I'm thinking the Oxford definition was used here by the author (ie tricked into giving up a password):
"(in the context of information security) the use of deception to manipulate individuals into divulging confidential or personal information that may be used for fraudulent purposes."
I didn't really want to argue it any further as the issue was inflamed, but I absolutely think that when an account privilege was requested purely for "trivial thing A and we really really need it because think of the children", for it to then be used in the next breath for "evil thing B" - then what else is it but a more sophisticated social engineering attack? (I would certainly like to know if there's a better definition of it.)
For the benefit of the doubt there could very well be things going on in the background where the account access was discovered by someone else than those who requested it, and then jumped on the opportunity. However that's giving a fair bit of leeway.
"(in the context of information security) the use of deception to manipulate individuals into divulging confidential or personal information that may be used for fraudulent purposes."
I didn't really want to argue it any further as the issue was inflamed, but I absolutely think that when an account privilege was requested purely for "trivial thing A and we really really need it because think of the children", for it to then be used in the next breath for "evil thing B" - then what else is it but a more sophisticated social engineering attack? (I would certainly like to know if there's a better definition of it.)
For the benefit of the doubt there could very well be things going on in the background where the account access was discovered by someone else than those who requested it, and then jumped on the opportunity. However that's giving a fair bit of leeway.