Skip to Content
Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking
book

Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking

by Christopher Hadnagy
December 2010
Beginner content levelBeginner
404 pages
11h 8m
English
Wiley
Content preview from Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking

Chapter 7. The Tools of the Social Engineer

Man is a tool-using animal. Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all.

——THOMAS CARLYLE

When it comes to social engineering having a decent toolset can make or break the ability of the social engineer to be successful. In addition, it is not so much having the tools but also possessing the knowledge on how to use them that can bridge the gap between success and failure.

This chapter discusses the differences between physical tools, phone tools, and software-based tools. Note that simply possessing the most expensive or best tools will not make you a social engineer. Instead, tools can enhance your security practice the way that the right blend of spices can augment a meal—too much or too little can make the meal bland or overpowering. You do not want to look like Batman wearing a utility belt going into a social engineering gig, nor do you want to be at the target's front door without the proper toolset to gain access.

The social engineer's tools category has the potential to be huge, but this book isn't trying to become a manual on how to pick locks or spoof a phone number. Instead it is an attempt to give you enough information to decide what tools would augment your practice.

The first section of this chapter, "Physical Tools," focuses on things like lock picks, shims, and cameras. Some new and exciting tools are on the market that will make the average social engineer feel like James Bond. This chapter covers some of these ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Start your free trial

You might also like

Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, 2nd Edition

Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, 2nd Edition

Jon Erickson
Practical Malware Analysis

Practical Malware Analysis

Michael Sikorski, Andrew Honig
Ethical Hacking

Ethical Hacking

Daniel G. Graham

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9780470639535