Thursday, October 6, 2011

Reply to this BY MONDAY:
Post a comment to this post.  Find a YouTube/Vimeo/etc. clip from a movie or TV show illustrating social engineering, defined as gathering information or manipulating people IN FACE-TO-FACE situations or on the phone.  (No porn, please.)  Identify the techniques of social engineering you see in the clip.  What makes them effective?  How would you use those techniques in your life?

12 comments:

  1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-CHdukO7to

    posing as policce creates compliance. - Marie

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  2. So here's the one I mentioned from class

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1045772/

    In this movie Jim Carrey plays Stephen Russell a cop turned con artist as he impersonates a number of different professions to keep up his lifestyle.

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  3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQtQg--PB0k

    1. Clearly manipulation here
    2. Constant eye contact
    3. Stuck to the same story
    4. Manager seemed to acknowledge that a mistake could have happened

    I would probably use this technique at Capital Grille rather than McDonalds.

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  4. rob here

    http://revision3.com/scamschool

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  5. Small clip from The Wire. Some swearing and foul language, just a heads up.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN7pkFNEg5c
    Suspect #1 does not believe Bunk about suspect #2 ratting him out until Bunk reveals that he has some inside information - #2's McDonald's order. Bunk frames it to support the idea that #2 ratted #1 out, when he actually did not. #1 starts to get worried, thinking it all might be over for him and that going to prison might be inevitable. It lowers his guard and gets Bunk closer to a confession.

    Because Bunk had knowledge that suspect #1 believed was classified(Suspect #2's McDonald's order), Bunk was able to trick #1 into thinking there was more going on between Bunk and #2 than there actually was. You can tell in #1's look that he is worried that prison is inevitable, and it might lower his guard since he believes whether he is careful with what he says or not, he'll still be going to prison.

    When Bunk uses the copier disguised as a lie detector to print out false for the third answer, #1 is worried because to #1, the lie detector is a scientific, absolute answer. At this point he is convinced his ship has sunk, and he lets it all out.

    How to apply these techniques... Let's see..

    If I have a suspicion my 7 year old sister was in my room and I couldn't get her to admit it, I could say something like "You were too in my room, I had to clean up your footprints from your shoes!"(I would be lying to make it seem like I have more information than I actually do) At that point, she might feel like she's been figured out and give it up, despite there being no actual footprints.

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  6. Derren Brown
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhmKYeNgZEw&feature=related
    Amazing at NPL, passes general social engineering and borderlines mind control on quite a few things he does.

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  7. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z68gZJwdAAg

    He does some research on his target, and makes some good use of pretexting; he maintains eye contact, has a script and doesn't stumble. A bonus is offering the target something official at the end (as he did).

    I've actually run across a few 'professional' panhandlers that use sheets in a clipboard to appear legit; a lot of their marks hand over money without reading it closely.

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  8. oh, I forgot to cover the why/how. Uniforms automatically cause people to respond in a way they have been conditioned to. I've used t his at MIT to get into the museum via the side entrance, walking in with a (knowing) friend who worked there, let me borrow a lab coat, and walked in with me using her keycard. No one ever noticed I might have been out of place, and I wandered the back halls with her as well. I was not up to actual mischief, she just wanted me to check out some cool things and I'm game :)

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  9. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G3NT91AWUE

    Hackers

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  10. Joe--What social engineering strategies are you seeing in your clip?

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  11. Rob--Scam School is neat! Which clip is your favorite? Why? What strategies do you think are the most awesome?

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