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Application & OT Security · Foundational

Social Engineering Penetration Testing

Assessing human susceptibility to manipulation through phishing, vishing, pretexting and physical impersonation.

Definition

Social engineering tests measure how employees respond to deception and whether reporting processes work. They must be explicitly authorized in the RoE and handled ethically, typically reporting aggregate results rather than shaming individuals. Common tools include Gophish and the Social-Engineer Toolkit.

Example

A campaign sends a fake IT password-reset email to 500 staff and records click and report rates.

Exam tip

Social engineering is often excluded from scope unless explicitly authorized; check the RoE.

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