What is social engineering as it applies to computers?

Answer 1

As it applies to computers, and computer networks, Social engineering means manipulating people into doing things or giving out information that they shouldn't. Getting the information may be the goal - such as getting social security numbers or bank acccount numbers, or it can be a step in a more wide reaching attack such as getting people to divulge usernames and passwords or granting access to part of a computer system the "social engineer" is not supposed to have access to, which then allows the attacker to engage in deeper penetration and misuse of the computer resources. This contrasts to cyber attacks where the attacker physically breaks into the computer facilities or breaks in using technical cracking techniques. Social Engineering is really nothing more than a slightly fancier, more technical way of lying. It is similar to ordinary cons or fraud but is focused just on getting information or access to computer systems. Some common forms of social engineering include "phishing", advertisements for applications that contain trojans, and "scareware".