Home / Definitions / Shoulder Surfing

Shoulder Surfing

Vangie Beal
Last Updated May 24, 2021 7:54 am

Shoulder surfing refers to a direct observation, such as looking over a person’s shoulder, to obtain information. In some cases shoulder surfing is done for no reason other than to get an answer, but in other instances it may constitute a security breach as the the person behind may be gleaning private information such as your PIN at a bank machine, or Credit card information as you enter it into a Web based shopping cart check-out. While shoulder surfing is most common in busy and crowed areas where the perpetrator is not as likely to be caught, shoulder surfing can also be done with the aid of binoculars or cameras from a more remote location.