Social Engineering Challenge 1: It's In The Bag

Good Afternoon! Admiral Aquamarine checking in with a successful mission report.

My task for this week was to get my mission card into another player's bag. That seems fairly simple by itself, but time was not on my side. Considering the challenge expired at the beginning of next week's class, I knew I had to act quickly.

As soon as I read the card, I used a stretch as an excuse to turn around and scope out the room. I scanned everyone's immediate area, looking for an open bag. Then, in the back of the room, I saw it. I don't know your alias, but you had a fairly large bag on the table next to you. It was brown and purple and wide open. Now, I needed a plan. How would I get it into your bag without your knowledge? My original plan was to leave the room behind you after class, and drop the card in as you walked away.

Well, sometimes better opportunities present themselves. About a half hour later, my target left the room without her bag. I looked out the window to be sure she was out of sight. Then, in plain sight of the class, I walked over to her bag and stuffed the card in between a hat and a notebook. I made it back to my seat before she came back into the room. Success.

I can't gauge how successful my original plan would have been, but the opening of my target's bag was large enough that I expect she wouldn't have noticed until I was long gone. My actual execution was also quite effective, though I did run the risk of someone ratting me out when my target returned. Why did I still go with that plan, given the risk? In my mind, I was still successful, even if someone informed my target after the fact. She wouldn't have brought the card home, but it would have been in her bag already.

To avoid a novel, I'll wrap this up. Morally, my actions were a breach of privacy. While I didn't remove anything from her bag or rifle through it, I did place my hand inside and certainly popped her personal bubble. Had I done this in her presence, I would expect a strong negative reaction. As for how I felt, well, let's just say I have an empathy problem. I know this. A normal person likely would have felt strange, wrong, or even dirty for doing what I did. I saw it as accomplishing the mission at hand.

For a better challenge, I could have let my golden opportunity slip away and attempted my original plan. Instead, I opted for the greater chance of success. Always take the path of least resistance, right? Maybe. If I had gone with the first plan, it would have been a chance to practice my sleight of hand skills. The method I chose only proved I'm willing to be brazen to accomplish a task. I'll have to work on the subtlety, and I'm sure I'll have to for later missions.

- The Admiral