Social engineering is defined as a hacker's clever manipulation of the natural human tendency to trust, with the goal of obtaining information that will allow him/her to gain unauthorized access to a valued system and the information that resides on that system. The basic goals of social engineering are the same as hacking in general: to gain unauthorized access to systems or information in order to commit fraud, network intrusion, industrial espionage, identity theft, or simply to disrupt the system or network.

Hackers teach social engineering from a psychological point-of-view, emphasizing how to create the perfect psychological environment for the attack. Regardless of the method used, the main objective is to convince the person disclosing the information that the social engineer is in fact a person that they can trust with sensitive information.

Ever heard of the "human firewall?" It’s your employees. And they are the first line of defense against social engineers. Our social engineering services consist of testing that "firewall" to ensure it is working and provide assurance that your information security training program is effective.