Social Engineering [Video]
How easy is it for cyber criminals to manipulate us and trick us into revealing information or granting access to it?
Info
Social engineering uses human nature and psychology to manipulate. If an illegal hacker is struggling to access a system or network, the most efficient means of attack may well be to trick themselves into the company’s offices, armed only with a decent story and perhaps a corrupted USB. Social engineers test physical vulnerabilities, usually by creatively tricking unsuspecting employees.
Donning a high-vis jacket and posing as a contractor, here ‘to carry out some tests’; pretending to be the boss in emails or phone calls; delivering flowers; pretending to be an employee who’s forgotten their security pass; even flirting with a security guard are just a few of the many techniques social engineers have used to gain access to restricted areas.
The world’s most famous social engineer, Frank Abagnale, has given us permission to use excerpts from his book and a talk about how he managed to pretend to be a Pan Am pilot and fly all over the world. The subject of a major film, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Abagnale swapped a life of crime for one of fighting it; using his incredible skillset to help the FBI catch the most devious and creative criminals.
Here we build on our positive paranoia by encouraging the pupils to be rigorously critical about who people claim to be both online and in the real world.
Whether human beings are innately good or bad has concerned thinkers since the dawn of time.
But, while they’re deep in thought, criminals are using our kindness, politeness and generosity against us.
Would you hold the door open for someone struggling to carry something?
Then you might not only be ignoring a seriously dangerous threat, but inviting it in.
