Social engineering (security)

This article is about manipulation of individuals. For social engineering in terms of influencing popular behavior, see Social engineering (political science).

Computer security
Secure operating systems
Security architecture
Security by design
Secure coding
Computer insecurity
Vulnerability	Social engineering Eavesdropping
Exploits	Trojans Viruses and worms Denial of service
Payloads	Backdoors Rootkits Keyloggers
v · d · e

Social engineering is the art of manipulating people into performing actions or divulging confidential information, rather than by breaking in or using technical cracking techniques.^[1] While similar to a confidence trick or simple fraud, the term typically applies to trickery or deception for the purpose of information gathering, fraud, or computer system access; in most cases the attacker never comes face-to-face with the victim. In the United Kingdom, social engineering using impersonation (e.g. to gain information over the phone, or to gate-crash an event) is known informally as blagging. In addition to criminal purposes, social engineering has also been employed by debt collectors,skiptracers, private investigators, bounty hunters and tabloid journalists.

"Social engineering" as an act of psychological manipulation was popularized by hacker-turned-consultant Kevin Mitnick. The term had previously been associated with the social sciences, but its usage has caught on among computer professionals.^[2]

A study by Google researchers analyzing fake AV distribution found that up to 90% of all domains involved in distributing fake antivirus software used social engineering techniques.^[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_engineering_%28security%29