The goal of social engineering is to manipulate or deceive people into divulging confidential information, granting access to systems, or performing actions that compromise security. Attackers exploit human psychology, such as trust, curiosity, or fear, to trick victims into exposing private data, spreading malware, or allowing unauthorized access. Generally, social engineering aims at either theft-obtaining valuables like information, access, or money-or sabotage, which involves disrupting or corrupting data to cause harm or inconvenience
. In cybersecurity, social engineering attacks often involve impersonating trusted individuals or organizations to gain the victim's confidence and prompt them to reveal sensitive information like passwords or financial details. These attacks can target individuals or organizations and may occur through emails, phone calls, texts, or in-person interactions
. Ultimately, social engineering is a form of "human hacking" that leverages predictable human behavior to bypass technical security measures by exploiting the human element
