Social Engineering Attacks

While many cybersecurity professionals focus on implementing security appliances and solutions to prevent cyberattacks and threats, sometimes they lack focus on protecting the minds of employees. The human mind does not have cybersecurity solutions to protect it from psychological manipulation, and this creates the most vulnerable aspect within any organization. Threat actors and penetration testers often trick employees into performing an action or revealing confidential information that assists in performing a cyberattack and compromising an organization.

During this chapter, you will learn the fundamentals and key concepts that are used by ethical hackers and penetration testers during their offensive security exercises to trick and manipulate their targets into revealing sensitive information and even performing a task. You will also discover the characteristics of various types of social engineering attacks and how to develop an awareness of defending...