# Module 9. Social Engineering Social engineering is the art of manipulating people to divulge sensitive information that will be used to perform some kind of malicious action. Because social engineering targets human weakness, even organizations with strong security policies are vulnerable to being compromised by attackers. The impact of social engineering attacks on organizations can include economic losses, damage to goodwill, loss of privacy, risk of terrorism, lawsuits and arbitration, and temporary or permanent closure. There are many ways in which companies may be vulnerable to social engineering attacks. These include: * Insufficient security training * Unregulated access to information * An organizational structure consisting of several units * Non-existent or lacking security policies --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://ceh-practical.cavementech.com/module-9.-social-engineering.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.