The purpose of Social Engineering penetration testing is to evaluate the extent to which employees comply with the security policies and protocols set by management. Through testing, an organization can gather insights into the potential susceptibility of its employees to unauthorized access attempts, breach of security protocols, or disclosure of sensitive information.
Over 71% of all data breaches are due to social engineering. Deceiving individuals proves simpler than infiltrating a well-secured computer system, hence the unsurprising statistic that roughly 71% to 91% of data breaches stem from phishing and social engineering attacks.
The goal of social engineering penetration testing is to identify weaknesses in an organization’s human and technical defenses that could be exploited by malicious actors. These pen tests can show who within a company is susceptible to the attacks Social Engineering Penetration testing commonly involves a combination of both on-site and off-site testing approaches.
