Last Updated on: 18th August 2025, 08:50 am
This simple yet powerful statement explains why social engineering remains one of the most feared cybercrime practices. At its core, social engineering is about manipulating human behavior to gain unauthorized access, steal information, or cause financial and reputational damage. Cybercriminals use persuasion, deception, and emotional triggers to lure victims into making mistakes.
Reports suggest that social engineering accounts for nearly ninety-eight percent of cyberattacks worldwide, with damages expected to reach over ten trillion dollars annually by 2025. The rise of artificial intelligence has further strengthened the ability of attackers to design smarter and harder-to-detect scams. From fake emails to deepfake impersonations, no individual or organization is entirely safe.
Whether you are an everyday internet user or the leader of a large corporation, awareness and careful attention remain the most powerful shields against these attacks.
Understanding Social Engineering
Social engineering is not about exploiting technical weaknesses in software or networks but about targeting the human element. Instead of breaking into a system with complex code, attackers trick people into giving them the keys. This makes social engineering harder to prevent because it relies on psychology rather than technology.
Hackers have become skilled at impersonating trusted organizations, government agencies, or even colleagues and friends. In fact, even companies with advanced cybersecurity measures like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook have experienced breaches due to successful social engineering attempts.
Artificial intelligence is now being used by cybercriminals to write professional-looking phishing emails, generate fake phone calls, and create hyper-realistic deepfakes. Studies show that AI-powered phishing emails already achieve click rates much higher than older techniques, making the threat even more serious.
