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This also demonstrates an uncomfortable situation. There are certain types of bias in favor of women that help out with these kinds of situations. His mom likel

This also demonstrates an uncomfortable situation. There are certain types of bias in favor of women that help out with these kinds of situations. His mom likely was benefitting from a positive bias that she was harmless and fulfilled the presumption about what an inspector may look like... Something like this "Women are wonderful effect"[1]. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_are_wonderful_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_are_wonderful_effect

oceanghost 7y ago
This is absolutely a thing. I worked at a fortune small-cap where the IT department was absolutely insidious. They would undermine anyone who they didn't like, or who opposed their nonsense. I wrote a lot of backend stuff, and they would spend far more effort and money denying us servers and resources than it would have taken to simply get those things for us. They'd tell us developers we couldn't use the OS's our products targeted, and yet they'd be using them. They undermined their own CIO time after time; most lasted about 18 months. Then, the company hired a sociable, intelligent, woman as CIO. Within six months, she'd (rightly) fired the ENTIRE department. They just didn't see it coming.
- krilly 7y ago
  Wait, what was your point here? That women actually are wonderful?
  - thrwaway69 7y ago
    Are they not?
  - soneca 7y ago
    I assumed the point is that the combative developers saw the new CIO as harmless and didn't fight her as with the others CIOs.
    - oceanghost 7y ago
      That was the point, thank you.
  - proc0 7y ago
    Sounds like society is so biased in favor of women that they can get away with breaking shit (whether accident or intentional).
    - throwaway55554 7y ago
      > breaking shit You mean fixing.
      - proc0 7y ago
        No i mean breaking. I didn't say ALL women, but clearly my point is proven because you want to defend ALL women. That is the problem. Had I mentioned men break shit, I would have received upvotes.
- ozim 7y ago
  Those social skills black magic, I should have been drinking more in high school instead of programming.
claudiawerner 7y ago
A little off topic, but the controversy section of that article raises some interesting points, though Wikipedia tends to be a little behind mentioning latest research in social science articles.
Thriptic 7y ago
That's exactly why social engineering works: biases and assumptions. People are absolutely generally more willing to help a woman than a man for a variety of reasons (perception of harmlessness as you point out; people assuming women are incompetent; guys wanting to help to increase sex appeal; etc). Men can exploit different social vectors (eg large, imposing men being demanding or aggressive will get obeyed more than other people because we automatically associate size with authority). It's not the pentester's job to fix social policy, merely to point out that threats can come from a variety of vectors that people don't expect.

oceanghost 7y ago

This is absolutely a thing. I worked at a fortune small-cap where the IT department was absolutely insidious. They would undermine anyone who they didn't like, or who opposed their nonsense. I wrote a lot of backend stuff, and they would spend far more effort and money denying us servers and resources than it would have taken to simply get those things for us. They'd tell us developers we couldn't use the OS's our products targeted, and yet they'd be using them. They undermined their own CIO time after time; most lasted about 18 months. Then, the company hired a sociable, intelligent, woman as CIO. Within six months, she'd (rightly) fired the ENTIRE department. They just didn't see it coming.

krilly 7y ago
Wait, what was your point here? That women actually are wonderful?
- thrwaway69 7y ago
  Are they not?
- soneca 7y ago
  I assumed the point is that the combative developers saw the new CIO as harmless and didn't fight her as with the others CIOs.
  - oceanghost 7y ago
    That was the point, thank you.
- proc0 7y ago
  Sounds like society is so biased in favor of women that they can get away with breaking shit (whether accident or intentional).
  - throwaway55554 7y ago
    > breaking shit You mean fixing.
    - proc0 7y ago
      No i mean breaking. I didn't say ALL women, but clearly my point is proven because you want to defend ALL women. That is the problem. Had I mentioned men break shit, I would have received upvotes.
ozim 7y ago
Those social skills black magic, I should have been drinking more in high school instead of programming.

claudiawerner 7y ago

A little off topic, but the controversy section of that article raises some interesting points, though Wikipedia tends to be a little behind mentioning latest research in social science articles.

Thriptic 7y ago

That's exactly why social engineering works: biases and assumptions. People are absolutely generally more willing to help a woman than a man for a variety of reasons (perception of harmlessness as you point out; people assuming women are incompetent; guys wanting to help to increase sex appeal; etc). Men can exploit different social vectors (eg large, imposing men being demanding or aggressive will get obeyed more than other people because we automatically associate size with authority). It's not the pentester's job to fix social policy, merely to point out that threats can come from a variety of vectors that people don't expect.