Mastering Kali Linux for Advanced Penetration Testing - Fourth Edition

5

Advanced Social Engineering and Physical Security

Social engineering is a method of manipulating humans to extract information or perform malicious activity by interacting with them. It is the most effective attack that has made many great organizations succumb to security incidents. Attackers may choose single or multiple ways to target individuals by exploiting human psychology, which can effectively trick a human into providing physical access to a system. It is the single most successful attack vector used during red teaming exercises, penetration testing, or in an actual attack. The success of a social engineering attack relies on two key factors:

1. The knowledge that is gained during the reconnaissance phase. The attacker must know the ...