Free Essay Example on Social Engineering and how it applies to Coronavirus Pandemic

Social engineering is using psychological manipulation intending to trick and convince individuals to offering personal information. It also entails sending of documents and links in texts and emails or even social media in that if the user clicks it the devices get affected. Social engineering has different types: smashing, phishing, vishing, whaling, typecasting, baiting, and social media. Social engineering in the entire globe is hindering the response to the current pandemic emergency. For instance, hackers trick someone to disclose their financial and personal information since most coronavirus information is on social media. They do this by applying tactics like spam campaigns and phishing. This paper will compare and contrast the coronavirus social engineering efforts between China and Pakistan.

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Since the start of the coronavirus, China is the country that has been attacked because they are said to be the people who started the disease. However, despite the numerous attacks, the country has some protection measures that they have been practicing. The first one is that there is a cybersecurity law that protects people’s financial, business, and personal information. In case someone is reported they face severe punishment (Goel et al., 2020). The second way is that the country has advised its citizens not to share their passwords with anyone as well as avoiding malicious links. Also, the nation teaches its citizens on how to identify the social engineering ng threats like the mouse-over skills and having an understanding of the domain name’s anatomy. The final way is that the nation has IT experts who work on the software to prevent the invasion of people’s privacy. However, educating people is what has been so beneficial so far though not 100% effective. Also, China keeps consulting scientists and engineers on software management and also for them to enhance and monitor the network.

The other country is Pakistan and it is not as developed as China. Some of the measures that the nation has put forward in fighting social engineering is educating its citizens on ways to protect themselves from the attacks. Some of these ways are: avoiding sharing of passwords, downloading of attachments, and avoiding malicious emails. The disadvantage that comes with the information technology of the nation is that it is not as strong enough as that of China. The factors that they consider when handling the social engineering attacks are education on social engineering and when it comes to the psychology part it is being alerted (Goel et al., 2020). These factors are the ones that enabled the countries to manage the social engineering attacks in their respective nations and people. Pakistan nation since their response is not perfect, the county can make an initiative of consulting experts from other nations like the United States of America. It is because the experts will help them in monitoring and enhancement of their network.

Conclusion

In conclusion, social engineering attacks are on the rise not only in China and Pakistan but worldwide. The attacks have been rising at a faster rate in the current coronavirus pandemic. However, each nation is finding ways of handling them to prevent psychological abuse of their citizens’ minds. However, the most effective way they use is educating their citizens through the use of programs and campaigns on the websites. Also, the experts’ come in handy because they are effective when monitoring and creating strong networks.

References

Goel, S., Hawi, S., Goel, G., Thakur, V. K., Agrawal, A., Hoskins, C., ... & Barber, A. H. (2020). Resilient and agile engineering solutions to address societal challenges such as the coronavirus pandemic. Materials Today Chemistry, 17, 100300. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468519420300604