Social Engineering: Understanding the Tactic and Its Threats

Social engineering targets the human layer—the most adaptive and the most vulnerable part of any security program.

TL;DR

• Attackers use psychology, impersonation, and tech tooling to trick people into granting access or revealing data.
• It maps to Reconnaissance and often Delivery in the Cyber Kill Chain.
• Governance + training + verification playbooks reduce risk more than ad-hoc awareness emails.

What Social Engineering Is

Social engineering is the use of deception to persuade an authorized person to perform an action that benefits the attacker—sharing credentials, running malware, approving a payment, or granting network access. According to Lockheed Martin’s Cyber Kill Chain, social engineering typically appears during reconnaissance (information gathering) and can also be part of delivery (getting the payload to the target).

Information Security Governance’s Role

Education is not a nice-to-have; it’s an ongoing control. Information Security Governance (ISG) and executive leadership should define cadence, accountability, and evidence of operation: policies, playbooks, training, and measurable outcomes. Regular testing and re-training ensure teams stay current with evolving threats and that oversight gaps are identified and closed (Grama, 2022).

The Three Lenses: Physical, Psychological, Technological

1) Physical Attacks — Baiting

Attackers leave removable media (e.g., USB drives) where a victim might pick it up and plug it in. Once inserted, malware can execute and phone home (Social Engineering Incidents and Preventions, 2023). An older, adjacent risk: peer-to-peer file sharing (e.g., early 2000s platforms) spread booby-trapped files—demonstrating how curiosity and convenience can be exploited.

How to reduce risk: block autorun, restrict USB mass-storage, educate staff, and provide a sanctioned file-transfer alternative.

2) Psychological Attacks — Impersonation

Attackers pose as colleagues, vendors, or executives via email, chat, or voice—now often enhanced by AI voice cloning/deepfakes. The goal is urgency and trust exploitation (e.g., “pay this invoice now,” “reset MFA for me”). Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) helps, especially phishing-resistant methods (FIDO2/passkeys), but training people to verify identities is essential.

How to reduce risk: enforce out-of-band callbacks to known numbers, require named tickets/PO numbers for finance changes, and use strong MFA for privileged actions.

3) Technological Attacks — SPIT (a.k.a. vishing at scale)

SPIT (Spam over Internet Telephony) uses VoIP systems and caller-ID spoofing to mass-deliver fraudulent prompts or IVR trees that harvest credentials or payments. Unlike one-off scam calls, SPIT runs in bulk with automation.

How to reduce risk: publish official callback numbers, verify callers before discussing accounts, and report suspect caller-IDs to your SOC for correlation. Train staff not to call unknown numbers left in voicemails; instead, use the number on file.

30-Second Verification Playbook (Copy/Paste)

1. Pause: no action while you verify.
2. Channel switch: move to a trusted channel (known phone number or ticketing system).
3. Challenge: ask for info an impostor wouldn’t know (ticket ID, cost center, prior PO #).
4. Confirm authority: is this request in policy for this role?
5. Log it: attach notes/screenshots to a ticket for audit and intel reuse.

Training Cadence & Metrics

• Quarterly phish/vish simulations (rotate scenarios and departments).
• Monthly micro-lessons: 3–5 minutes with one behavior to practice.
• MFA health: coverage > 99.5% and prompt-fatigue alerts < threshold.
• Finance controls: zero exception wires without dual control and verified callback.
• Report rate: encourage “report, don’t reprimand.” Reward fast reporting.

Conclusion

Social engineering evolves because people and processes evolve. By pairing governance (clear rules and evidence), practical verification steps, and modern MFA, organizations can cut through noise and stop the most common fraud paths before they start.

Bibliography

• Grama, J. L. (2022). Legal and Privacy Issues in Information Security. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
• Kim, D. (2023). Fundamentals of Information Systems Security. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
• Lockheed Martin. (2024). Cyber Kill Chain. link
• How cybercriminals use social engineering to target organizations. (2022). Bournemouth University. arXiv
• Social Engineering Incidents and Preventions. (2023). IEEE Xplore. link