Last weekend’s reports about the New Zealand rugby team’s discovery of a listening device sewn in to a hotel meeting room chair, have illustrated just how much spying technology has advanced in recent years.  These days, you don’t need to sit outside in a van with your headphones on, listening to static for an hour before the battery runs out and the tape recorder gives a tell-tale clunk.

Source: BBC Technology news

Date: August 28th, 2016

Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37154314

Discussion

1) “You pre-load a USB [memory] stick [with malware], and leave it where someone will find it,” says Mr Bomberg. “It’s human nature to wonder whose it is… especially if it says Accounts or HR on it.”  How could you guard against a simple attack like this?

2) “The first thing you do is perform lots of reconnaissance, where they sit, who they work with, look them up on social media,” he says.  “The more you know, the more you can build up an attack.”  Tapping into employees’ natural curiosity – about salary details, for example – is a good way to get them to click on email attachments, he says.  This is called social engineering.  How could you advise the company you work for to not get caught?