How do you secure your architecture against social engineering?

There is no 100% protection agains social engineering. Especially not for the entire organisation. You always have to protect the organisation like everyone could fall for social engineering. Therefore you first need to know what are the most important assets in your architecture. Where are they? Who deals with it? What are the threats? When you know such facts about the company you can effectively secure this part of the organisation agains social engineering with technical and organizational measures. The important inner circle needs to be the focus. Even if a social engineering attack is successful in those perimeter there must be a protection, detection and response to avoid any further damage.

To secure your architecture against social engineering: 1. Educate employees: Train them to recognize social engineering tactics like phishing emails or phone scams. 2. Implement strict policies: Enforce rules for information sharing and access controls. 3. Use multi-factor authentication: Require more than one form of verification for access. 4. Regularly update software: Patch vulnerabilities to prevent exploitation. 5. Limit information exposure: Avoid sharing sensitive details publicly. 6. Conduct security audits: Regularly review and update security measures. 7. Foster a culture of security: Encourage employees to report suspicious activity promptly.

For the inner circle of your perimeter must be the rule: train, train, train. Show real life examples. Show the staff what can happen when they fall. What would it mean to your organisation. Show them they are an important piece of the puzzle. Give them all they need to assess situations, to make a judgement and stand their ground. But also show it is ok to fail. It is more important to report it, deal with it very fast and avoid it the next time. In this way you create security culture. And don't overdo it with pressure. People are not the only leverage. Don't forget the technical and organisational measures the company should provide to support the staff. Protection, detection and response need the fitting technic and organisation.

It is all about people, processes and technology. A design should always start with people. The staff is always the closest and most vulnerable link. Design security in a way people can use it effectively. Set up processes that make it practicable to secure the most important assets. Apply technology and automation to support the people and processes in an efficient way. Technology is meant to support people. Not the opposite way. And processes need to be in line with business goals. Security shouldn't interrupt the daily business that much. Only when the technical and organisational measures are considered with people, processes and technology in mind the company will find an effective and efficient way to design security.

Continuous improvement is the key task of a security management system. How can you improve without learning in the hard way of a real life incident? Yes, you can test. There are a bunch of tests you should perform on a regular basis. Technical tests like penetration tests and vulnerability scans. Also organisational test like phishing simulations, internal audits and risk assessments should be practiced. Especially the most important perimeter needs to be tested frequently in different ways. The most beneficial way is to do everything with a professional third party vendor. They are experienced with the tests, have the technical and human resources and bring deep insights which can be used for improvement.

When you have considered all the previous points you will have a security organisation which don't fall for social engineering that easy. And if they do, there will be technical and organisational measures to keep the most important business running. So when it happens the security culture must promote and reward fast and honest communication. The incident must be communicated in the best process to the right people in order to handle everything as good as possible. Sharing information and be as transparent as possible is in general a key for security. When you mis-communicate, hesitate or get confused in an emergency, you are lost. Know your stakeholders, know your processes, know your tools. Keep cool in an emergency and communicate asap.

Define clear objectives for the training program and establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure its effectiveness. This could include tracking the reduction in security incidents or improvements in employee awareness. Provide a way for participants to give feedback on their processes, challenges etc. Use their input to refine the content and delivery methods to learn and improve. Keep training content up to date to reflect evolving cybersecurity threats, regulations, and best practices. Cyber threats change rapidly, and your training should stay current.

If you have the budget: Get a supplier for red teaming on a regular basis. This is the most realistic feedback you can get. Don't do it by your own. It will be not that sufficient like a third party will do it.