Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking

5.4. Interview and Interrogation

Scenario 1: The door flies open and the perpetrator is noticeably nervous. Captain Bad-Mood comes over and grabs the perp by the collar and slams him up against the wall. Getting about an inch from his face he screams, "You'll tell me what I want to know, one way or another!"

Scenario 2: The bad guy is tied to a chair, already bruised from the previous 30 minutes of beatings, and as the interrogator grabs a pair of shiny pliers he says, "You'll be talking in no time...."

Scenario 3: The perp is sitting in a chair and two police officers enter the room. Calmly they walk over to the table and set a file labeled "Evidence" down on the table. Before they sit down they ask, "Do you need a coffee or a soda or something?"

Cracking open an ice-cold soda the first officer says, "Thanks for coming in today to help us out...."

Which one of the preceding scenarios is a real-life interrogation? If you guessed the third one, you're right. It is how a real interrogation often goes. The first two have been portrayed in Hollywood movies and television series so much that many of us might think they are real. Outside of wartime scenarios and nations that do not ban the use of torture, the third scenario is most likely the way most interrogations begin.

Rarely will you as a social engineer be in a situation where your target is waiting in a room for you to question him. With that in mind, you might ask, how can you use the tactics of professional interrogators and ...