BackTrack 4: Assuring Security by Penetration Testing

Chapter 8. Social Engineering

Social Engineering is the practice of learning and obtaining valuable information by exploiting human vulnerabilities. It is an art of deception which is considered to be vital for a penetration tester when there is a lack of information available about the target that can be exploited. Since people are the weakest link in security defense to any organization, this is the most vulnerable layer in security infrastructure. We are social creatures and our nature makes us vulnerable to social engineering attacks. These attacks are employed by social engineers to obtain confidential information or to gain access to the restricted area. Social engineering takes different forms of attack vectors, and each of them is limited ...