Attack Vectors: The History of Cybersecurity

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to APress Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2025

M. HaberAttack Vectorshttps://doi.org/10.1007/979-8-8688-1709-0_10

10. Social Engineering

Morey Haber¹  

(1)

Heathrow, Lake Mary, FL, USA

 

For the past 25 years, social engineering has repeatedly proven that our most vulnerable cybersecurity asset is us—human beings. The fundamental premise of social engineering attacks is incredibly straightforward: why spend time reverse engineering code when, with a spoonful of charm and a sprinkle of deception, you can coax unsuspecting humans into divulging secrets to gain critical access and carry out attacks? After all, as is widely said today in the age of identity security, it’s easier to log in than hack in.

And, humans, ...