Social Engineering

Social Engineering: The Cyber Threat That Doesn’t Need to Hack You

At of Munio, we’ve seen first-hand how rapidly the cyber threat landscape evolves. But there’s one tactic that remains consistently effective—and frighteningly simple. It’s called social engineering, and it doesn’t rely on malware, code, or brute force. It relies on people. Social engineering is the act of manipulating someone into giving up access, credentials, or information. The attacker doesn’t need to break through your firewall—they just need to convince someone to open the door for them. In simple terms, it’s a con job, but done over the phone, email, or chat. And it’s working—every day—in businesses across the UK.

One of the most common examples is the help desk attack. A criminal will call IT support, pretending to be a member of staff who’s locked out of their account. They’ll sound flustered, say they’re late for an important meeting, and pressure the support team to reset a password. They may have researched your business on LinkedIn or even used information from a previous breach. If they’re convincing enough, they get in—no hacking required. Another variation is when attackers pose as internal IT. They contact employees saying there’s an urgent security update and they need the user’s credentials to apply it. The employee, thinking they’re being helpful, shares their password—and just like that, access is granted.

These are not hypothetical scenarios. We’ve worked with businesses that have faced them. One UK firm we supported had their outsourced IT provider tricked by a fraudster who knew the names of real staff, internal systems, and even the help desk call structure. The attacker gained access to admin accounts in under 10 minutes. That business now trains every new employee to spot social engineering attempts. And that’s the key—awareness.

Here’s what UK businesses can do today to protect themselves:

1. Train every employee to recognise the signs of social engineering—urgency, pressure, name-dropping, unfamiliar channels, and vague requests.

2. Lock down help desk procedures—never reset a password without full verification, no matter how urgent the request seems.

3. Use multi-factor authentication (MFA)—even if credentials are stolen, MFA blocks access.

4. Implement role-based access control—limit what users can see and do, reducing the damage from any compromise.

5. Run simulated attacks—we regularly test clients with fake phishing and impersonation attempts. It’s one of the most effective ways to drive behaviour change.

6. Be cautious with information sharing—the less data you expose publicly, the harder it is for attackers to impersonate you.

Social engineering isn’t going away. If anything, it’s becoming more convincing and more common. But the solution doesn’t start with technology—it starts with people. Train them. Support them. Empower them to challenge, verify, and say no.

At Munio, we work with organisations across the UK to strengthen their human firewall—because in most breaches, it’s not the system that’s weak. It’s the trust.

If you’re not sure how your business would hold up against a real social engineering attempt, we’re here to help. Get in touch for a practical assessment—and let’s close the door before someone walks in through it.