all attacks, highlighting the increased sophistication of social engineering hackers.
The North Korean Fake Employee Problem
Social engineering attackers have become so sophisticated that a new phenomenon has crept into the U.S. hiring market. North Koreans have started to pose as U.S. job candidates to infiltrate companies for financial gain, espionage and other nefarious activities. They use fake resumes, AI-manipulated headshots and stolen Social Security numbers to get hired as part of their scheme. In fact, many have been hired in companies across the U.S., going undetected for an extended period of time.
Social engineering comes in many forms, and this is one recent example of how manipulation can be utilized in unique ways for cybercrime activities. These are the types of situations that we can learn from and use as an opportunity to educate others about the risks of social engineering.
Proactive Measures and a Crisis Response Framework
All organizations are at risk of social engineering attacks. To effectively prepare, they must develop a detailed crisis response framework outlining an action plan for how they will react in the case of attempted and successful social engineering attacks.
Essential proactive measures include:
- Pre-employment screenings that detect potential insider threats early on.
- Continuous security awareness training (SAT) and simulations. SAT reduces employee susceptibility to phishing by 89.5% after 12 months, reducing the Phish-proneTM rate from 37.1% to about 3.9%.
- Adopting a “no-blame” reporting culture within the organization. By not punishing employees who click on a bad link, the workforce will be more likely to report and identify threats.
In the event of a successful social engineering attack, it is just as important for organizations to have a reactive plan. Essential crisis response measures include:
- Maintaining real-time updates for situational awareness, both internally and externally.
- Being transparent to build trust among employees, stakeholders and the public.
- Utilizing AI and advanced monitoring tools for early detection and rapid response.
Lessons for Organizations
In the case of successful social engineering attacks, leadership visibility and proactive communication are crucial for maintaining organizational credibility. By implementing continuous employee education on how to recognize and respond to social engineering attacks, organizations significantly decrease the likelihood of actually being hit by one of these attacks.
Likewise, public education builds broader trust and reinforces organizational resilience. If the majority of people become knowledgeable about the risk of social engineering, hackers employing this method will face greater challenges when taking advantage of these human vulnerabilities.
National Social Engineering Day may be here, but it is essential for organizations to prioritize social engineering awareness and crisis management strategies throughout the entire year. Social engineering may not disappear anytime soon, but through proactive and reactive preparedness, organizations and individuals can become well-equipped to handle any potential crisis.
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This entry was posted on August 6, 2025 at 9:00 am and is filed under Commentary with tags KnowBe4. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Guest Post- Turning Social Engineering Crises into Cybersecurity Lessons: Effective Crisis Management Strategies
By Erich Kron, Security Awareness Advocate at KnowBe4
Social Engineering Day brings the perfect opportunity to discuss why organizations must prioritize awareness and preparedness in the face of the growing threat of social engineering. Social engineering is the use of emotional manipulation to execute a cyberattack. Threat actors will often prey on the emotions of their victims, especially fear, making this tactic highly effective.
For example, KnowBe4’s March 2025 Phishing Threat Trends report revealed that phishing emails increased 17.3% over a six-month period, highlighting the critical need for awareness and preparation. The increase shows this tactic remains a preferred method for cybercriminals, especially as they continually improve their tactics. For this reason, organizations must proactively prepare for possible social engineering crises.
Understanding Social Engineering
Social engineering attackers are skilled at exploiting human vulnerabilities, such as trust and urgency, to gain unauthorized access to organizational systems. Often, threat actors will impersonate internal departments like HR or IT. According to the same report, nearly 49% of top-clicked phishing links originate from email addresses pretending to be these departments.
Likewise, ransomware phishing attacks, such as the notorious LockBit ransomware delivered via phishing, increased 22.6% within just a six-month period. Meanwhile, high-profile attacks using AI-driven polymorphic phishing techniques now represent 92% of all attacks, highlighting the increased sophistication of social engineering hackers.
The North Korean Fake Employee Problem
Social engineering attackers have become so sophisticated that a new phenomenon has crept into the U.S. hiring market. North Koreans have started to pose as U.S. job candidates to infiltrate companies for financial gain, espionage and other nefarious activities. They use fake resumes, AI-manipulated headshots and stolen Social Security numbers to get hired as part of their scheme. In fact, many have been hired in companies across the U.S., going undetected for an extended period of time.
Social engineering comes in many forms, and this is one recent example of how manipulation can be utilized in unique ways for cybercrime activities. These are the types of situations that we can learn from and use as an opportunity to educate others about the risks of social engineering.
Proactive Measures and a Crisis Response Framework
All organizations are at risk of social engineering attacks. To effectively prepare, they must develop a detailed crisis response framework outlining an action plan for how they will react in the case of attempted and successful social engineering attacks.
Essential proactive measures include:
In the event of a successful social engineering attack, it is just as important for organizations to have a reactive plan. Essential crisis response measures include:
Lessons for Organizations
In the case of successful social engineering attacks, leadership visibility and proactive communication are crucial for maintaining organizational credibility. By implementing continuous employee education on how to recognize and respond to social engineering attacks, organizations significantly decrease the likelihood of actually being hit by one of these attacks.
Likewise, public education builds broader trust and reinforces organizational resilience. If the majority of people become knowledgeable about the risk of social engineering, hackers employing this method will face greater challenges when taking advantage of these human vulnerabilities.
National Social Engineering Day may be here, but it is essential for organizations to prioritize social engineering awareness and crisis management strategies throughout the entire year. Social engineering may not disappear anytime soon, but through proactive and reactive preparedness, organizations and individuals can become well-equipped to handle any potential crisis.
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This entry was posted on August 6, 2025 at 9:00 am and is filed under Commentary with tags KnowBe4. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.