Using deception to obtain confidential information from someone by phone or in person. Social engineers may persuade someone to reveal an ID or password for a supposed benign purpose; for example, "my computer is down, can I use yours for a minute?" If the building security is inadequate, they can even walk in from the street and pretend to be from IT doing a routine inspection.
Quite often, social engineering combined with hacker skills are used to steal information. However, no matter how secure a computer or network may be, the "con" played by the social engineer is often the most effective way to break in. See
Scattered Spider.
The Generic Meaning
Outside the computer world, social engineering means to influence attitudes and behaviors. See
phishing,
pretexting and
shoulder surfing.