Email Phishing Attacks Using the Social Engineering Toolkit (SET)

Mechanisms, Awareness, and Defensive Measures

Abstract

Email phishing remains one of the most prevalent and damaging cyber threats worldwide, accounting for over 90% of all data breaches. The Social Engineering Toolkit (SET), an open-source penetration testing framework, is widely used by both security researchers and malicious actors to simulate and execute email phishing campaigns. Despite growing awareness, users continue to fall victim due to increasingly sophisticated lure techniques and a persistent awareness–behaviour gap. This paper examines how SET facilitates email phishing attacks, analyses current behavioural trends, and proposes a structured survey instrument and targeted precautionary framework to reduce user susceptibility