Why Remote Work Has Made Social Engineering Exponentially Easier
When teams worked in physical offices, identity verification happened passively — you recognized your colleagues by sight, voice, and presence. Remote work has stripped that passive verification layer entirely. Every communication now happens over channels that can be spoofed, compromised, or impersonated: email, Slack, Teams, SMS. A threat actor who has compromised one account — or who has simply created a similar-looking username — can impersonate a colleague convincingly enough to extract credentials, sensitive files, or financial approvals.
The Account Compromise Chain Reaction
Corporate social engineering attacks frequently follow a chain: an employee's personal email is compromised in a third-party breach, their reused password unlocks their work Slack, the Slack account is then used to request credentials from colleagues who trust the familiar account. Each link in the chain exploits the trust established by a legitimate identity. By the time the original account holder realizes what happened, the attacker has moved laterally across multiple systems.
AI-Powered Impersonation: The New Frontier
GPT-powered systems can now be fine-tuned on an employee's previous messages to replicate their writing style, vocabulary, and communication patterns with unsettling accuracy. Combined with a compromised or spoofed account, an AI model can hold a convincing multi-turn conversation that feels authentically like communicating with a known colleague. Standard security awareness training — 'watch for suspicious emails' — was not designed for this threat level.
How Real Authenticator Protects You
A Five-Second Verification Layer for Any Sensitive Request
Real Authenticator integrates into your team's workflows as a lightweight verification step for any high-stakes request: credential sharing, file access, financial approvals, or system changes. Establish connections with key colleagues during onboarding — it takes 60 seconds. When a sensitive request arrives, reply: 'Can you send me your current RA code?' A legitimate colleague provides it instantly. An attacker cannot.
Building a Verification Culture Without Friction
The most effective security practices are the ones teams actually use. Real Authenticator's verification step is fast enough (under five seconds) and non-intrusive enough that teams adopt it without pushback. Unlike hardware security keys or multi-step authentication workflows, it requires no IT infrastructure change — just two colleagues who have established a trusted connection.
Remote teams & startups
Stops internal account takeovers
Frequently Asked Questions
What is social engineering in cybersecurity?
Social engineering is the manipulation of people into performing actions or divulging confidential information. In a workplace context, it typically involves an attacker impersonating a trusted colleague, IT support, or vendor to obtain credentials, access, or financial approvals.
How can I verify that a Slack or Teams message is really from my colleague?
You cannot verify the identity of the sender through the messaging platform alone — accounts can be compromised or spoofed. Real Authenticator provides an out-of-band verification layer: request your colleague's current TOTP code via the messaging platform, then verify it matches in your app.
What credentials should require two-person verification before sharing?
Any credentials with broad access: admin passwords, production environment keys, API secrets, financial system logins, and shared service accounts. As a rule: if the credential's misuse could cause significant damage, require identity verification before sharing it.
Is social engineering the same as phishing?
Phishing is a subset of social engineering that uses email as the attack vector. Social engineering is broader and includes voice attacks (vishing), SMS attacks (smishing), in-person manipulation, and platform-based impersonation via Slack, Teams, or other collaboration tools.
How does Real Authenticator work for remote teams specifically?
Team members establish connections in Real Authenticator during onboarding or at any time. When a sensitive request arrives over any digital channel, the requester provides their current 6-digit code, which the recipient independently verifies in their app. Because codes rotate every 30 seconds and are derived from device-resident secrets, they cannot be intercepted, replayed, or fabricated.
Data & Sources
- 1.Of breaches involved the human element in 2022 — Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report 2022
- 2.Of breaches still involved the human element in 2023 — Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report 2023
- 3.Average total cost of a data breach in 2023 — IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2023
- 4.Of cyber incidents involve a social engineering component (industry consensus) (survey/modeled estimate) — Proofpoint State of the Phish 2023 / Verizon DBIR 2023
Statistics represent figures as reported by the cited source in the year indicated. Losses marked with superscript numbers are based on survey samples or industry modeled estimates and should be read as indicative trends rather than precise measurements. Many fraud incidents go unreported, so actual losses are likely higher than cited figures. This page is produced by Real Authenticator for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice.