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Organizational authority

This is the authority that comes from the supervisory hierarchy in organizations. Those higher in the hierarchy have access to more information and power than those below them. Social engineers assume this authority by using pretexts of people that have more authority than their targets in organizations. A social engineer may email an employee pretending to be the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and request certain credentials. Without question, the employee will give this information because of the perception of authority. People are highly responsive to any assertion of authority since they grow up getting used to these defined structures of authority. That is why an email will work even though the social ...