Social engineering is the art of manipulating people so that they give up confidential information.
People are often the weakest point in security systems, social engineering focuses on people rather than on technology, as the weak point in any security system. There are many different ways to manipulate people to surrender their confidential information or data.
There are many threats to network security. Most target the computers and communications software, but many target far weaker links: the people who use them.
A study shows that human error was the main root cause of all security breaches to networks.
The biggest problems were failure to follow general policies and procedures, general carelessness, and a lack of knowledge of threats.
Some of the methods used to breach network security need no knowledge of programming or computers.
These are low-tech con-tricks, referred to as social engineering, aimed at manipulating vulnerable people into disclosing their personal information.