This doctoral project investigates how cybercriminals exploit cognitive biases through social engineering attacks such as phishing, deepfakes, and identity theft. Unlike technical attacks, these manipulations target individuals’ psychological vulnerabilities by triggering emotions like fear, trust, or urgency. They now represent one of the most pressing challenges in cybersecurity. To address this threat, the research examines how capable individuals are of detecting and understanding such manipulations and explores how to strengthen their ability to respond. It proposes to connect digital and media literacy, understood as a situated set of skills activated in various media-related contexts, with cognitive resilience, defined as the capacity to resist manipulation by maintaining a critical and informed mindset. Built on an interdisciplinary approach, this thesis draws on insights from information and communication sciences, cognitive psychology, and cybersecurity.