Social Engineering

Social engineering is the practice of tricking victims into supplying private information that could facilitate unauthorized access to a network.

Cybercriminals commonly precede cyberattacks with social engineering campaigns because they help them circumvent IT boundary security controls, such as firewalls.

If a successful social engineering attack isn’t possible, a cybercriminal is forced to progress through the first three stages of the cyber kill chain before achieving network access.

Key takeaways

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    Social engineering is one of the most significant threats to data security.
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    Human error is the primary attack vector in social engineering campaigns.
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    The best way to mitigate social engineering attacks is with regular security awareness training in the workplace.
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