How Social Engineering Attacks Work: Psychology, Tactics, And Real Examples
ESET, Tuesday, January 20th, 2026
Social engineering attacks are one of the most effective cybersecurity threats because they exploit human psychology instead of technical vulnerabilities.
Rather than breaking through firewalls or bypassing endpoint protection, attackers manipulate trust, urgency, and authority to trick people into handing over access themselves. Even today, social engineering remains one of the most successful tactics for breaching security. According to the Verizon 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report, the human element plays a role in about 60% of all data breaches.