Which technique is often used in phishing attacks to trick users?

Phishing attacks frequently utilize social engineering techniques to manipulate users into divulging sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords, or financial details. Social engineering exploits human psychology by creating scenarios that can appear legitimate or urgent, thereby tricking individuals into taking actions that compromise their security.

For instance, an attacker might craft an email that looks like it is from a trusted organization, complete with branding and language that suggests immediacy, encouraging the recipient to click a link or provide personal information. This technique relies on creating a false sense of trust and urgency, which is a hallmark of social engineering.

Encryption, data masking, and network segmentation, while important cybersecurity practices, do not directly relate to the methods used in phishing. Encryption protects data in transit or storage, data masking involves obscuring specific data within a database, and network segmentation is a way to divide a network into segments for better security and performance. None of these are techniques aimed at deceiving users directly, as social engineering is.