You seem to want to limit the definition of social engineering to actually coming into social contact with the password-giver. The victim trusts the hotel, the

You seem to want to limit the definition of social engineering to actually coming into social contact with the password-giver. The victim trusts the hotel, the social engineering I saw here is getting into the position of being a maid (who is trusted to not mess with your stuff (well, not by me but apparently by some)). Just like you can social engineer yourself into any company in order to get at the machines and install a keylogger. In my original statement I did not do a very good job at how I am dismissing the interestingness of the original blog post, but a keylogger insertion (either software or hardware based) is a time tested technique,there is nothing new here with the attack "payload." So all I see is "how did the attacker get physical access" but did not flesh this viewpoint out at all, and I apologize. Think of it in terms of remote exploits and their payloads. Why discuss the subtle differences between rootkit #1 vs. rootkit #2 and how each will screw you: the problem is actually in the attack vector, not the payload. Once you're in, the details are somewhat boring (relatively speaking).