Social engineering is the act of manipulating people into performing actions or divulging confidential information. Social engineers use various techniques to coerce people into doing what they want, such as pretending to be someone else or using intimidation tactics.
The goal of social engineering is to gain access to confidential information or to get people to take actions that they wouldn’t normally take. For example, a social engineer might try to get a person to give them their password by pretending to be from IT and needing the password to fix a problem. Alternatively, a social engineer might try to intimidate someone into giving them information by threatening to harm them or their loved ones.
There are many different techniques that social engineers can use, and they are constantly evolving their methods to stay ahead of the latest security measures. It is important for people to be aware of the various social engineering techniques so that they can protect themselves from becoming victims.