Ethical Hacking

14.3    Phases of a Social Engineering Attack

A social engineering attack usually proceeds in four phases, which are explained in Table 14.1.

No.	Phase	Explanation
1	Research	In this phase, the attacker gathers information about the target organization. They can search the organization's website (OSINT), initiate contact with employees on social media platforms such as LinkedIn and seek conversation with them, or search for discarded documents in the trash containers in front of the company premises (dumpster diving) that may contain employee or customer data.
2	Selecting the target	In the second phase, the attacker identifies potential targets within the organization, such as frustrated or dissatisfied employees. Such ...