Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks

The most important thing you can do to prevent being socially engineered is always be as vigilant as you can, Just being aware of common tricks puts you one step ahead of this game.

1- Never give out any confidential information, whether it's over the phone, online, or in-person, unless you can first verify the identity of the person asking and the need for that person to have that information. for example, You get a call from your credit card company saying your card has been compromised? Say okay, you'll call them back, and call the number on your credit card rather than speaking to whoever called you. Always remember that real IT departments and your financial services will never ask for your password or other confidential information over the phone.

2- Avoid having all your eggs in one basket (or the dreaded "single point of failure"): The more intertwined and dependent your accounts are the more widespread the damage a security breach can cause you, for example, if you use your Gmail address for every service's password recovery

3-Use different logins for each service and secure your passwords: In a similar way, never use the same password more than once. And make sure your passwords are strong

4-Use two-factor authentication: This makes it harder for thieves to get into your account, even if your username and password are compromised.

5- Get creative with security questions: The additional security questions websites ask you to fill in are supposed to be another line of defense, but often these questions are easily guessed or discoverable . You can shift the letters in your answer or use your own special coding system to make sure only you know those security answers.

6- Use credit cards wisely: Credit cards are the safest way to pay online (better than debit cards or online payment systems like PayPal), because of their strong protections. If you use a debit card and a hacker gets access to the number, your entire bank account could be drained. You can further secure your credit card by not storing card numbers on websites or using disposable or virtual card numbers.

7- Frequently monitor your accounts and personal data: To be on the lookout for both identity theft and credit card fraud, check in with your account balances and credit score regularly. Several services offer free ID theft monitoring, credit monitoring, and questionable credit charges. You can even use Google Alerts as an identity theft watchdog.

8- Remove your info from public information databases: Sites like Zabasearch and PeopleFinders publish our private information (like address and date of birth) online for all to see.

9- dispose of your digital data properly

10- Talk about security

and finally, an excellent resource for learning about “art of human hacking" :
http://www.social-engineer.org/