Ransomware Operators Hack You with Social Engineering. Here Is How You Can Stop Them

I’ve been around long enough in cybersecurity to witness trends in attack vectors—what, do you think I’m that young? But if there has been one constant through all those years, it’s social engineering. It’s not just about getting people to hand over passwords (though, sure, that happens a lot), but about hacking trust itself. And that’s precisely what ransomware operators have gotten so good at.

In fact, last month, I worked with three banks to upgrade their zero-trust architecture because they were getting banged up badly by all those phishing campaigns that led to their networks being infected with ransomware. No election-correcting, AI-augmented writing tool can entirely stop what humans are all too eager to swallow. So let’s do some in-depth analysis—how ransomware proliferates through social engineering and how you can combat it.

What is Social Engineering?

Rewind for a moment to the beginning, all social engineering is human mind hacking. If one can simply persuade someone to allow entry, who needs an exploit kit or backdoor malware? Ransomware gangs understand this. They don’t act like some 90s action movie, brute-forcing their way into networks. No, they email an email that appears legitimate, create a counterfeit login page, or even call your employees acting like tech support.

And boom—you’re infected.

They leverage trust, urgency, fear, and curiosity to trick people into:

• Executing malicious attachments
• Pressing the fake login pages (credential harvesting 101)
• Downloading what they believe to be a genuine update
• Providing their MFA codes because “IT” asked them to confirm something

I’ve watched entire companies go under because one person clicked on the wrong email. And ransomware? It doesn’t only pilfer data — it encrypts all of it and then demands payment.

Social Engineering Tactics That Are Common

Hackers are no longer only jousting around fake invoices (though that still works unnervingly well). Their arsenal includes:

1. Phishing (Because It Still Works)

• Phishing to spoof Microsoft Security emails
• Links that seem real but actually lead to malicious sites
• PDFs that aren’t PDFs: Executable attachments

2. Spear Phishing (When They Target Executives)

• Tailored attacks on individual employees
• Attackers search LinkedIn, corporate sites, whatever is public
• Also commonly the first step in ransomware deployment

3. Business Email Compromise (BEC) Attacks

• Hackers accede to a real email (that your vendors ship)
• Then they send malware-riddled invoices to which no one raises the alarm

4. Deepfake & AI-Powered Scams

• Deepfake voice scams are real considerations
• Attackers can impersonate an executive’s voice to ask for wire transfers or credentials

5. Old Trick, Still Works! USB Drops

• “Drop” USB drives left in company parking lots with malware embedded
• Every time, someone plugs it in just to see what’s in there

And whatever comes after that — I just returned from DefCon, where the Hardware Hacking Village made me rethink everything I know about insider threats.

How to Identify & Protect Against These Attacks

I have this argument with clients a lot: firewalls and endpoint detection are not adequate. If your own employees can’t identify a scam, you’re done for. Here’s what actually works.

Email Security 101 (But So Many Ignore It)

• Check the sender. Addresses that aren’t terribly far off are spoofed by attackers.
• Hover over links. If it says Microsoft but leads to something shady — don’t click.
• Be wary of unsolicited attachments. Period.

Multi-Factor Authentication (For Real, Use It Properly)

• MFA blocks a lot of attacks—but only the ones done correctly.
• If someone calls you to ask for an MFA code, it is a scam.
• Don’t use SMS-based MFA, if you can avoid it (SIM-swaps are still popular).

Zero Trust (Because Trust Is How You Get Hacked)

• Don’t take requests at face value. Even if it’s from the “CEO.”
• Verify everything. Call people back, using known numbers, not the one in an email.
• Limit access. No receptionist should have access to financial systems, no matter how convenient that appears to be.

Security Awareness Training (No, It’s Not a Waste of Time)

I’ll be frank — no tool can ever substitute for good human instincts. At PJ Networks, we train our employees to identify:

• Tell-tale signs of phishing (urgent tone, misspellings, odd email addresses)
• Examples of scams in the wild (because theory is not enough)
• What attackers do (vishing) using phone manipulations against employees
• Why you should avoid plugging mystery USBs into systems

I’ve watched staff go from clicking on every phishing email to calling us before they do something stupid. That’s the goal.

Security Awareness Training by PJ Networks

This isn’t some PowerPoint session employees forget a week later. We simulate real attacks. We send our own phishing emails, attempt to deceive employees, and then show them how they nearly got hacked. It works because:

• It’s practical, not only a lecture.
• Employees suffer an attack that has no real downside.
• Your security controls adjusted to how users actually behave.

Because here’s the thing — it isn’t just about stopping ransomware. What you want is a good security culture, one that stops everything at the door — malware, fraud, insider threats, you name it.

Conclusion

And if ransomware operators can simply trick someone into opening the door to them, they don’t need more intricate exploits. That’s social engineering. Businesses that concentrate solely on firewalls and AI-led endpoint detection are forgetting the real danger — human error.

Want real protection?

• Provide training for your employees — rather than expecting them to know better.
• Adopt zero trust, because trust is dangerous.
• Don’t believe anything — attackers hope you’ll make snap decisions.

I’ve seen both sides of this. Those who invest in security awareness — they survive ransomware attacks before those even happen. Those who don’t? They’re the ones who call us and say we’ve been hit. Your call.