The use of Social Media and psychological methods to fool computer users into an action.
This can take many forms from phishing emails to bogus webpages. Increasingly the Social Networks are being used to achieve these goals, some of which is in the guise of legitimate 3rd party apps.
This topic is in the process of being expanded. There is a page from my website entitled "Physhing"
In general, Social Engineering is the use of what appears to be legitimate information and using that to get the reader to do something that may not even be related to the original information. Most commonly the form that this takes is an email that tells you that your account has been compromised and that you need to click on a link to go to the appropriate website so that you can fix the problem. In most cases this is exactly what you shouldn't do.
This is not exclusive to email and the same techniques are used in other areas of the Internet. Websites can be complete fabrications and now Social Media such as Facebook and Twitter are falling victims of Social Engineering. In some cases Facebook could be seen a one gigantic example of Social Engineering.
This can take many forms from phishing emails to bogus webpages. Increasingly the Social Networks are being used to achieve these goals, some of which is in the guise of legitimate 3rd party apps.
This topic is in the process of being expanded. There is a page from my website entitled "Physhing"
In general, Social Engineering is the use of what appears to be legitimate information and using that to get the reader to do something that may not even be related to the original information. Most commonly the form that this takes is an email that tells you that your account has been compromised and that you need to click on a link to go to the appropriate website so that you can fix the problem. In most cases this is exactly what you shouldn't do.
This is not exclusive to email and the same techniques are used in other areas of the Internet. Websites can be complete fabrications and now Social Media such as Facebook and Twitter are falling victims of Social Engineering. In some cases Facebook could be seen a one gigantic example of Social Engineering.
