Social Engineering - Christopher Hadnagy [124]
Frame Bridging
The Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Information defines frame bridging as the linkage of two or more ideologically congruent but structurally unconnected frames regarding a particular topic.
Bridging is not about tricking people into believing your frame as much as your understanding their frame so deeply that you find the connecting link. You then use that connecting link to bring a target into your frame.
The situation could be that you want to gain access to an area, building, or piece of information. Your frame is that you want that to happen. The frame of the person you are approaching is not necessarily to stop you; he may not even know what you are going to attempt. If you were to approach the situation in that frame you may alert him to a problem and thereby shut down your chances.
By understanding the target’s job, role, and mental outlook you can understand his frame of mind and maybe find a link that will make his transition into your frame much easier.
What is your pretext? How would the person you are about to approach treat a person in your pretext? A good social engineer must understand this to be successful. The “gatekeeper” will treat a sales guy differently from the soda delivery guy. Understanding the frame of the target means knowing how he will treat you—not you as a social engineer, but you as the pretext.
A more personal example may be to think of how you want others to view you— maybe as cool, “together,” intelligent, or confident. A professor wants to appear smart. A manager wants to appear in control. An athlete wants to appear calm and strong. A comedian wants the audience to view her as funny. All of these are frames that a person wants others to be in alignment with.
In the comedian’s case, what if there is a heckler—a person who doesn’t see her as cool, funny, intelligent, or confident? Because of the heckler’s frame they are angry, not happy, put off, or just not interested? If the comedian persists in his frame he may convert some people around him, but until he delves deep and try to understand where someone is coming from he will not be able to align their two frames and bring that person into his frame. The comedian who can handle a heckler is able to put aside her fears about her frame and use the heckler to her advantage.
The frame bridging alignment technique can be one of the most powerful used by a social engineer, but involves some preparation to make sure you get it right.
A social engineer can utilize this particular form of frame alignment by helping a target bridge the gap of what they see and what they need to believe through a proper pretext. Again, recall the example of trying to gain access to the building as a tech support rep. Your dress, tools, and language must match the frame that the target expects of a support rep. If they do, the bridge is created and alignment occurs.
Frame Amplification
Frame amplification, according to Snow, refers to “the clarification and invigoration of an interpretive frame that bears on a particular issue, problem, or set of events.” In other words, you will amplify, or focus on, the values or beliefs of the target. By focusing on those values you can find an area that will align your two frames, or at least drive the target to think there is alignment.
This form of alignment has been labeled as the most basic of the four because it is more of a maintenance method. It involves the accenting, augmenting, or punctuating of an event as being more important than others, which allows for this event to be linked with other events with greater ease.
An example of frame amplification can be revealed if we do further research into the earlier example about the full-body X-ray scanners. The scanners are being sold now as deterrents for terrorists. The frame that they are being sold under is how the recent terrorist activity caused a need for products like these, and here they are to fulfill that need. Yet research into these devices shows they were being built, marketed,