The new era of globalization, accompanied by rapid technological development, enables the fast transfer of information, ideas and innovations across the globe. This interconnected world allows for greater participation in the global economy, bringing a myriad of benefits to our everyday lives, but it also makes us increasingly vulnerable to the threats of new forms of cybercrime.

In this new domain, everyone can become a victim of cybercriminals, often without even being aware. The reasons for successful cyberattacks can be technical or human. If we strictly follow all the instructions that are available for securing cyberspace we can significantly decrease the attack surface on our systems and networks. However, what is harder to be managed is human behaviour, which is the main reason why humans are always described as being the weakest link in the security chain. Human nature is very often not to follow the rules or on some occasions, due to various reasons, even to break them.

Social engineering is a technique that actually relies on exploiting these weaknesses in human nature, rather than hardware, software, or network vulnerabilities.

Social engineering is significantly exploited as an attack technique in recent years. The last Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), that was published in 2017, is just one of the sources that confirms these facts. Refer to them following figure:

Moreover, as can be seen in the Verison DBIR, there is a continuous tendency of integration of social engineering with other types of cyberattacks, and it is becoming an attack vector for the propagation of malicious programs.

Due to this reason, this book will be of significant importance for all those who want to confront the increased use of social engineering techniques of the last few years.