Learn how attackers use psychological manipulation to trick people into revealing sensitive information or performing unsafe actions. Topics include pretexting, baiting, tailgating, vishing, and real-world social engineering case studies that expose common human vulnerabilities.
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In July 2020, a seventeen-year-old in Florida used phone-based spoofing and social engineering to compromise internal Twitter tools, hijacking the verified accounts of Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Apple. The attackers impersonated IT staff during phone calls to Twitter employees, spoofing caller IDs to appear legitimate. Within hours,
In July 2020, a teenager from Florida used spear phishing to compromise the internal tools at Twitter, hijacking 130 high-profile accounts — including those of Barack Obama, Elon Musk, and Apple — to run a Bitcoin scam. The attack didn't exploit some exotic zero-day vulnerability. It started with targeted messages
In July 2021, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that business email compromise — overwhelmingly powered by spoof techniques — cost victims over $1.8 billion in 2020 alone. That made it the single most financially damaging category of cybercrime they tracked. Not ransomware. Not credential theft. Spoofing-driven impersonation.
Earlier this year, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reported that phishing schemes were the most reported cybercrime in 2020, with 241,342 complaints and adjusted losses exceeding $54 million. Now the threat is evolving fast. The FBI warns Gmail users of sophisticated AI-driven phishing attacks that
In March 2021, Google disclosed that it blocks more than 100 million phishing emails daily — and Gmail remains the single largest target for sophisticated credential theft campaigns worldwide. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reported that phishing was the number one crime type by victim count in
36% of All Breaches Start With a Phishing Email The 2021 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report made something painfully clear: phishing was involved in 36% of all confirmed data breaches — up from 25% the year before. That's not a trend. That's an escalation. And if your
91% of Cyberattacks Start With Fake Mail That's not a guess. The Verizon 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report confirmed that phishing was present in 36% of breaches — up from 25% the year before. And when you broaden the lens to include all forms of social engineering delivered through
In January 2020, the FBI and CISA issued a joint advisory warning organizations about a wave of vishing attacks targeting remote workers. By mid-2021, the problem has only gotten worse. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reported over 240,000 phishing, vishing, and smishing complaints in 2020
In July 2021, a single phishing email gave attackers access to an employee's credentials at a Florida-based managed service provider, ultimately cascading into the massive Kaseya VSA supply-chain ransomware attack that hit over 1,500 businesses worldwide. One email. One click. Billions in damages. If you've
Your Old AIM Email Account Is a Ticking Time Bomb In December 2017, AOL officially shut down AIM — AOL Instant Messenger — after two decades of dominance. But here's the thing most people forget: the AIM email addresses tied to those accounts didn't just vanish. Millions of
