What Is Social Engineering?

How Does Social Engineering Work?

Social engineering capitalizes on human vulnerabilities rather than software defects, with attackers crafting their methods around behavioral patterns. Once the bad actors identify a target—be it an individual or organization—they gather bits of information like phone numbers, email addresses, or even details from social media to learn about their target’s habits and relationships. Armed with these insights, they launch a calculated social engineering tactic intended to win the victim’s trust and prompt risky decisions.

By exploiting tendencies like habit and empathy, they quickly establish trust and prompt risky decisions, leaving victims unaware of the looming threats.

Steps of a Social Engineering Attack

1. Surveillance and research: Attackers gather background information (e.g., social media updates, email addresses) to learn about their target’s habits and network.
2. Initial contact and rapport: The social engineer masquerades as a trusted figure—perhaps a colleague or authority—to establish credibility and build comfort.
3. Manipulation and request: Having won some trust, the attacker requests sensitive details or actions—like clicking a link—under the guise of urgency or legitimacy.
4. Escalation and exploitation: Once the victim complies, attackers may install malware, steal more data, or continue accessing the compromised system unimpeded.

Types of Social Engineering Attacks

Social engineering covers a wide range of deceptions, each leveraging a unique angle to manipulate the human mind. From sophisticated attempts aimed at specific high-value targets to broader, spray-and-pray attacks that focus on sheer volume, these strategies all have one thing in common: they rely on trust, emotion, and perhaps a dash of fear. Below are five examples of the types of social engineering in the current landscape:

• Phishing scams: Attackers send fraudulent emails or messages that appear legitimate, often prompting victims to click a deceiving link or divulge personal data. These messages are frequently branded to imitate trusted institutions, such as banks or tech firms.
• Vishing: Vishing, or voice phishing, is a form of social engineering where cybercriminals use voice calls to impersonate trusted individuals or organizations to trick victims into revealing sensitive information, such as passwords or financial details.
• Business email compromise (BEC): Cybercriminals impersonate high-level executives or business partners in order to request wire transfers or sensitive documents under the guise of urgency. The unsuspecting employee, wanting to please a boss or a VIP client, often complies without hesitation.
• Water holing: Attackers identify websites frequented by a specific group (e.g., employees of a certain organization) and infect them with malware. By compromising a site that the target trusts, criminals can lure them into downloading harmful software in a place where they feel safe.
• Human impersonation: This method sees an attacker pose as a trusted insider or authority figure—such as tech support staff or a government official. Faced with uniformed questions, a victim might reveal a social security number or other private information to “verify identity.”

What or Who are Common Targets of Social Engineering?

Threat actors set their sights on those who are most likely to be cooperative or those who have critical access to valuable data. Certain industries, roles, and demographics are more at risk because of the nature of information they handle or their position within an organization. Below are four prominent examples:

• Healthcare staff: Individuals working in hospitals and clinics have immense access to medical records, often containing social security numbers and personal histories. Attackers view them as a goldmine due to the sensitive, life-altering nature of that data.
• Financial personnel: Employees in banking or accounting departments are desirable prey for social engineering attacks, as they hold important financial credentials that can be leveraged for fraud or direct theft.
• Administrative assistants: Admins manage schedules, expense records, and a host of other details that could provide a gateway into deeper organizational secrets. They’re often seen as the “front line” for executives, making them prime targets for infiltration attempts.
• High-value executive roles: C-level staff, board members, or directors wield power over vital corporate information. When criminals gain their trust, they can potentially authorize significant fund transfers or leak proprietary documents.
• Third-party vendors/contractors: External partners with system access or sensitive data are targeted due to often weaker security, providing a pathway into the main organization.

Real-World Examples of Social Engineering

Despite increasing awareness campaigns and robust security measures, social engineering remains a compelling threat that has claimed notable victims over the past few years. Technological advancement has allowed criminals to refine their craft, often going undetected until significant damage is done. Below are some social engineering examples from real incidents:

• Voice deepfake fraud (Vishing): Attackers used an advanced audio tool to impersonate a high-level executive’s voice in a phone call, compelling an employee to transfer funds to a fraudulent account under the false assumption of executive approval.
• Smishing campaign: Malicious text messages are being sent out imitating departments of transportation, parking authorities, etc., usually specific to a particular US state, asking targets to pay unpaid tolls.
• Spear phishing in cryptocurrency: Cybercriminals targeted a popular crypto-exchange by emailing employees and tricking them into downloading software that contained hidden malware. This infiltration led to identity theft of customer records.

Compliance and Regulatory Impact

Social engineering attacks can lead to severe legal ramifications for organizations that fail to adequately protect stakeholder data. Regulatory bodies such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the U.S. enforce stringent data protection mandates. Violating these requirements—either through poor security practices or delayed breach notifications—can result in hefty penalties and irreparable damage to consumer trust. Additionally, smaller yet increasingly common regulations, like the New York Department of Financial Services Cybersecurity Regulation, put pressure on companies to prioritize a dedicated incident response framework.

Beyond monetary fines, organizations risk reputational harm when found negligent in preventing social engineering intrusions. Threat actors can access vital business information or harvest personal details of clients, causing far-reaching consequences that extend beyond mere financial loss. Legal cases have been filed against companies accused of inadvertently exposing customer data via unscrupulous schemes that bypassed standard security protocols. Regulators are continually updating their guidelines to address emerging threats, pushing enterprises to keep pace with the evolving landscape. Taking compliance seriously means not just adhering to the letter of the law, but recognizing that robust cybersecurity measures—and the ability to defend against social engineering—are paramount for long-term stability.

