Social Engineering - Christopher Hadnagy [117]
You must know your target so you can successfully look the way the target would expect. Wear clothing, hairstyles, jewelry, and makeup that will not shock, surprise, or disgust the target. Putting her mind at ease can go a long way toward creating an atmosphere where she will like you, which will build trust and lead to success.
A social engineer can look for things to compliment a target on. When engaging a target, and when appropriate, starting the conversation with a simple complimentary question (such as “Those are nice shoes; where did you buy them?”) is useful. People like positive reinforcement. When one receives compliments from another, he tends to stay engaged in order to receive more positive reinforcement. These compliments tend to reinforce a target’s self image, making him feel as if you have a greater-than-normal understanding of him.
The University of Minnesota issued a paper (www.cehd.umn.edu/ceed/publications/tipsheets/preschoolbehaviortipsheets/posrein.pdf) about reinforcement which states that too much positive reinforcement can have a negative effect. They call it satiation, which means that when reinforcement is given too much it begins to lose its effectiveness. To combat this effect, you can positive reinforcement backed up by a question. This method reinforces positive behavior or attitudes but also makes people happy as they are asked about themselves.
Four steps can help you get people to like you:
1. Project a confident and positive attitude.
2. Establish rapport.
3. Synchronize, or get in tune with the target and surroundings using the methods mentioned earlier.
4. Effectively communicate.
In his book How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds, Nicholas Boothman says that people decide whether they like someone in the first two seconds of meeting him or her. After an impression is made changing it can be hard. He promotes coming into an interaction with a good attitude. Having the ability to speak up and communicate effectively in many different situations can make you more likeable. What you project onto others is what they will feel. Your facial expressions, body language, dress, and so on must all project a good, positive attitude.
Boothman says some key things in his book about being likeable, including to ask lots of questions, actively listen, and be interested in what people are saying. Doing these things will help people like you.
A social engineer may need to practice it, but being likeable will go a long way toward succeeding in your audits.
Consensus or Social Proof
Social proof is a psychological phenomenon that occurs in social situations when people are unable to determine the appropriate mode of behavior. You can easily assume a behavior is appropriate if you see others acting or talking a certain way. Social influence in general can lead to conformity of large groups of individuals in either correct or mistaken choices. This behavior is common when people enter into unfamiliar situations and don’t have a frame of reference on how to deal with the situation; they mirror their behavior off of others whom they assume are more familiar and therefore better informed.
In his book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Dr. Robert Cialdini states, “Social proof—people will do things that they see other people are doing. For example, in one experiment, one or more confederates would look up into the sky; bystanders would then look up into the sky to see what they were seeing. At one point this experiment is aborted, as so many people were looking up that they stopped traffic.”
I will outline some excellent examples of social proof that will help you to see how powerful it is and if you have ever fallen for it.
Social proof is used heavily in marketing. Social proof is utilized in sales