Security News > 2020 > December > Social engineering: How psychology and employees can be part of the solution
Social engineering is allowing cybercriminals the way in.
It's time to shift some of the focus from technology to psychology, as even the most sophisticated cybersecurity system has not prevented people from falling victim to social engineering.
You may or may not be familiar with Kevin Mitnick-he enlightened the world to the power of social engineering.
From Wikipedia, here's an excerpt of the definition of social engineering: "In the context of information security, social engineering is the psychological manipulation of people into performing actions or divulging confidential information. A type of confidence trick for the purpose of information gathering, fraud, or system access, it differs from a traditional 'con' in that it is often one of many steps in a more complex fraud scheme."
Some of the popular social engineering techniques among cybercriminals, due to their effectiveness, are phishing, vishing, pretexting, quid pro quo, baiting, and water holing.