June 14th, 2009Social Engineering and the Art of Influence
Social Engineering (SE) is both incredibly complex and amazingly simple. In fact, it is an art.
Due to the mystery surrounding SE many people are afraid of it, or they feel they will never be able to accomplish a successful SE test. However, every time you try to get someone to do something that is in your interest, you are engaging in SE. From children trying to get a toy from their parents to adults trying to land a job or score the big promotion, all of it is a form of SE… an art!
One day we started to search for information to develop some training on the topic of Social Engineering as it applies to pentesting. We were astounded to see that the web really lacked a good source of information on this valuable topic. There was a multitude of sources of great technical pentesting info, but the art of social engineering was a different story.
We found plenty of stories about getting free pizzas, tons of stories of famous social engineers and their adventures and more than a few good articles, but not one site that collectively contained, developed and organized this information. Nothing even close to the level of documentation required to treat SE like a science…. like an ART.
And like any science, SE can be used for different purposes. So whether you are in sales, politics, penetration testing, law enforcement or just want to improve your dealings with others, SE is for you.
So gives birth to www.social-engineer.org – a site that will only get better with willing participation from an educated and motivated community. Our site is designed to grow as we grow. We will discuss new and innovative ways to tie SE into your skill set. We will continually develop our framework. We hope it will become a standard in social engineering. We encourage you to become a part of this community, give us feed back, submit ideas and your thoughts.
Join us as we document, manipulate, and exploit the HumanOS.
If you want some valuable information in a monthly newsletter sign up for the FREE monthly SEEHV (Social Engineer – Exploiting Human Vulnerabilities) newsletter!
Send an email to newsletter -@- social-engineer.org with the subject SUBSCRIBE and the body containing your full name and you will be signed up for the web’s first social engineering newsletter. It will contain tips and tricks on SE, NLP, Interviews, tactics, skill enhancers and early bird announcements on some very important industry related items. Join us, and explore the ART of SOCIAL ENGINEERING.
