Social engineering is a form of non-technical intrusion that uses deception to gain your trust and trick you into providing personal information that you would not normally provide freely. (Rouse, 2006). Social engineering is one of the biggest techniques used in identity theft. Computer technology has fundamentally changed the world and the way societies communicate with each other. When computer technology was in its infancy, businesses were the only members of society who had to worry about social engineering attacks. With the arrival of mobile and personal computers within the reach of almost everyone, the protection of personal data has become an issue for everyone, not just corporate organizations. If your personal data is not protected, the consequences can be catastrophic. Today there are spammers, hackers, virus developers and identity thieves who pose a real risk to your privacy and, more importantly, your finances. (Williams & Sawyer, 2013). Social engineering practitioners use a variety of methods to recover data; they can use the phone, the Internet, or even show up in person to install malicious software. Furthermore, if you visit an unscrupulous website or even access unauthorized places, your information could be recovered (Heimeri, 2014). Criminals often spend weeks or months researching a company before hacking it. They often use the technique of "dumpster diving," in which they rummage through a company's or individual's waste for sensitive information, such as bank statements and pre-approved credit card applications. To prevent hackers from finding this material, everyone should destroy all documents containing personal information. Hackers will control the comp...... middle of paper ......you may download a malicious virus that will give them your sensitive information (Williams & Sawyer, 2013). It is critical to have firewalls in place to minimize social engineering on your staff or company's network systems. But the first line of defense, to protect your company from the loss of critical business information, is to ensure that your employees are trained in security awareness (Goodchild, 2012). Hackers can still access your systems even if you have the best security controls in place. Start with your employees, you need to increase their awareness of how social engineering works. If they know the signs, they will be able to prevent it. The most important thing is that when you are on your personal or work computer, always remember PPI because you will never know who is on the other side of computer networks.