In a crazy story that we just had to report on… an Australian man dressed in a all too short cassock, fake cross and using a scarf as a purple sash managed to sneak past the Swiss Guards and into the Vatican.

He was photographed shaking hands with a Cardinal in the cobblestone square left of the basilica. He told guards he was “Basilius” of the Italian Orthodox Church and that he was the founder of the “Corpus Dei” order.  None of these things even exist, but were believable enough to get past the guards.

Before being caught he hosted a couple interviews where he gave his fake “credentials” and then stated for the cameras that he was there to talk about how the church made serious mistakes in the way they handled the pedophile scandal.

When he was finally caught, one dead give away being his fedora hat instead of the normal skullcap of the cardinals, he was escorted outside and booted to the curb.

What lesson does this story give us? The pretext the man used was believable, even though he didn’t have the outfit 100% right, even though he had a fake order, a fake name and the wrong hat – he made it quite far.  With a little more planning who knows what he could have done.

Every day hackers and malicious social engineers are using these same methods to break into companies, governments and even your homes to steal and do harm.  By being aware of these types of attacks and by keeping yourself educated is the only way you can keep yourself, your family and your companies safe.

Till next time.