Why Do We Click? Understanding the Psychology of Social Engineering

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Social engineering is a technique used by attackers to manipulate individuals into performing actions that may put their personal or sensitive information at risk. Attackers know the biggest weakness in cybersecurity is humans—and with this, leverage socially engineered phishing emails to manipulate the human psychology. In this episode, we have Dr. Bob Hausmann, Learning and Assessment Architect, joining us to discuss the psychology behind user engagement with phishing.

In this episode, we discuss the following:

• The Zone of Proximal Development
• What the Adaptive Learning Framework is
• Where ethical lines should be drawn with phishing simulations
• Psychology of social engineering in threat actor approaches

Additional resources:

• https://www.proofpoint.com/us/blog/security-awareness-training/adaptive-learning-framework-security-awareness-training
• https://www.forrester.com/report/the-future-of-security-awareness-and-training/RES178339
• https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/blog-post/telling-users-to-avoid-clicking-bad-links-still-isnt-working
• https://twitter.com/threatinsight/status/1612888307645485086
• Daniel Pink Autonomy, Mastery & Purpose: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbR2V1UeB_A&feature=youtu.be
• https://www.proofpoint.com/us/blog/threat-insight/exploiting-covid-19-how-threat-actors-hijacked-pandemic
• Stay Puft Marshmallow Man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zhDfUAQSbs&ab_channel=Ghostbusters
• 2023 State of the Phish Report: Publishing on February 28, 2023 on proofpoint.com