Certified Information Systems Auditor Practice Exam 2026 - Free CISA Practice Questions and Study Guide

Social engineering attacks primarily focus on manipulating human behaviors and exploiting psychological factors to gain unauthorized access to confidential information or secure systems. These attacks take advantage of trust, fear, or lack of awareness to trick individuals into divulging sensitive data, clicking malicious links, or performing actions that compromise security.

By understanding the human elements involved, attackers can craft messages or scenarios that seem convincing or urgent to their targets. This psychological exploitation is a fundamental characteristic that differentiates social engineering from other types of attacks, which may focus more on technical exploits or vulnerabilities inherent in software or hardware systems.

In contrast, other options like reliance on technical vulnerabilities or advanced coding skills generally pertain to more traditional forms of cyber attacks that do not engage the human element as directly. Restricting access to systems may be a consequence of various security actions, but it doesn't align with the inherent design or method of social engineering, which seeks to bypass such restrictions through manipulation rather than coding or technical means.