Why Social Engineering Still Works & Why AI Is Making It Worse
Welcome to Razorwire, the podcast where we share our take on the world of cybersecurity with direct, practical advice for professionals and business owners alike. I'm Jim and in this episode, I'm joined by Richard Cassidy, Field CISO at Rubrik, and Bec McKeown, a chartered psychologist specialising in human performance under pressure.
Social engineering isn't a technology problem, it's a human one that cybersecurity has inherited. The psychology behind it hasn't changed since Cleopatra was using it to outmanoeuvre empires, but AI has transformed the speed, scale and sophistication of every stage, from automated reconnaissance that builds a complete profile in 30 minutes to real-time voice cloning that references your actual projects and travel schedule.
Bec and Richard bring two very different perspectives to the same problem. Bec explains how attackers engineer the conditions in which people make decisions rather than just crafting a convincing message, and why "people are the weakest link" misses the point. Richard shares what he's seeing as a practising CISO, from family members being targeted through gaming platforms to why measuring phishing click rates gives organisations a dangerous false sense of security.
Three key talking points:
- They're not hacking people, they're shaping decisions
- AI has turned social engineering into an automated pipeline
- Your family is now part of the attack surface
The psychology behind social engineering hasn't changed in thousands of years, but the tools to exploit it have. If your defences are still built around phishing simulations and click rate metrics, this episode will make you rethink.
On why social engineering isn't about fooling people:
"They're not hacking people, they're shaping the conditions in which people make decisions."
Bec McKeown
Listen to this episode on your favourite podcasting platform:
https://razorwire.captivate.fm/listen
In this episode, we covered the following topics:
- The History of Social Engineering
- Influence vs Manipulation
- AI-Powered Reconnaissance
- Deepfake Voice and Video Attacks
- Layered Context Attacks
- Family as an Attack Surface
- Gut Feeling and When to Trust It
- Confirmation Bias in Action
- Why Security Awareness Training Measures the Wrong Thing
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