Social Engineering: Think like a hacker
Social engineering red flag awareness training
A single session makes social engineering land, felt rather than described.
You may be seeing
- People who can describe phishing and still fall for it
- Confidence that it would never work on them
- Near misses that never get talked about
Social Engineering: Think like a hacker, at a glance
- Format
- 3 to 24 hours. In person or online. Delivered by us, or by your own trained facilitators. Part of Adapt Better.
- You receive
- A one-pager of the red flags to watch for
- The habit of pausing before you act
Free, no obligation. Outcomes and deliverables are agreed before we start.
What happens
In the room
Participants build the attack, then watch it land on the room.
- Pretext building
- Live demonstration
- Spot-the-red-flag drills
What people will be able to do
Afterwards, people can:
- See how attackers trick the mind, and the red flags that give it away
- Pause before acting on an urgent message
- Report a close call without embarrassment
Outcomes
What it adds up to
Better cyber resilience
Spot the red flags, and slow down before acting.
Verify, then report
Check before acting, and report it early.
This is also a component of ‘MindHug One’, 40 hours of training grounded in behavioural science, across wellbeing, AI and cybersecurity, and entrepreneurship.
Evidence
Does it work?
Measured across our Adapt Better programmes. Each figure says where it comes from.
- Improved their digital knowledge, and nobody got worse, DSIT Digital Skills Initiative
- 85%DSIT Digital Skills Initiative
- Of psychological safety measures increased, DSIT Digital Skills Initiative
- 96%DSIT Digital Skills Initiative
- Grew in confidence applying complex digital skills, DSIT Digital Skills Initiative
- 75%DSIT Digital Skills Initiative
- Governments
UK Government, DSIT
- Result
- 85% improved their digital knowledge, and nobody got worse
- Outcomes we delivered
- A 28 hour programme applying digital skills to real work: 75% grew in confidence with complex digital skills, and 20 coaches were trained to lead adoption work.
“All the time I had to deal with cyber training I was bored of it or saw it as a pain, and now with the training I am now advocating for it, asking more questions.”
Delivery
How it is delivered.
We deliver it
Our facilitators and psychologists run it with your cohort, in person or online.
We train your people
Your own coaches are trained to deliver it, so it continues after we leave.
Tailored either way. Built around what you are actually seeing, not picked off a list.
What is included
- One facilitated session
- Participant one-pager
How progress is assessed
- Recognising manipulation and the pause-and-verify habit, before and after
- Whether a near miss actually gets reported, the behaviour that matters most
Knowing matters. Doing changes things.
No obligation.
A few lines is enough.
Why it works: what is underneath the behaviour
Underneath the behaviour
- Urgency, authority, familiarity and social proof are the mind working correctly
- Recognition of a test is not recognition of an attack
- Psychological safety determines whether a near miss becomes shared learning or stays hidden
How this programme is built, step by step
Safety
Nobody is asked to admit a mistake in front of their manager.
01Understanding
The four levers, and where each one bypasses judgement.
02Reframing
From "I would spot that" to "here is what it would look like aimed at me".
03Experience
Participants build the attack, then watch it land on the room.
04
Safety opens exploration. Exploration creates experience. Experience updates what people expect. Updated expectations change behaviour, and feed back into safety.
Related programmes