Tailgating is one of the most common types of physical security breaches. It refers to an event when an unauthorized person follows an authorized person to access a secured area. The simplest way to understand tailgating is to imagine a situation where an employee is politely holding a door for a colleague, and an outsider rushes in.
If you have understood what tailgating refers to, it will be easier for you to understand how it is perceived in the world of cybercrime.
What is cyber security tailgating?
Tailgating is a simple, low-tech physical hack compared to complex hacking methods. It means the outsider exploits the entry point to enter a restricted area with malicious intent.
A security company SACS’s research suggests that 78 percent of respondents did not have a plan to deal with an incident of tailgating. However, they said they would take an active stance if something happened. This indicates that there is massive scope for improvement and risk mitigation. Prevention is better than cure.
Here is a step-by-step guide to preventing tailgating attacks.
Understanding the psychology:
In tailgating, the outsider tricks the authorized person into believing that he is also an authorized person but needs help accessing the restricted area.
- Employees, out of courtesy, keep the doors open for those coming behind. Intruders use this situation as an opportunity to access the restricted area. This is one of the most common types of tailgating when the tailgater walks behind employees as they open doors.
- Expecting deliveries or couriers at the workplace is quite common in the era of e-commerce. The perpetrator might pose as a courier or delivery driver to breach the restricted area.
- What will you do if you see someone coming behind you with his hands too full to open the door? Of course, you instinctively want to help them as a gesture of kindness. Well, this is one of the strategies intruders use.
- In large organizations, it might happen that employees may not recognize each other despite working for the same company. Tailgaters are often found to claim that they forgot or lost the ID card so that someone else provides them access to the office using their card or temporary entry pass.
- As technology evolves, intruders also use it for their own benefit. For example, several tailgaters are found to use a thermal camera to scan the entry pass number and misuse it later.
The organizations likely to fall prey to tailgating are:
- Those having a large number of employees and heavy footfalls.
- Companies working with multiple subcontractors.
- Employees receive deliveries or couriers in a large number every day.
- Sometimes, disgruntled ex-employees tailgate to inflict damage to the organization.
How harmful can tailgating be?
After getting access to the restricted area, the tailgater may carry out several malicious activities. This includes stealing or viewing sensitive information, damaging premises, exploiting user credentials, inject malware into the IT ecosystem, to count a few.
Possible consequences of tailgating:
- Some tailgater can create mayhem on the premises by severely injuring one of your employees, who might be his family member, ex-spouse, or a friend to whom they seek revenge.
- They can steal hard drives, phones, raw materials, computers, or expensive items that might cost you dearly. Stolen hard drives and servers give them access to your precious data.
- If the perpetrator is a media person, they can eavesdrop on the sensitive conversation and record confidential procedures. Then they can sell this to media houses for a handsome amount, putting your and your organization’s reputation at stake.
- A competitor might also be a tailgater. In such a situation, they might access sensitive information that might be used against you. The perpetrator can also insert malware into the device to inflict further damage.
Read More: Tailgating: What is it, how harmful is it, and how to prevent it?
There may be a major cyber attack at the time of the ongoing deadlock on the border between India and China.
Chinese hackers can carry out this cyber attack by sending an e-mail in the name of the free COVID-19 test in India.
The intelligence agency has warned about this possible cyber attack.
This cyber-attack can be carried out today i.e.
According to intelligence agencies, Indian users may receive an e-mail called ncov2019.gov.in, in which cyber attacks can be done under the guise of free COVID-19 testing.
The intelligence agency has warned the users to neither open the mail from this email ID nor download the attachment.
No company is immune to the attention of cybercriminals who may attack any business - any location, any type, and any size.
The saying amongst security professionals is, 'there are two types of organizations: those which have been infiltrated and those which have been but do not know it yet.
The UK government Cyber Security Survey discovered that 40% of small businesses and 28% of micro had recognized an attack or breach in 2019.
That survey also found that this had amplified from 33% of small firms and 17% of micro-businesses just three years before.The extent to which businesses get affected depends on the type of attack.
For the most part, this kind of attack causes no lasting harm.
This kind of security breach is more likely to have lasting effects on the targeted firm, often extorting large sums of money from businesses by threatening to make the data breach public.
Fitness brand Garmin spent millions of dollars in ransom after an attack took many of its products and services offline last month.
This article includes what happened, a detailed technical malware analysis, and the main findings.Read More: Ransomware Attack.
