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Social engineering is a very popular tool used by most cyber attackers today. The reason why cyber attackers use social engineering is that it is easier and more effective than trying to break the technology itself.

There is a saying in the military "work smarter not harder". Why should attackers go through all of the trouble of finding security holes in a system, and exploiting those holes, when they can drop a flashdrive and get complete access when an employee plugs it into their computer?

It requires far less work to rely on deception and errors then it is to find and exploit holes in software. When it comes to exploiting simple errors, it is often easier to clone a website and create a phishing scam than it is to collect sensitive data on the legitimate website. Someone might type in Amazin instead of Amazon, which turns out to be a phishing scam create to collect people's username and passwords. When educating Internet users, they should be told about phishing and cousin-name attacks. According to the textbook, "research has identified a common inability to distinguish legitimate domain names from those in cousin-name attacks or subdomain attacks" (Jacobsson, 2008).

There is an increase of punishments of cybercriminals around the world. In the United States, jail time is a legitimate punishment for certain crimes. In some places, an attacker can go to jail for six months to 5 years for illegally accessing a computer system. In the State of Connecticut there are five degrees of computer. 5th degree is a misdemeanor with up to 6 months in jail.

The damage is less than $500. A 4th degree is a misdemeanor with damage between $500 and $1,000 and up to a year in jail. A 3rd degree is a felony with damage over $1,000 and the punishment is up to five years in prison.

A 2nd degree computer crime results in up to 10 years in prison or over $5,000 in damage. Lastly a 1st degree computer crime results in 20 years in prison and requires damage over $10,000. These are pretty steep penalties for cybercrimes. If someone tries to hack someone else's Wi-Fi network for fun or knowledge without permission, they are committing a crime that they can go to jail for. As Chrisitans, we must be aware of things that are wrong.

We must be honest and do what is right. 2 Corinthians 8:21 states "For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of man" and 2 Timothy 2:15 states "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth".

References Jakobsson, M., & Ramzan, Z. (2008). Crimeware: Understanding new attacks and defenses. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley Longman, Inc. Johnson, R. (2015).

Security policies and implementation issues (2nd edition). Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Reinhart, C. (2012, June 28). PENALTIES FOR COMPUTER HACKING.