Week 7 Reading: Social Engineering

Social engineering is the art of manipulating people so they give up confidential information. There are many social engineering techniques Phishing, Vishing, Watering hole, tailgating, etc. These techniques are attempted by attackers to fool or manipulate humans into giving up access, credentials, banking details, or other sensitive information. There are 3 stages in social engineering research, planning and execution. In the research phase, the attacker performs reconnaissance on the target to gather information. The next stage is planning, where the attacker reviews the information and selects an attack to perform on the target. The last step is the execution phase, the attacker carries out the attack usually by sending messages by email or another online channel.