The Human Factor

Life imitated art in 2015 as real-world cyber criminals every day applied the mantra of
the anti-hero hacker of the cable TV series Mr. Robot: “People make the best exploits.”
Social engineering became the No. 1 attack technique. Attackers shifted away from
automated exploits and instead engaged people to do the dirty work—infecting systems,
stealing credentials, and transferring funds. Across all vectors and in attacks of all sizes,
threat actors used social engineering to trick people into doing things that once
depended on malicious code.