4 ms·
A good example of why trust validation is important and why social engineering is one of the most difficult threat vectors to protect against. Hacking the human
by brobdingnagians 8y ago
A good example of why trust validation is important and why social engineering is one of the most difficult threat vectors to protect against. Hacking the human brain to get trust is a lot easier in most cases than cracking a lot of digital defenses (although it seems a lot of people neglect basic digital defense too...). With some companies I've worked for, I've realized how sometimes customer support could be easily duped, because they want so badly to help the person who is obviously having difficulties and paying us so much money... :P
- zipwitch 8y agoI once worked for a large telco, and although there were some basic security and verification processes in place internally, they were not rigorously enforced. An imposter or social engineer with malicious intent and the level of company-specific inside knowledge this scammmer had about their chosen targets for impersonation could wreck havok at my old employer, or I suspect many other large companies.
- wallflower 8y agoReminds me of the story about a hacker who got in by pretending to be an interior decorator for an office revamp https://motherboard.vice.com/amp/en_us/article/qv34zb/how-i-socially-engineer-myself-into-high-security-facilities https://motherboard.vice.com/amp/en_us/article/qv34zb/how-i-...
- wallflower 8y agoPreviously discussed. Thanks jsnell https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15516526 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15516526