Service desk (helpdesk): what it is and how it is attacked
The people who reset passwords and help staff who cannot get in.
Also known as
- helpdesk
- help desk
- IT support desk
- support line
- first line
Typing any of them into the editor finds this object.
Why it matters on a security diagram
It is a control point that answers the phone, and its job is to be helpful to somebody who says they are locked out. Persuading it to reset a factor is a current, ordinary technique that needs no software at all.
How it gets attacked, and what reduces it
How it gets attacked
- A caller who sounds convincing asking for a second factor to be reset
- Details taken from public sources used as proof of identity
- Pressure and seniority used to shorten the checks
What reduces it
- Verify through a channel the caller did not choose, such as calling back a number held on record
- Require something the caller cannot look up, and never a fact that appears on a public profile
- Make it acceptable to refuse and escalate, because the technique works on the willingness to help
Where it sits
- Group
- People and organisations · The humans and the entities they belong to.
- Whose side, by default
- Ours · Belongs to the organisation the diagram is about.
- Catalogue identifier
- service-desk
Reviewed . CC BY 4.0.
Others in people and organisations
- Personuser · employee · staff memberA named individual involved in the diagram.
- Suppliervendor · third party · contractor · MSPAnother organisation with access to your systems.
The people and organisations group carries every object in it, including the ones with no page of their own.
Service desk on your own diagram
Open the editor, press N, and type helpdesk. The object is placed and connected to whatever was selected, and Tab adds the next one already joined to it. Nothing is uploaded: the page is served with a Content Security Policy that forbids the browser from making any outbound request at all.
Open the diagram maker