• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

• Shows discomfort when questioned

• Name dropping

• Compliments or flattery

• Flirting

Common Targets of Attacks

Factors That Make Companies More Vulnerable to Attacks

• Large number of employees

• Multiple facilities

• Information on employee whereabouts left in voice mail messages

• Phone extension information made available

• Lack of security training

• Lack of data classification system

• No incident reporting/response plan in place

VERIFICATION AND DATA CLASSIFICATION

These tables and charts will help you to respond to requests for information or action that may be social engineering attacks.

Verification of Identity Procedure

Verification of Employment Status Procedure

Procedure to Determine Need to Know

Criteria for Verifying Non-Employees

Data Classification

Responding to a Request for Information

Responding to a Request for Action

sources

CHAPTER 1

BloomBecker, Buck. 1990. Spectacular Computer Crimes: What They Are and How They Cost American Business Half a Billion Dollars a Year. Irwin Professional Publishing.

Littman, Jonathan. 1997. The Fugitive Game: Online with Kevin Mitnick. Little Brown & Co.

Penenberg, Adam L. April 19, 1999. “The Demonizing of a Hacker.” Forbes.

CHAPTER 2

The Stanley Rifkin story is based on the following accounts:

Computer Security Insitute. Undated. “Financial losses due to Internet intrusions, trade secret theft and other cyber crimes soar.” Press release.

Epstein, Edward Jay. Unpublished. “The Diamond Invention.”

Holwick, Rev. David. Unpublished account.

Mr. Rifkin himself was gracious in acknowledging that accounts of his exploit differ because he has protected his anonymity by declining to be interviewed.

CHAPTER 16

Cialdini, Robert B. 2000. Influence: Science and Practice, 4th edition. Allyn and Bacon.

Cialdini, Robert B. February 2001. “The Science of Persuasion.” Scientific American. 284:2.

CHAPTER 17

Some policies in this chapter are based on ideas contained in: Wood, Charles Cresson. 1999. “Information Security Policies Made Easy.” Baseline Software.

Acknowledgments

FROM KEVIN MITNICK

True friendship has been defined as one mind in two bodies; not many people in anyone’s life can be called a true friend. Jack Biello was a loving and caring person who spoke out against the extraordinary mistreatment I endured at the hands of journalists and government prosecutors. He was a key voice in the Free Kevin movement and a writer who had an extraordinary talent for writing compelling articles exposing the information that the government doesn’t want you to know. Jack was always there to fearlessly speak out on my behalf and to work together with me preparing speeches and articles, and, at one point, represented me as a media liaison.

This book is therefore dedicated with love to my dearest friend Jack Biello, whose recent death from cancer just as we finished the manuscript has left me feeling a great sense of loss and sadness.

This book would not have been possible without the love and support of my family. My mother, Shelly Jaffe, and my grandmother, Reba Vartanian, have given me unconditional love and support throughout my life. I am so fortunate to have been raised by such a loving and dedicated mother, who I also consider my best friend. My grandmother has been like a second mom to me, providing me with the same nurturing and love that only a mother could give. As caring and compassionate people, they’ve taught me the principles of caring about others and lending a helping hand to the less fortunate. And so, by imitating the pattern of giving and caring, I in a sense follow the paths of their lives. I hope they’ll forgive me for putting them in second place during the process of writing this book, passing up chances to see them with the excuse of work and deadlines to meet. This book would not have been possible without their continued love and support that I’ll forever hold close to my heart.

How I wish my dad,