Knowledge / identity concepts acsc-glossary

Social engineering

Manipulate a person, skip the software flaw. Phishing, vishing, BEC, and the helpdesk reset are all this family.

PHISHING / identity abuse, not a malware class01Lure02Landing03Capture04ReuseControls: phishing-resistant MFA, reporting, mail auth, drills.

Social engineering is getting a human to do a thing or hand over a thing: a password, a code, a wire, a door. The bug is courtesy, fear, and urgency — not a CVE.

Build processes that survive a convincing caller: no password over the phone, out-of-band checks for payments, MFA that is not push-fatigue, and permission to slow down. Technical controls still matter because people will click. Design for that Tuesday.

Fact source: ASD's ACSC glossary.