Social Engineering
Well as the name suggests, social engineering is the process of engineering socially.
What? No.
When you can manipulate a person and he willfully agrees to divulge information that he wouldn't under normal circumstances, you're a social engineer.
Hackers are called social engineers if they have the uncanny ability to make people tell them their usernames,passwords and other sensitive information.
Kevin Mitnick? He's to social engineering what Zidane is to football.
Kevin Mitnick
Now this guy, he's the definition of a perfect social engineer.
Here's what he managed to do simply by talking to people:
Three books have been written by him:
He now runs a cyber security company called Mitnick Security Consulting, LLC that helps test a company's security strengths and weaknesses, and is the Chief Hacking Officer of security awareness training company KnowBe4.
Well as the name suggests, social engineering is the process of engineering socially.
What? No.
When you can manipulate a person and he willfully agrees to divulge information that he wouldn't under normal circumstances, you're a social engineer.
Hackers are called social engineers if they have the uncanny ability to make people tell them their usernames,passwords and other sensitive information.
Kevin Mitnick? He's to social engineering what Zidane is to football.
Kevin Mitnick
Now this guy, he's the definition of a perfect social engineer.
Here's what he managed to do simply by talking to people:
- When he was 12 years old, he talked his way to travelling in buses for free in LA.
- At age 16, a friend of his gave him the Ark's (DEC OS development sector) phone number. He used this number to so talk his way upto the highest levels and copied their software. He was convicted in 1988.
- For the crime he committed at 16, he got a year in prison and 3 years of probation.But he wouldn't have it.So he hacked into Pacific Bell voice mail computers and became a fugitive for the next 2 and a half years.
He was finally caught in February 1995 after a well publicised encounter.He served 5 years and two months in prison out of which he spent 8 months in solitary confinement. The reason was outrageously hilarious. The law enforcement officials convinced the judge that Mitnick could start a nuclear war by whistling into a payphone. He was forbidden to use any form of communication or computer technology except a land line telephone for a period of 3 years.
He was the FBI's most wanted hacker at a point of time.
Three books have been written by him:
1.The Art of Deception
2.The Art of Intrusion: The Real Stories Behind the Exploits of Hackers, Intruders & Deceivers
3.Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker
He now runs a cyber security company called Mitnick Security Consulting, LLC that helps test a company's security strengths and weaknesses, and is the Chief Hacking Officer of security awareness training company KnowBe4.
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