Security programs break where people meet pressure. The right team doesn’t just send emails — it builds credible pretexts, tests phone and on-site controls, and then shows you exactly how to close the gaps. This guide spotlights top social engineering testing providers with a track record of realistic tradecraft and usable reporting.

Not every organization needs a months-long engagement. Some need a sharp, scoped assessment to prove risk and prioritize training. If you plan to hire social engineering testing providers, the companies below stand out for balancing realism, safety controls, and clear remediation steps.

Best Social Engineering Testing Providers For Real-World Resilience

1. White Knight Labs

White Knight Labs focuses on attacker tradecraft that targets people — phishing, vishing, smishing, and in-person intrusion — all grounded in strong OSINT. Engagements begin with reconnaissance to map people, processes, and your external footprint, then move into controlled attempts to gain access, escalate, and reach data. As one of the best social engineering testing providers, WKL pairs evidence with practical fixes and user-awareness improvements.

Reporting is pragmatic and prioritized, which helps teams make progress without getting buried in noise. Their operators also handle network, app, cloud, and wireless testing, so findings tie into real attack chains across your environment. Remote-first delivery adds scheduling flexibility for distributed teams.

• Services & expertise: Social-engineering campaigns (phishing/vishing/smishing), physical entry tests, OSINT, red teaming, network/app/cloud/wireless pentesting
• Location: USA (Pennsylvania & Michigan); remote-first delivery
• Founded: 2017
• Team size: 50 experts
• Portfolio: Enterprise phishing/vishing programs, physical access assessments, security awareness and executive workshops

2. TrustedSec

TrustedSec blends deep technical testing with behavioral insight to show how people, process, and technology fail under pressure. Their programs range from at-scale phishing to bespoke vishing and smishing, often paired with red-team operations and purple-team coaching. If you’re evaluating best social engineering testing services, this balance of breadth and realism is a strong match.

The firm is highly active in the community and is closely associated with the Social-Engineer Toolkit (SET), which anchors modern tradecraft in repeatable methods — a nod to the broader social engineering toolkit ecosystem. TrustedSec frequently operates in regulated sectors, aligning delivery with governance and audit constraints. Global remote delivery supports multi-region rollouts.

• Services & expertise: Social engineering (phishing/vishing/smishing), physical intrusion, red teaming & adversary emulation, application/network/cloud pentesting, security program consulting
• Location: Fairlawn (Cleveland area), Ohio, USA; global remote delivery
• Founded: 2012
• Team size: 100+ experts
• Portfolio: Fortune-scale phishing programs, executive vishing tests, multi-week red-team operations, creator of the Social-Engineer Toolkit (SET)

3. Black Hills Information Security (BHIS)

BHIS couples red teaming and penetration testing with social-engineering assessments that blend phishing, vishing, and physical approaches. The company is known for a teaching culture — open training, conferences, and research — and that comes through in transparent objectives and tradecraft during engagements. Blue teams benefit from detection-engineering feedback tied directly to findings.

Expect clarity over theatrics: measurable goals, realistic pretexts, and advice that helps users and defenders improve. Their community roots support repeatable methods across network, app, and cloud layers, giving weight to best social engineering testing services claims when leadership asks for results that drive change.

• Services & expertise: Social engineering (phish/vish/smish), physical entry, red teaming/purple teaming, network/app/cloud pentesting, detection & hunting advisory
• Location: Remote-first; based in South Dakota, USA
• Founded: 2008
• Team size: 100–200 experts
• Portfolio: Enterprise phishing and on-site intrusion tests, security awareness programs, widely used training content and tools

4. Social-Engineer

Social-Engineer is dedicated to human-centric security and helped popularize structured methods for measuring resistance to human-driven attacks. Campaigns span email, voice, SMS, social media, and in-person scenarios, with coaching that aims to change behavior — not just reduce click rates. For buyers comparing each social engineering penetration testing company, their focus on culture and high-risk roles stands out.

Programs often target executives, finance teams, and admins with executive-protection-style scenarios. Realism is balanced with safety controls and stakeholder communication to keep operations productive while testing defenses. Results feed directly into training and policy updates.

• Services & expertise: Phishing/vishing/smishing programs, social-media pretexting, physical/social engineering, human risk assessments, security-awareness training and coaching
• Location: USA; remote/global delivery
• Founded: ~2009
• Team size: 10–50 experts
• Portfolio: Long-running enterprise SE programs, executive-targeted simulations, conference/live social-engineering events and workshops

5. KPMG

KPMG delivers social-engineering testing at multinational scale, knitting together phishing, targeted vishing, and controlled physical attempts with technical penetration tests. The approach assesses end-to-end controls and user behavior across complex organizations with heavy governance requirements. Programs emphasize measurable risk reduction that boards and auditors can track.

Engagements can span many sites and user groups while staying coordinated against policy, data protection, and compliance mandates. For large enterprises that need a social engineering penetration testing company with global reach, KPMG’s network and operating model help maintain consistency and reporting discipline.

