The African art of social engineering

[ UUID ] d830cc45-5741-456a-9c51-99c220647a6a

[ Session Name ] The African art of social engineering [ Primary Space ] Privacy and Security [ Secondary Space ] Web Literacy

[ Submitter's Name ] Brenda Nyokabi [ Submitter's Affiliated Organisation ] Code for Africa [ Submitter's GitHub ] @nerdlet

[ Other Facilitator 1's Name ] Laura Tich

[ Other Facilitator 2's Name ] Khadija Mahanga [ Other Facilitator 2's GitHub ] @KhadijaMahanga

What will happen in your session?

Despite the increasing recognition of the psychological nature of cyber attacks, research into the role of psychology in cybersecurity has continued to be undermined. In this session, we would like to engage the audience in some of the social engineering techniques that attackers use to gather sensitive information from the target. Using different activities, we will explore how psychological approaches are applied by African hackers to gain information/sensitive data from unsuspecting internet users.

Some of the issues we will discuss include the M-Pesa frauds in Kenya by prisoners and the Sakawa/Yahoo boys frauds which are quite prominent in Africa. Additionally, provide and discuss ways in which participants can protect their data against social engineering culprits.

What is the goal or outcome of your session?

Participants in this session should be able to understand and easily identify the various social engineering techniques used by malicious actors. Our goal is to shed a light on the different attack vectors that non-technical attackers employ to gain access to sensitive data for monetary gains

If your session requires additional materials or electronic equipment, please outline your needs.

We would need small stickers, pens, papers, a whiteboard and a projector for this session

Time needed

less than 60 mins