I recently learned about a new kind of computer hacking from Kevin Mitnick, a speaker at the recent 2017 AmeriQuest Symposium in Orlando who addressed a topic known as “social engineering.” Not so long ago, Mitnick was one of the world’s Most Wanted hackers.

He defined social engineering as “a form of hacking that relies on influence, deception and manipulation to convince another person to comply with a request in order to compromise their computer network.”

Hackers use social engineering for a variety of reasons: