Check the original Article here : http://www.hellboundbloggers.com/security/social-engineering-attacks In Security Jargon, Social Engineering is the act of using Non-Technical aspects for obtaining confidential information. The attacker don’t need to have contact with the victim in person. These kind of attacks are called as social engineering attacks. Here the intended victim is tricked to do something needed by the attacker. A common example is phishing. It is a kind of social engineering attack. If you are still confused with this term, I can explain this with another example. Consider this, X wants to break into a computer network using social engineering trick. He will try to gain the attention of Y who has access to authorize the network in order to get the required information for breaking the network’s security. This is known as social engineering attack. How to avoid being a victim of Social Engineering Attacks ? * Never provide your personal information or information about your company/organization unless you are certain of the person’s identity and authority to have that information. * Never reveal personal and financial information in email and do not respond to email solicitations for this information. This includes the links sent in email. * If you are not sure whether an email you got is legitimate or not, then try to verify it by contacting the company/organization directly indeed. Do not use the contact information provided in that email instead use the one from your previous emails. Check the original article here : http://www.hellboundbloggers.com/security/social-engineering-attacks