The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social engineering

The bachelor's thesis deals with the description of techniques and principles of social engineering. At the same time, the work defines the transformations in these methods and techniques during the COVID-19 pandemic, which had an essential impact on digitization, especially during the transition to home office mode. The work also includes a description of prevention and possible risk reduction against these practices. A significant goal of the work is to define the gradual transformation of social engineering during the COVID-19 pandemic when improved or altered modes of socio-technical attacks could be detected during this period. This part of the thesis goes on to describe safety recommendations and possible protection against these types of attacks. These goals were achieved gradually. First, the thesis is devoted to a short introduction to the topic, in which basic information about the theme and goals of the work are briefly presented. An annotated resource research was subsequently created, consisting of scholarly works and publications dedicated to the subject. The main part of the work is focused on defining the concept of social engineering and the characteristics of individual social techniques. Other chapters focus on the impact of the pandemic on social engineering and changes in attacker techniques. This is followed by a chapter with the collection and comparison of data and knowledge obtained through qualitative research. The conclusion of the work is dedicated to the summary and evaluation of the fulfilment of the objectives of the thesis.