ABSTRACT
Social engineering is a term that emerged from the hacker and security communities for the social process of compromising information security. This process focuses on the manipulation, deception, or influence of the people involved in information security as a means to gain access to otherwise secure information or computer systems. This chapter briefly traces the history of social engineering, common tactics and tools used by social engineers, and research on psychological and other individual traits exploited in social engineering. Future research trajectories will also be discussed.
