Social Engineering - Christopher Hadnagy [143]
Positive manipulation can have a very strong effect on the target. Not only does it not leave him feeling violated but if done properly he can feel accomplished and as if he did something good for the day.
Summary
Manipulation is a key component to social engineering as well as influence. This chapter covered areas of human behavior that spanned decades of research from some of the smartest minds on earth.
Common reactions to the thought of manipulating others might be:
“I don’t want to manipulate people.”
“It feels wrong to be learning this.”
These comments represent the way most people think when they hear the word manipulation. Hopefully, you’re now convinced that manipulation isn’t always a dark art and can be used for good.
The world of influence has been dissected, researched, and analyzed by some of today’s brightest psychologists and researchers. This research served as the basis of my own research to develop the information in this chapter. The section on framing, for instance, can truly change the way you interact with people, and the concept of reciprocation can shape your thinking as a social engineer and how you utilize influence. Influence is such an amazing topic, though, that volumes of books are devoted to that topic alone.
Understanding what triggers a person to motivate him to want to do a certain action and then having that action seem good to the target—that is the power of influence.
This chapter illuminated the science and psychology of what makes people tick, and clarified how influence is used by social engineers.
Remember, influence and the art of persuasion are the processes of getting someone else to want to do, react, think, or believe in the way you want them to.
The power in this statement transcends social engineering and manipulation. It is the key to altering any frame, the key to unlocking any door of manipulation, and the pathway to becoming a master at influence.
Social engineers also use many physical tools, some of which might look like they were taken out of a page of a James Bond movie, and they are discussed in the next chapter.
Chapter 7
The Tools of the Social Engineer
Man is a tool-using animal. Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all.
—Thomas Carlyle
When it comes to social engineering having a decent toolset can make or break the ability of the social engineer to be successful. In addition, it is not so much having the tools but also possessing the knowledge on how to use them that can bridge the gap between success and failure.
This chapter discusses the differences between physical tools, phone tools, and software-based tools. Note that simply possessing the most expensive or best tools will not make you a social engineer. Instead, tools can enhance your security practice the way that the right blend of spices can augment a meal—too much or too little can make the meal bland or overpowering. You do not want to look like Batman wearing a utility belt going into a social engineering gig, nor do you want to be at the target’s front door without the proper toolset to gain access.
The social engineer’s tools category has the potential to be huge, but this book isn’t trying to become a manual on how to pick locks or spoof a phone number. Instead it is an attempt to give you enough information to decide what tools would augment your practice.
The first section of this chapter, “Physical Tools,” focuses on things like lock picks, shims, and cameras. Some new and exciting tools are on the market that will make the average social engineer feel like James Bond. This chapter covers some of these tools and how to use them, and even shows some pictures of the tools. In addition, this chapter provides some information on using phone spoofing in a social engineering attack, continues with a discussion of some of the best software-based information-gathering tools on the market, then ends with a discussion about password profiling tools.
Physical Tools
Physical security is comprised of the measures