social engineer

social engineer

English

Etymology

social + engineer.

Noun

social engineer (plural social engineers)

1. One who engages in social engineering.
   • 1911, Earp, Edwin Lee, The Social Engineer, Eaton & Mains, page 295:

     We need another type of social engineer for the country problem, who will be able to direct the social forces of a whole county and relate them to the best interests of State and county.

   • 2010, Hadnagy, Christopher, Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking, John Wiley, page (unpaginated):

     [Pretexting] is one of the critical points for many social engineers. Pretexting involves developing the role the social engineer will play for the attack on the company. Will the social engineer be a customer, vendor, tech support, new hire, or something equally realistic and believable?

Verb

social engineer (third-person singular simple present social engineers, present participle social engineering, simple past and past participle social engineered)

1. To achieve or access by means of social engineering.

   Leon social engineered his way into our corporate intranet.