Proceedings of the International scientific and practical conference ―Science, Technology and Culture: Dynamics of Change in the XXI Century‖ (December 1921, 2025) / Publisher website: www.naukainfo.com. – Baku, Azerbaijan, 2026. – 90 p.

25 UDC 004 Kalienichenko Lidiia Ivanovna Doctor of Law, Professor Pavlov Pavel Oleksiiovych Yepik Maksym Romanovych Bogdar Yaroslav Oleksiiovych Cadets of the Education and Research Institute No. 4 Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine SOCIAL ENGINEERING AND PROTECTION AGAINST IT Abstract. In today's world, where information technologies are developing rapidly and digital systems have become an integral part of everyday life, the issue of cybersecurity has become particularly acute. However, even the most modern technical protection tools often prove powerless against the main vulnerability – the human factor. It is trust, carelessness, fear, the desire to help, or a lack of awareness that attackers most often use to gain access to confidential information and protected systems. This direction of attacks is called social engineering – a set of methods that combine psychological pressure, manipulation, and technical techniques to deceive the victim. Keywords: social engineering, cybersecurity, human factor, manipulation, information security, multi-factor authentication. Social engineering is one of the main initial vectors of most serious cyberattacks. According to the Verizon DBIR 2024, 74% of all information security breaches are related to the human factor, and in 68% of cases, it is social engineering that opens the door to attackers. Methods are becoming increasingly sophisticated, personalized, and actively use artificial intelligence and deepfakes; therefore, they