Meaning of social engineering | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Use of numerical data to inform social programs.
   uncountable
2. Efforts to influence attitudes and social behaviors on a large scale, in order to produce desired characteristics in a target population.
   uncountable
3. The practice of tricking a user into giving, or giving access to, sensitive information, thereby bypassing most or all protection.
   uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“The following discussion will use two examples - namely public housing and the social security scheme, the Central Provident Fund (CPF) - to illustrate the effects of distributing the fruits of economic development via social engineering projects.”

“In 1961, Russell Kirk provided a distillation of these conservative salvos against social engineering in a more public forum. In The New York Times Magazine, the political scientist and regular National Review columnist cited Pitirim Sorkin's call in Fads and Foibles for a balancing of the scientific method with older humanistic modes of inquiry as evidence that mainstream sociologists had become scientistic "true believers," rejecting "humanitarian" models of inquiry in favor of that which could be measured and tabulated.”

“In other words, we note that the social engineering model of knowledge utilization research is burdened with the outdated maxim of "technology as applied science". Accepting the possibility of intermediary professions, we get the "real" social engineering model, entailing an independent analytic profession, as an alternative to the enlightenment model with its romantic dichotomy between theory and practice.”

“Madness, from this point of view, is not finally a medical phenomenon at all, but a phenomenon of social engineering, manipulation, and coercion, and of the politically motivated labeling of deviant behavior.”

“From one perspective, much of what goes on in every society's day-to-day operations qualifies as social engineering. One can view child rearing, schooling, military indoctrination and any other means of mobilizing bias as social engineering without doing violence to the concept.”

“China's Golden Shield has long been a byword for internet censorship. Although easily circumvented, its main purpose is to encourage citizens' self-censorship, a large-scale social engineering project of some success.”

“There are certain types of social engineering that represent possible dangers. For example, you may not be aware that your ideas are being intentionally manipulated and, on another level, the manipulation itself could be dangerous.”

“Meronyms: smishing, phishing, vishing”

“TEISME can teach employees on how to recognise a possible social engineering attack.”

“To attack your organization, social engineering hackers exploit the credulity, laziness, good manners, or even enthusiasm of your staff.”

“The main reason social engineering takes place is because it is easier to gain access to a trusted source by simply manipulating someone who can give you access instead of breaking in through technological means.”

CEFR level