Title: What are the most common social engineering techniques?
Headings: What are the most common social engineering techniques?
What are the most common social engineering techniques?
What is Social Engineering?
What Isn’t Social Engineering?
Breaking down the techniques used in Social Engineering Attacks
Mass Phishing
Targeted Phishing
Cyber-Assisted Fraud
Invoice Fraud
Baiting (mostly Trojan)
Malicious Email Attachment Attacks
Vishing
Social Media Attacks
Fake news/Market Manipulation/Political Sabotage
Social Engineering Isn’t Going Anywhere
Joey Tanny

Content: It’s a key term in cyber security, and in an industry overrun with buzzwords, social engineering stands out in meaning, importance and scope. Social engineering techniques continue to wreak havoc on unsuspecting victims, and it’s a trend that needs to be addressed. What is Social Engineering? “Social engineering” applies to the intentional and manufactured manipulation of people for the purposes of committing fraud. This fraud can be purely digital, or a combination of online and offline actions taken to deceive or compromise an individual or group. In the cyber security context, we focus on fraud that involves manipulating the relationship between digital technology and human behavior. This can be done on a targeted basis or through a “spray and pray” approach. The ends vary as well, ranging from planting trojans or backdoor exploits to committing invoice fraud to simply stealing a password. This form of manipulation uses tactics that have little difference from a high pressure sales scenario or aggressive marketing techniques, but in these cases are turned towards explicitly fraudulent or malicious ends. These tactics could include social proof, urgency/scarcity, reciprocity, authority, familiarity, consistency, and any combination thereof.