Attacks involving social engineering take many forms. They can be complete attacks in their own right, creating pretext in order to convince victims to divulge information or act abnormally. Such attacks seldom involve any technical measures96. Alternatively, they can be a key component of a more complex attack, typically involving victims unwittingly installing malware by opening a malicious email attachment or following a link to a malicious website.

Europol: IOCTA 2018 DownLink: https://www.europol.europa.eu/iocta/2018