Psychology Behind Social Engineering: Importance of Training/Awareness

The article analyses social engineering attacks, considering legitimate approaches to them. As a form of survey method, user strategies to combat social engineering were evaluated. Along with the above, users’ trust in the estimation of potentially hazardous situations and the degree of persuasion targeted by attackers who make use of social engineering were also measured. It was found among the most critical aspects that trust, greed, empathy, and feeling in haste are effective tactics, whilst many people simply delete or do not care to verify unsolicited emails. The need for adequate education, policies, and technologies to combat social engineering is recommended. Besides, the importance of cyberpsychology in developing cyberspace security strategies in businesses is highlighted, which makes them more immune to increasing social engineering attacks.