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Uniqkey Advisor Christian Dinesen: “Danes are especially prone to phishing.”

In an interview brought by Computerworld.dk in 2018, Uniqkey Senior Advisor, Christian Dinesen, was asked to comment on a case of physical social engineering attacks that had drawn a significant amount of attention in the Danish media at the time.

During the interview, Dinesen gave his take on the case. He explained that while physical social engineering attacks (like the one mentioned in the media) tend to be rare, the most common social engineering attacks like suspicious emails or phone calls are a growing issue, increasing in complexity each year. 

While all people are susceptible to social engineering and phishing attacks, especially the sophisticated kinds, there’s some countries who are fundamentally more prone to fall prey to these forms of cybercrimes. One of them being Denmark.

Why phishing attacks are surprisingly effective on Danes.

Danes are fundamentally very trusting people, both towards each other, but also towards authorities. While this is a great trait in most cases, it is a mark of weakness from the perspective of cybercriminals.

If you have the right means to fake an authorities’ identity, gaining access to critical infrastructure becomes a relatively easy task, Dinesen explains. “As Danes, we’re rather trusting of authorities compared to other people. This makes us especially prone to phishing attacks, where the malevolent actor is impersonating an authoritative figure.”

Interested in the full story? Read the rest of the interview here. 

It is currently only available in Danish.

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