Humans the weakest link in security chain: Tariq

MUSCAT — Tariq Hilal Al Barwani, IT expert and online manager at Nawras, was recently invited to address delegates, experts and practitioners in the field of IT security at the Secur Middle East Congress 2008 in Dubai.

Sepaking on the topic ‘Hacking information and penetration into security through social engineering’, Tariq explained the humanistic skill that every elite hacker uses to penetrate a person, computer, businesses and organisation as a whole during an attempt to breach security. “Companies spend a lot of money on different aspects of technology to secure their information, but what companies don’t realise is that humans are the weakest link in a security chain. Companies must spend money on training their employees about security, and not merely depend on technology to secure their systems,” emphasised Tariq.

The congress featured two-day conference with presentations of case studies and interactive sessions combined with a major IT security-specific exhibition.

A number of senior managers, executives, professionals and security consultants from various industries around the world attended the congress.

In his presentation, Tariq illustrated the techniques, skills, process and practical examples of how a social engineering hacker would attempt to conduct and breach an organisation without using any technology.

Tariq said: “Social engineering is a people skill and not a technical skill!”.

Later, Tariq presented the audience with a prevention plan that could be used to protect the employees and organisations as a whole.

Tariq concluded by saying: “Hackers use their programming and networking skills to exploit applications, operating systems, and network protocols to get and hack inside your company’s network. Social engineers use their people skills to exploit your company’s employees and stakeholders who have access to your organisation.”