Social Engineering

[d313t3d]

I don't think that really takes any skill, it is pretty funny, but no skill, so I'd have to say naaaaah, no hacking there just taking advantage of a situation and some poor chaps that aren't secure w/ their own, or others' personal info. Really funny tho~, heh heh.

[abyss]

I definitely believe social engineering takes skill. You have to manipulate the other person to do what you want. However, I disagree that it is a hack. It can be used to gain information for hacking, but I think it is more mental.

[Remote_Access_]

It definately takes some degree of skill to successfully use social engineering. What people define as a hack varies from person to person.

hacking is more like looking for holes

Ok then by your definition, it was a hack. This person was looking for holes for possible exploitation, found one, and took advantage of it. Call it what you will but it's still hacking, even by your own definition.

no hacking there just taking advantage of a situation and some poor chaps that aren't secure w/ their own, or others' personal info.

Isn't that, in a sense, what a hack is? Taking advantage of a situation for personal gain, knowledge, or for what ever reason. Whether you agree or not, it dose take skill.

Remote_Access_

[valhallen]

I wouldn't regard social engineering as hacking - but thats just my own view and I can see where other people are comming from that say it is......but anyway thats getting off the thread topic

It used to be fairly wide practice in my home town for cashiers in small shops to note down credit card numbers from backs of cheques and then use the number to top up their mobile phones - this has since been stopped as all the major networks make you register your credit card with them so that you can only top up your own phone with them but for a while I had a few friends who noticed small amounts going missing from their accounts to top up phones only completely different networks than their own >_<

v_Ln

[souleman]

Is running a scipt considered hacking? Most script kiddies would say it is? I think social engineering takes a LOT more skill then searching google for the latest version of Sub7 (although a lot of people haven't figured that one out yet).

[blackh0le]

i think it is called wetware hacking. computer is not the only thing that can be hacked.

[d313t3d]

Well now, allright, skill, but not anymore, atleast in this case, than identifying an extremly niave person and preying on them. I personally, do not consider that skill. Give me a good example of social engineering and I'll probably agree w/ you, but not in this case Access.
I don't think the kiddies are hackers either, soulman, but I would put this bit of social engineering, just a small notch above 'em.

[TotalChaos(D~Sq]

It just shows now more than ever that you cannot. trust anybody. You need to know your surroundings, in this case the cashier.

[SoggyBottom]

I believe that social engineering the one of the biggest problems for us IT Security folk. I reckon that I could socially engineer myself just about anywhere.

You can have all of the firewalls, IDS's, Access Lists... and it still isnt going to stop some dumb arse letting an unauthroised person into your comms room and start playing around, and no matter how much you try and educate your users, there will always be that one dumb arse.

[nurv]

Social enginering is a hack. It is manipulating a person into them giving you what you want. Just like manipulating a box into doing a desired action. Kevin Mitnick is proof that the government beleive that this is a form of hacking. People are most times more easy to manipulate then the machines on which they work. A few issues ago 2600 had a very nice article on Network Profiling and it went into social enginering. I found it very informative. I'll reply with the issue number when I return home as I am sitting in Visual C++ class in my high school.