Hackers don't just con unsuspecting consumers with social engineering techniques. They have rapidly adopted similar methods for attacking companies large and small by tricking employees into divulging confidential, proprietary and login information.

Thus armed, cyber criminals can breach networks by bypassing traditional security methods like anti-virus and firewalls to rummage through data and/or hold that data hostage with ransomware.

According to a Verizon study of data breaches in 2015, the use of social engineering techniques to breach networks increased by 33 percent last year to 20% of all attacks. I suspect that figure is higher. Many hackers, including the notorious Kevin Mitnick, believe it is easier to con an employee than crack passwords and exploit vulnerabilities.

Phishing emails that look like the real thing from corporations and institutions, pretexting that targets specific employees with believable scenarios, even that tried and true impersonation of "tech support" -- hackers have coaxed end-users into divulging

The size of your business no longer makes you immune, either. You could be a target depending on the data your industry stores, especially health care, legal, financial and manufacturing. Hackers have learned that small businesses can lead to larger prey -- the infamous Target attack began with a phishing email to an HVAC vendor that revealed its Target vendor login credentials and gave the hackers access to Target's network.

Your employees -- your last line of defense -- need to be educated about these scams and how to respond if they fall victim to one.

I've developed the FlexIT End-User Security Awareness program for this specific purpose -- to educate small business end-users about common scams, maintain their vigilance, appropriate responses, and the motivations of hackers to help recognize future social engineering scams.