Red Team Social Engineering: Pretexting, Vishing, and Physical Intrusion Techniques

Social engineering targets the human element — often the weakest link in security. Red team social engineering covers: pretexting (creating believable scenarios to extract information or access), vishing (phone-based social engineering targeting help desks, executives, or operations staff), phishing (email-based attacks tailored to the specific organisation), and physical social engineering (tailgating, impersonation of vendors or IT staff, badge cloning). The goal is to evaluate whether employees follow security policies when faced with realistic social pressure.