Attacks and malware
What is Social engineering?
Manipulating people into giving up information, access or money by exploiting trust, urgency, fear or helpfulness rather than technical flaws.
Social engineering is manipulating people rather than systems. It exploits trust, authority, urgency, fear, curiosity and the wish to be helpful, to get someone to reveal a password, approve a login, open a file or send money.
Phishing, vishing, smishing, pretexting and fake help desk calls are all social engineering. Because it targets human judgement, defences combine training with processes that make verification normal, such as calling back on a known number.