This repository contains my Bachelor's thesis in Computer Engineering at Åbo Akademi University (2026). The full thesis is available in main.pdf.
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Status: Submitted – grade: 5/5
Language: The full thesis is written in Swedish in accordance with Åbo Akademi University regulations for Bachelor's theses.
This thesis analyzes social engineering as a cybersecurity threat, with a particular focus on the interaction between psychological mechanisms and technical attack methods. The work explores how human decision-making is exploited in digital environments, how modern technologies such as artificial intelligence and deepfake techniques have transformed the threat landscape, and which technical and organizational countermeasures can be used to detect and mitigate these attacks.
The thesis includes:
- A theoretical foundation of social engineering and its psychological principles
- An analysis of common attack types such as phishing, spear phishing, and pretexting
- Case studies (including the Arup deepfake fraud and the 2016 U.S. presidential election)
- A review of detection mechanisms such as SIEM, IDS, SOAR, and machine learning
- A discussion on the dual role of AI as both a defense mechanism and an enabling factor for advanced attacks
The thesis is written in LaTeX and compiled using pdflatex and biber.
References are managed using a numeric citation style via BibLaTeX.
The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to a deeper understanding of social engineering as a socio-technical security threat and to examine how technical systems and human factors interact in modern cyberattacks.