Social engineering
Tricking a person directly, often using trust, politeness or fear, instead of tricking a computer.
For example
A caller pretending to be from your bank's "security team" asking for an OTP.
Learn it through a story
- The Message From "Bank Manager Uncle" (Cybersecurity for Juniors 1, Ch 2)
- The Cyber Squad of Silverline Heights (Cybersecurity for Juniors 1, Ch 10)
- Orientation Week Wifi (Cybersecurity for Juniors 2, Ch 1)
- The Internship Offer That Wasn't (Cybersecurity for Juniors 2, Ch 2)
- The Ransomware Email to the Placement Cell (Cybersecurity for Juniors 2, Ch 9)
Short on time? Read the 5-minute version.
Related terms
- Shoulder surfing Someone learning your password by watching or overhearing you, not by guessing it.
- Signature The part of a JWT that proves it wasn't tampered with after being issued, assuming the signing key stays secret.
- SOC (Security Operations Centre) A team that watches systems and networks for suspicious activity.
- Specialisation Deep focus in one particular area, usually built on a broader foundation.
- Spoofing Faking a caller ID, sender name or address so it looks like it comes from somewhere trustworthy.
- STRIDE A six-question framework (Spoofing, Tampering, Repudiation, Information disclosure, Denial of service, Elevation of privilege) for threat modeling.