Social Engineering Task 3

My task was: “Get a stranger to let you take a picture of them”

Did I accomplish it? Yes

How did I do it?

I was walking in South Station and saw a gentleman that make funny animals with skinny balloons and asked him if I could take a picture of him with his creations and he said yes.

Application: This could be useful in a different scenario. I could pretend I'm doing this while my real intentions are to take a picture of the place he was at or take a picture of someone else without looking suspicious.

Ethical reflection: I feel sometimes and after starting to do these assignments how uncomfortable I feel, lying to people. I realized how simple requests and smiles plus people's trust and good faith can turn into a dangerous attack. One way of performing this task is if the security specialist is trying to identify a suspect or a verified intruder. The social engineering has to lie of course, but also has to present themselves as a harmless person and one way or the other gain the trust of their victim without seeming suspicious or nervous. A negative form of engaging in this activity as I explained above is to target a person via taking the picture with the stranger, or using it to make conversation to inquire about unrelated topics to gather information about a company, a venue or an activity and take advantage of it.