[Kimmbrown]

Hey everyone,
A lot of the big hacks also likely involved a great deal of social engineering on the part of the hacking, not just knowledge of systems. It's often a lot easier for a hacker to trick someone into making a mistake (e.g. calling people at a company randomly, pretending to be tech support and tricking people into giving you access) than it is to try and crack your way in.

Almost every major hack of recent memory likely involved social engineering, some big like tricking people into plugging in USB sticks they find, to smaller things like just calling and getting a receptionist to tell you the exact version of windows to see how up to date with patching IT staff are.

[JuliaHolter]

that's because the human element is always exploitable.

[Sitrep]

All "real" hacks against companies do involve SE indeed. It's one the most sufficient ways to go if you want to hack a company or a web application.
That's why 100% of all bug bounty programs doesn't allow SE or physical access to their building etc, because human stupidity can't be patched.

[Flexi Yum]

Human is always careless..

[tux1]

For most people security is an inconvenience so people do the minimum

[Sitrep]

I have to add that cooperation is important, find people who like the same thing as you and work with them. Together you learn quicker.