Social Engineering is defined as:

Social Engineering is defined as:

• A. An attack that relies on human interaction to trick users into breaking security procedures to gain sensitive information that is typically protected.
• B. An attack that breaks encryption
• C. A method of securing passwords
• D. A technique to optimize networks

Answer: (A)

Social engineering targets people by exploiting psychology to bypass security controls. It relies on human interaction to trick someone into breaking a security procedure or revealing sensitive information that should be protected, rather than breaking technical defenses directly. This is why the described option is the best fit: it captures the essence of manipulating a person to gain access or data. In contrast, other ideas refer to technical breaches of encryption, or to methods for protecting passwords, or to network optimization—topics that don’t involve tricking people to circumvent safeguards. Examples include phishing, pretexting, or tailgating, where the attacker uses trust, urgency, or fear to prompt the user into action. Mitigation centers on training, awareness, and strong controls like multi-factor authentication to reduce the risk.

Social engineering targets people by exploiting psychology to bypass security controls. It relies on human interaction to trick someone into breaking a security procedure or revealing sensitive information that should be protected, rather than breaking technical defenses directly. This is why the described option is the best fit: it captures the essence of manipulating a person to gain access or data. In contrast, other ideas refer to technical breaches of encryption, or to methods for protecting passwords, or to network optimization—topics that don’t involve tricking people to circumvent safeguards. Examples include phishing, pretexting, or tailgating, where the attacker uses trust, urgency, or fear to prompt the user into action. Mitigation centers on training, awareness, and strong controls like multi-factor authentication to reduce the risk.