Social Engineering - Christopher Hadnagy [29]
A receiver, which “decodes” (reconstructs) the message from the signal
A destination, where the message arrives
They argued that three levels of problems for communication existed within this theory:
The technical problem—How accurately can the message be transmitted?
The semantic problem—How precisely is the meaning conveyed?
The effectiveness problem—How effectively does the received meaning affect behavior? (This last point is important to remember for social engineering. The whole goal of the social engineer is to create a behavior that the social engineer wants.)
Almost 15 years later, David Berlo expanded on Shannon and Weaver’s linear model of communication and created the Sender-Message-Channel-Receiver (SMCR) model of communication. SMCR separated the model into clear parts, as shown in Figure 2-9.
Figure 2-9: The Berlo model.
You can think of communication as processes of information transmission governed by three levels of rules:
Formal properties of signs and symbols
The relations between signs/expressions and their users
The relationships between signs and symbols and what they represent
Therefore, you can further refine the definition of communication as social interaction where at least two interacting agents share a common set of signs and a common set of rules.
In 2008 another researcher, D. C. Balmund, combined the research of many of his previous cohorts with his own and developed the transactional model of communication, as shown in Figure 2-10.
In this model you can see that the channel and message can take on many forms, not just spoken, as represented by the picture. The message can be in written, video, or audio form and the receiver can be one person or many people. The feedback also can take on many forms.
Combining and analyzing this research can help a social engineer develop a solid communication model. Not only social engineers can benefit from doing this—everyone can. Learning how to develop a plan of communication can enhance the way you deal with your spouse, your kids, your employer or employees—anyone you communicate with.
Figure 2-10: The new and improved communication model.
Because the focus of this book is social engineers, you need to analyze what a social engineer can take away from all of this. After reading all this theory you may begin to wonder how this can be used. Remember, a social engineer must be a master at communication. They must be able to effectively enter into and remain in a person’s personal and mental space and not offend or turn off the target. Developing, implementing, and practicing effective communication models is the key to accomplishing this goal. The next step then is developing a communication model.
Developing a Communication Model
Now that you know about the key elements of a communication model, take a look at them from the eyes of a social engineer:
The Source: The social engineer is the source of the information or communication that is going to be relayed.
The Channel: This is the method of delivery.
The Message: Probably the biggest part of the message is knowing what you are going to say to the receiver(s).
The Receiver(s): This is the target.
The Feedback: What do you want them to do after you effectively give them the communication?
How can you use these elements effectively? The first step into the world of communication modeling is starting with your goal. Try working with a couple of the scenarios that might be part of a typical social engineering gig:
Develop a phishing email targeted against 25–50 employees and attempt to have them go during work hours to a non-business website that will be embedded with malicious code to hack into their networks.
Make an onsite visit to portray a potential interviewee who has just ruined his resume by spilling coffee on it and needs to convince the front-desk person to allow a USB key to be inserted into a computer to print a copy of the resume.
When developing a communication strategy you may find working on the model