• Services & expertise: Social-engineering campaigns, red teaming, penetration testing, attack simulation, security awareness and culture change, risk & compliance advisory
• Location: Global network; KPMG International HQ in Amstelveen, Netherlands
• Founded: 1987 (merger forming KPMG)
• Team size: 270,000+ experts
• Portfolio: Global, highly regulated enterprises; multi-region phishing/vishing at scale; physical control assessments

6. Pen Test Partners (PTP)

Pen Test Partners brings hands-on research credibility — IoT, OT, maritime, aviation — into people-centric testing. Their social-engineering work uses OSINT-driven pretexts and on-site attempts to challenge reception processes, badge use, and executive-protection workflows. Findings are mapped to operational fixes, not just awareness slides.

PTP’s blend of physical and human testing helps organizations see how a small gap becomes entry and movement inside facilities. The team ties outcomes to realistic attacker goals so leaders can prioritize improvements that curb real risk surfaced by social engineering tests.

• Services & expertise: Social engineering and physical intrusion, red teaming, application/network/cloud testing, IoT/OT/embedded assessments, research
• Location: United Kingdom (Buckinghamshire) with UK/EU coverage
• Founded: 2010
• Team size: 10–50 experts
• Portfolio: Maritime/aviation and IoT research, enterprise red-team ops, board-level social-engineering simulations

7. Red Siege

Red Siege zeroes in on initial access and impact — exactly where human-driven attacks begin. Targeted phishing, vishing, and physical engagements prove exploitability and then map remediation against what real operators would try next. Senior testers lead engagements end-to-end and deliver concise, operator-grade reports.

Social engineering often pairs with AD and cloud abuse paths to show a realistic chain from initial foothold to business impact. That clarity helps leadership fund fixes that actually move the needle, while keeping disruption low during testing.

• Services & expertise: Social engineering (email/voice/SMS), physical entry, red teaming/adversary emulation, network/app/cloud pentesting
• Location: USA; distributed team
• Founded: 2017
• Team size: 11–50 experts
• Portfolio: Targeted initial-access campaigns for mid-market and Fortune firms; conference talks and public tooling

8. Rhino Security Labs

Rhino Security Labs is known for cloud and application depth, bringing OSINT-heavy social-engineering assessments together with identity and cloud attack paths. The goal is validation: demonstrate how a user action can pivot into cloud misconfigurations or endpoint gaps. This combination is valuable when comparing top social engineering testing providers for cloud-first organizations.

The team publishes research and tools — including the CloudGoat AWS range — that sharpen engagements and lend credibility to findings. Executive-targeted phishing and physical tests help prioritize fixes across identity, cloud, and endpoint in a single narrative.

• Services & expertise: Social-engineering campaigns, cloud (AWS/Azure/GCP) and app pentesting, red teaming, physical intrusion, OSINT
• Location: Seattle, Washington, USA (global delivery)
• Founded: 2013
• Team size: 20–50 experts
• Portfolio: Cloud-focused attack simulations, executive-target phishing, CloudGoat and other open tools

9. IBM X-Force Red

X-Force Red covers the “human” domain alongside application, network, and hardware testing. Teams run phishing, vishing, social-media pretexting, and physical intrusion across dozens of countries, with coordinated governance for large enterprises and governments. Operators tie results to business risk and program-level improvements that executives can track.

Scale matters here: multi-site campaigns, standardized reporting, and the ability to blend human testing with broader offensive programs. Managed testing options keep momentum between assessments, so improvements land — and stick.

• Services & expertise: Social engineering (email/voice/SMS), physical security testing, red teaming/adversary simulation, app/network/hardware testing, managed testing programs
• Location: Global (notably US, UK, Australia, Japan)
• Founded: 2016 (team launched)
• Team size: 100 experts
• Portfolio: Multi-region social-engineering at scale; complex red-team programs for highly regulated sectors

10. NCC Group

NCC Group runs enterprise-scale social-engineering and prevention programs, pairing phishing/vishing/smishing with training and culture initiatives. The company spans red, purple, and black-team exercises, plus hardware, application, and cloud security — so lessons feed back into defenses across endpoints and identity. Global offices support consistent execution in multinational environments.

Leadership benefits from the ability to keep testing and awareness connected, making rollout and reinforcement easier. NCC Group’s public status and scope often suit organizations seeking a single partner across multiple assurance and simulation needs.

• Services & expertise: Social-engineering prevention and simulation, attack simulation (red/purple/black/gold teaming), penetration testing, application/hardware/cloud security
• Location: Manchester, United Kingdom; global offices
• Founded: 1999
• Team size: 2,200 experts
• Portfolio: Enterprise-scale social-engineering and awareness programs, cross-industry testing, global delivery

Choosing The Right Social Engineering Partner

Start with your objectives and constraints. Are you proving exposure to leadership, measuring program maturity, or hardening a specific business unit ahead of a high-stakes event? Those answers guide provider selection, scope, and safety controls. If you plan to hire social engineering testing providers, align the engagement model with your risk appetite, operational calendar, and the teams who must act on the results.

Scrutinize process and reporting before you sign. Ask how pretexts are built, what OSINT sources are used, how consent and safety are enforced, and how remediation is prioritized. Favor clear, evidence-driven deliverables that map user behavior to policies, detection, and training. Whether you lean toward boutique specialists or global operators often highlighted among the best social engineering testing providers, the right fit is the one that translates findings into durable change without disrupting the business.

If you’re a social engineering testing provider and want to feature your company on this list, email us or submit a form in the Top Choices section. After a thorough assessment, we’ll decide whether it’s a valuable addition.