What does social engineering involve?

Social engineering involves manipulating individuals into disclosing confidential information, which accurately captures the deceptive tactics used by attackers to exploit human psychology. Attackers often use various techniques, such as phishing emails, pretexting, or baiting, to create a false sense of trust or urgency, prompting targets to reveal sensitive data, like passwords or personal identification details. This form of attack highlights the importance of awareness and education regarding cybersecurity, as it directly targets human behavior rather than exploiting technical vulnerabilities in systems.

In contrast to the other options, the use of software to automate tasks pertains more to efficiency tools rather than deceptive strategies for information theft. Developing new security protocols relates to creating frameworks for securing information and systems, which does not involve manipulation of individuals. Encoding data for transmission focuses on the technical aspects of data security during communication, not the human aspect that social engineering targets.