Social Engineering The #1 Root Cause Behind Most Cyber Crimes In FBI Report

The article asserts that social engineering and phishing are responsible for the vast majority of successful cyberattacks (estimated 70–90%) and criticizes reporting (e.g., FBI IC3) for conflating root causes with outcomes like ransomware, which obscures the true scale of phishing’s role. It urges organizations to realign budgets and defenses toward training and controls that detect and mitigate social engineering across email, social media, and phone channels.