Social Engineering
What Is Social Engineering?
Social engineering is a type of cyberattack that uses psychological manipulation to trick individuals into divulging confidential information, clicking malicious links, or granting access to restricted systems. Instead of exploiting technical vulnerabilities, attackers exploit human trust, urgency, fear, or curiosity to achieve their goals.
Social engineering tactics are used in a wide range of attacks — from phishing and pretexting to impersonation and baiting. These attacks are often the first step in larger campaigns involving malware delivery, credential theft, or business email compromise.
Why Social Engineering Is So Effective
Social engineering targets the most unpredictable element in any security system: people. By impersonating authority figures, creating fake scenarios, or preying on fear and urgency, attackers can bypass even the most advanced technical controls.
Key business risks include:
- Credential theft: Employees may be tricked into revealing usernames and passwords, granting attackers access to internal systems.
- Malware infections: Malicious files or links may be disguised as important business documents, invoices, or software updates.
- Financial fraud: Attackers may pose as executives or vendors to request wire transfers, gift card purchases, or financial credentials.
- Data leaks: Users may unknowingly share sensitive files, customer information, or intellectual property with imposters.
- Reputational damage: Breaches caused by social engineering can erode customer trust and draw regulatory scrutiny.
Because social engineering often relies on urgency, authority, and/or helpfulness, even well-trained employees may fall victim, especially if they are under pressure.
How Social Engineering Works
Social engineering attacks follow a consistent pattern: identify a target, develop a pretext, establish trust, and exploit it. Tactics vary by channel and goal, but common forms include:
- Phishing: Deceptive emails that appear to come from legitimate sources. These may contain malicious links or attachments and often urge immediate action.
- Spear phishing: A more targeted form of phishing that uses personalized details — such as names, job titles, or current projects — to increase credibility.
- Vishing (voice phishing): Attackers call targets using spoofed numbers and impersonate tech support, HR, or executives to extract information or credentials.
- Smishing (SMS phishing): These malicious text messages often include links to spoofed websites or urgent requests.
- Pretexting: An attacker fabricates a believable story, such as a compliance audit or IT upgrade, to gain trust and extract information or access.
- Baiting: Users are enticed to take an action — like opening a USB drive labeled “Confidential” — that executes malware or grants access to attackers.
- Impersonation: Attackers pose as someone with authority or familiarity, such as a coworker, supplier, or support technician.
These tactics are often layered with emotion, urgency, and specific details to increase their effectiveness.
Real-World Examples of Social Engineering
- CEO fraud: An attacker spoofs an executive’s email address and asks an assistant to wire funds to an external account under urgent circumstances.
- Vendor impersonation: A threat actor poses as a supplier and requests that future payments be sent to a new bank account, effectively rerouting company funds.
- IT help desk scam: A fake tech support call convinces an employee to install remote desktop software, giving attackers full access to the endpoint.
- Recruitment scam: A spoofed job posting encourages applicants to submit personal data and download an onboarding package containing malware.
- Internal impersonation via messaging apps: A fake message from a co-worker (using a similar handle or spoofed account) asks for login info or sensitive files.
These scenarios show how social engineering can be adapted to any platform or business process — wherever people are making trust-based decisions.
Key Takeaways
Social engineering bypasses technology by exploiting human nature. These highly effective attacks continue to succeed because they’re low-cost, high-impact, and constantly evolving to mirror trusted voices and channels.
The best defense isn’t just awareness — it’s automation, correlation, and real-time context. Organizations must connect the dots between behavioral signals, threat intel, and access anomalies to detect and respond to social engineering threats before they escalate.
Anomali enables that visibility by correlating phishing infrastructure, suspicious behavior, and threat intelligence across your environment, helping security teams spot deception before it becomes disruption.
Want to see how Anomali helps organizations detect and respond to social engineering attacks in real time? Schedule a demo.
