ABSTRACT
Social engineering is often employed by hackers and cybercriminals in order to open links to infected sites, introduce malware into computer systems, and grant access to private and sensitive information. Social engineering primarily takes advantage of human psychology instead of technical hacking methods in order to do so. It is important to keep in mind that while many of these social engineering techniques are used in conducting cyberattacks, many if not all of them have offline and online aspects. There are many aspects of psychology which can be used to understand the topic of social engineering. However, in many instances, it can go as far as sending considerable amounts of money to strangers or the revelation of private and sensitive information with the active participation of the victim of the social engineering tactics. Finally, emotions are powerful gateways to nudging people into action.
