Explain the concept of social engineering in cybercrime and name two common techniques.

• A. Deceiving people into divulging information or granting access; examples include pretexting and baiting
• B. Using software exploits to break into systems; examples include buffer overflow and SQL injection
• C. Reverse engineering malware components for profit; examples include monetization and selling sources
• D. Encrypting files to demand ransom; examples include AES and RSA

Answer: (A)

Social engineering in cybercrime centers on exploiting human psychology rather than breaking in through technical flaws. Attackers manipulate trust, urgency, or authority to get people to reveal passwords, security answers, or grant access, or to perform actions that weaken defenses.

Two common techniques are pretexting and baiting. Pretexting involves the attacker fabricating a believable scenario and impersonating someone legitimate (for example, an IT staff member) to persuade the target to disclose information or credentials. Baiting uses a tempting lure to trigger action, such as leaving an infected USB drive or offering an appealing download or reward to entice the user to click a link or plug in a device, which leads to compromise.

Other choices describe direct technical exploits or ransomware, which rely on software weaknesses or cryptographic attacks rather than manipulating people.