Bug’s Life — Field Guide to Vulnerabilities
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SPC-06HUMAN

Social Engineering

Classification
HUMAN
Method
By hand
Standards
OWASP · PTES
Duration
1–4 weeks
01 · Field Notes
Overview

What this engagement covers

People are the most targeted part of any organization. We run controlled social engineering campaigns — phishing and related techniques — to measure how your team responds, then help you turn the results into practical awareness improvements. Every campaign is agreed in advance and handled carefully.

02 · Test Coverage
What we test
Email phishing
  • Credential-harvesting lures with realistic landing pages
  • Malicious attachment and link simulations (as scoped)
  • Brand and internal-sender spoofing / pretexts
  • MFA-fatigue and consent-phishing scenarios
Voice & pretext (vishing)
  • Help-desk and password-reset pretext calls
  • Targeted role-based pretexts (as scoped)
Other vectors (as scoped)
  • SMS phishing (smishing)
  • Physical — USB drops and tailgating scenarios
Measurement & handling
  • Click, submit and report rates, and time-to-report
  • Aggregate reporting only — no naming and shaming of individuals
03 · Specimen Range
Scope of work
  • a.Targeted phishing campaigns tailored to your organization
  • b.Credential-harvesting and payload simulations (as scoped)
  • c.Optional pretext calling and other human-layer vectors
  • d.Click, submit and report-rate measurement
  • e.Careful handling — no naming and shaming of individuals
04 · Field Method
How we work
01

Scope & rules of engagement

We agree targets, timing, depth and constraints in writing before anything starts — so testing is safe, authorized and focused on what matters to you.

02

Manual testing

Certified testers work by hand — following recognised methodologies like OWASP and PTES, not just automated scanners — chaining findings the way a real attacker would to prove genuine impact.

03

Reporting

You get a prioritized report with clear proof-of-concept, business impact and step-by-step remediation your engineers can act on immediately.

04

Retest

After you fix, we re-test the findings to confirm they are resolved and issue an updated report you can share with customers or auditors.

05 · What you keep
Deliverables
  • Clear metrics on how your team responded
  • Insight into which lures and pretexts worked
  • Practical, prioritized awareness recommendations
  • A baseline to measure future campaigns against
06 · Field Q&A
Common questions
Is this safe for our staff?

Yes. Campaigns are agreed with you in advance, scoped carefully, and reported in aggregate — the goal is to improve resilience, never to single people out.

Can you help us improve afterwards?

Absolutely. The value is in what happens next — we translate the results into focused, practical awareness guidance for your team.

Specimen request

Ready to get started with Social Engineering?