Strategies for preventing/weathering Social Engineering Attacks?

[ThingsOnMyDesk1]

Hi all,

My boss is very concerned about social engineering attacks as they have been in the news lately. As they have grown more sophisticated it definitely poses a threat to some of the less cautious employees. What steps do you take to block these? Educate your users? Any technical guards I can take?

Thanks!

Bonus: While doing research I found this article on social engineering in movies and TV that I sent to the company to put the threat on their radar Information Security and Pop Culture: How Real-Life Social Engineering Techniques are Used in Movies and Television | BetterCloud Blog

 

[carnageX]

Education is basically the biggest and most important thing you can do to prevent social engineering.

Not much for 'technical' preventions (besides maybe a more aggressive spam filter for email), as social engineering is usually human targeted, rather than system targeted.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

I know there's quite a few companies that offer "social engineering tests" to pinpoint potential weaknesses, you could even do a few simple tests for free yourself - e.g. see if you can get staff to open a dodgy attachment in an email from an unknown source.