Social Engineering

The art of manipulating, influencing, or deceiving someone in order to gain illegal access to or control over their computer system or to trick them into divulging confidential information. The cybercriminal might use the phone, email, snail mail, text messaging and/or direct contact in their attempt to perpetrate the fraud. In short, social engineering is what enables cybercriminals to essentially bypass the hardware and software security solutions IT professionals deploy because humans are always the weakest link.