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.

27 Every employee must follow simple rules: verify requests for confidential information through an independent channel, do not follow suspicious links, do not open suspicious attachments, do not publish excessive information on social networks, and stop and think when a message triggers strong emotions. Even the best protection does not rule out incidents; therefore, a clear response plan is needed with a maximum reaction time of up to 15 minutes, blocking of compromised accounts, and subsequent investigation. An analysis of the current state shows alarming trends: the number of phishing campaigns has increased by 58%, spear-phishing by 127%, and deepfake fraud alone in the first half of 2025 caused losses of over $2.8 billion. Only 31% of companies regularly conduct attack simulations, and 19% have MFA on all critical systems. Research has confirmed that true resilience is achieved only through a comprehensive approach that turns the human factor from a weak point into an additional barrier. To significantly improve protection, it is recommended to implement mandatory MFA without exceptions, conduct realistic simulations of all types of attacks at least once a quarter with individual analysis, create an internal database of typical scenarios and "red flags" for the industry, fully implement Zero Trust architecture and the principle of least privilege, restrict the publication of official information and regularly conduct OSINT monitoring of one's own digital footprint, and develop and practice a clear incident response scenario. Thus, it should be noted that only when modern technical barriers, rigid processes, and the awareness of every employee work as a single mechanism does social engineering lose its effectiveness, and the human factor ceases to be the main threat and becomes the most reliable defensive frontier of the organization. REFERENCES: 1. What is Social Engineering? URL: https://www.social – engineer.org/about/ (Accessed: 16.12.2025).