Social Engineering Penetration Testing

Chapter 1

An Introduction to Social Engineering

Gavin Watson,    Senior Security Engineer, RandomStorm Limited

This chapter will introduce the reader to the concept of social engineering.

Information in this chapter

• Defining social engineering

• Examples from the movies

• Sneakers

• Hackers

• Matchstick Men

• Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

• The Imposter

• Famous social engineers

• Kevin Mitnik

• Frank Abagnale

• Badir Brothers

• Chris Hadnagy

• Chris Nickerson

• Real-world attacks

• The RSA breach

• The Buckingham Palace breach

• The Financial Times breach

• The Microsoft XBox breach

• Operation Camion

Introduction

This chapter has the sole aim of introducing the reader to the concept of social engineering. There are various definitions, some vague and others precise, ...