Social Engineering Prevention

Staying safe from social engineering attacks requires a proactive stance and a firm acknowledgment that everyone can be a target. Many of the best defenses revolve around educating employees and fostering a culture of continuous cybersecurity awareness. Below are four best practices to mitigate these risks:

• Security awareness training: Equip team members with knowledge on social engineering techniques. Demonstrate real-life scenarios so people can recognize manipulative clues, such as incongruent sender addresses or unusual requests urging immediate action.
• Spam filters and email verification: Deploy advanced filters to catch malicious emails and phishing scams before they reach inboxes. Use built-in verification tools to ensure inbound messages are coming from valid sources.
• Multifactor authentication: Enforce layers of security—like one-time codes sent to an authenticator app—before granting access to critical business applications. A single stolen password becomes far less harmful when multiple checks stand in the way.
• Segmented access control: Prevent a single compromised account from gaining unlimited reach. Rigorously apply the principle of least privilege so that employees can only access the data and resources necessary for their roles.

What is the Role of GenAI in Social Engineering?

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is transforming the landscape of social engineering by drastically lowering the barrier for threat actors to create highly personalized attacks. With advanced language models capable of replicating human qualities such as empathy, tone, and style, attackers can easily tailor messages to resonate with their targets. Social media scraping tools further enable them to feed extensive personal data into GenAI systems, resulting in flawless emails or voice simulations that blend seamlessly into everyday communications. From personalized phishing campaigns to realistic impersonations, GenAI-powered attacks are escalating the sophistication of social engineering to new heights.

Beyond email and text channels, threat actors are now using GenAI to generate highly convincing deepfake audio or video content, strengthening their credibility and increasing the impact of a scam. This evolution allows them to forge convincing phone calls or live streams that more effectively exploit human trust. As defenses improve,

so do the capabilities of AI-driven attacks, creating a rapidly shifting battleground where even cautious users can be deceived. Ultimately, GenAI arms threat actors with an ever-expanding toolkit of tactics, making proactive security measures and continuous awareness training even more critical for every organization.

The Future of Social Engineering Threats

Attacks are growing more cunning by blending traditional tactics with emerging technologies. Artificial intelligence (AI) is being harnessed to improve the speed, scale, and realism of impersonation campaigns, as evidenced by the rise of deepfake audio and video. Attackers can now clone the voice of a familiar figure, adding a potent new layer to classic phone calls and email cons. This evolution calls for greater vigilance among users, as even the most tech-savvy can find themselves swayed by near-perfect simulations.

Equally concerning is the increased focus on automation, allowing cybercriminals to dispatch elaborate spear phishing or social engineering attacks at lightning speed. They can swiftly shift targets and adapt their methodology, making quick use of any newly disclosed vulnerabilities in software or widely used platforms. This dynamic environment means that organizations cannot rely solely on static defenses like firewalls or hardened endpoints. Instead, there must be an emphasis on flexible and adaptive strategies that combine AI analysis with human oversight.

Looking further ahead, the lines between physical and digital realms will continue to blur, as attackers weaponize everything from augmented reality to embedded systems in IoT devices. Tomorrow’s environment may see unsuspecting individuals manipulated by a barrage of believable illusions that mix real-time data with artificially generated content. Sustaining a strong security posture will demand not just better technology, but also a culture of skepticism and cross-functional collaboration that fosters resilience in the face of evolving threats.

What is the Role of GenAI in Social Engineering?

A zero trust architecture offers a transformative approach to cybersecurity by treating every interaction as potentially hostile. Rather than granting blanket access to a network once a user is authenticated, zero trust enforces continuous validation of identity, context, and security posture. This strategy dramatically reduces the chance of an intruder moving laterally throughout a network after tricking one unsuspecting target. The outcome is a security solution that stays effective even if a breach occurs on the “human side.”

Within this model, microsegmentation further enhances resilience against social engineering attacks. Smaller isolated zones ensure attackers can’t pivot from one compromised endpoint to another. Coupled with real-time monitoring, organizations can rapidly detect anomalies indicative of malicious behavior—like repeated login attempts or suspicious data transfers. As a result, zero trust doesn’t negate human error entirely, but it significantly contains any resulting damage.

Vendors who champion zero trust continue to refine this architecture with insights drawn from ongoing threats, emphasizing the inclusion of user behavior analytics and dynamic context checks. Critics sometimes argue that this level of scrutiny can slow down productivity, but emerging solutions aim to strike a healthy balance between security and efficiency. As the social engineering threat landscape continues to expand, particularly with advanced impersonation and AI-driven schemes, zero trust stands out as one of the most practical guardrails for safeguarding organizations and their people.

How can Zscaler Prevent Social Engineering?

Zscaler delivers comprehensive protection against social engineering by leveraging an AI-powered Zero Trust Exchange and continuous Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) capabilities, directly addressing the vulnerabilities highlighted in traditional perimeter-based defenses. Our innovative zero trust architecture minimizes the attack surface and proactively blocks threats, neutralizing phishing attempts and other credential-based attacks before they can compromise identities or escalate privileges. 

By continuously monitoring identity configurations, risky permissions, and real-time identity-related threats, Zscaler ensures rapid detection and remediation of attacks that rely on social engineering techniques, such as phishing, business email compromise, and credential theft. With integrated policy enforcement, AI-driven risk assessments, and robust identity hygiene management, organizations can confidently mitigate identity-driven threats:

• Minimize your attack surface by making applications invisible to unauthorized users, greatly reducing the risk of targeted phishing and impersonation attempts.
• Detect identity-based threats in real time, identifying compromised credentials and malicious activity designed to exploit employee trust.
• Eliminate lateral movement by directly connecting users only to the applications they need, preventing attackers from escalating privilege after a breach.
• Rapidly remediate risky identity configurations, with intuitive alerts and actionable guidance that strengthen your organization's human defenses.

Request a demo today to see how Zscaler can fortify your defenses against social engineering threats.