2017 Azbee Awards of Excellence

Category

Online > Q&A > New England

Awarded to

Rob Wright, Executive Editor; Peter Loshin, Site Editor; Madelyn Bacon, Assistant Site Editor.

Entry details

Frank Abagnale: No technology can beat a social engineering attack

Issue date (if applicable): 
Publication name: SearchCloudSecurity
Publishing company: TechTarget
Website home page: http://searchcloudsecurity.techtarget.com/

Please describe the publication's mission and readership:

SearchSecurity.com is a website for information security and IT professionals that require the latest news and technical advice to help keep their corporate data, systems and assets secure. The website's mission is to offer readers breaking industry news as well as information on new malware and cyberattacks, emerging hacker threats and techniques, regulatory compliance issues, security certifications and training, security management strategies and other best practices for enterprise InfoSec teams. SearchCloudSecurity.com is a sister site that is dedicated to all things cloud security. The site offers news and features on the latest technologies, threats and trends as well as tips and expert advice on cloud security best practices.

Please describe the enterprising work that went into this entry and its significance or impact on readers:

Frank Abagnale, the legendary confidence man whose exploits were made famous by the Steven Spielberg movie "Catch Me If You Can," is often called "the father of social engineering," thanks to his success with writing phony checks. He firmly believes that people, not technology, are the weakest link when it comes to today's hacking and cyberattacks. And that's why Abagnale recently joined a cybersecurity startup called Trusona, which offers guaranteed authentication for financial transactions. Abagnale spoke with SearchCloudSecurity about why social engineering attacks like phishing emails and pretexting are so effective and explained how Trusona's technology tries to prevent such attacks from succeeding. He also talked about his scams as a con man, his work with the FBI's fraud investigation division, and why cybercriminals have it easier today – thanks to technology – than when he was running scams 40 years ago. This Q&A provided SearchCloudSecurity readers with rare insight from a legendary con artist and social engineering expert on why these types of attacks are so effective, and what people and enterprises need to do to protect themselves.

Links to entry URLs

Please note: These URLs are only required for entries in the Online division categories, entries in the Design division categories that are specific to websites, entries in the Website of the Year category, and entries in the Cross-Platform Package of the Year category.

Entry URL(s), if applicable:
http://searchcloudsecurity.techtarget.com/news/450297978/Frank-Abagnale-No-technology-can-beat-a-social-engineering-attack

Links to Uploaded Entry Files

Please note: The links below are the same links as clicking on the Preview images at the top of this column. You may click the links below to view each submitted entry file.

View entry file #1 
View entry file #2 
View entry file #3 
View entry file #4
View entry file #5 
View entry file #6 
View entry file #7 
View entry file #8 
View entry file #9 
View entry file #10