Social Engineering

• A. A set of methods used by cyber criminals to deceive people into handing over information that can be used for fraudulent purposes. This is a person-on-person attack
• B. A technique to hack into software
• C. A hardware tampering incident
• D. A social engineering attack that deceives individuals

Answer: (A)

Social engineering is about manipulating people to gain access to information. It describes a set of methods used by cyber criminals to deceive someone into handing over data that can be used for fraudulent purposes. This focus on exploiting human trust and interaction is what makes it a person-to-person attack rather than a technical breach. The other options point to different kinds of security issues: hacking into software is a technical attack on systems, hardware tampering involves physical manipulation of devices, and describing it as an attack that deceives individuals is basically restating the idea without explaining how it achieves fraud. Real-world examples include phishing calls or emails that impersonate trustworthy entities to coax someone into revealing passwords or account details.