Simulation Model of Social Engineering Attacks in Business Enterprises

Abstract

The pervasive use of social media in small and medium enterprises has increased social engineering cyber-attacks. Enterprises that have adopted the use of social media and emails to supplement on their marketing to complete business deals have been attacked or have detected attempted attacks on their infrastructure. Others are still trapped in the social engineering racket. In this paper we identify the dynamic pattern and behavior of social engineering both from within and without the business enterprises. We used analytical method to identify the key factors and parameters that cause social engineering attacks in businesses .Causal loops are used to model the relationships of key parameters that contribute to cyber-attacks through social engineering through the patterns and behavior of social media users. Using stock and flow diagrams, we build a simulation model on Stella platform, analyze it and suggest possible solutions that business enterprises can take to implement measures through policy change.

Keywords: Social Media, Attack, Engineering, Stella, Enterprise, Simulation, Model

DOI: 10.7176/JIEA/11-2-10

Publication date: December 30^th 2021