Certified: The Security+ Prepcast

People are often the weakest link in cybersecurity, and attackers exploit this through carefully crafted manipulation tactics known as social engineering. In this episode, we focus on phishing, vishing, and smishing—three common techniques that deceive users through email, phone, and SMS to trick them into revealing credentials, clicking malicious links, or installing malware. These attacks rely on urgency, authority, and trust to override a user’s better judgment, often imitating trusted institutions or creating high-pressure scenarios that push victims to act without verifying. With remote work and mobile devices increasing our digital exposure, message-based attacks have become more convincing and harder to detect. We discuss how organizations can mitigate these risks through security awareness training, phishing simulations, email filtering, and user behavior monitoring. Social engineering doesn’t attack systems—it attacks people, and that makes defense both technical and psychological.