The Language of Deception

Chapter 2Social Engineering and Psychological Exploitation

Social engineering is a term used to describe deliberate efforts to manipulate others, often by means of deceit or misrepresentation. While discussing various contexts and uses of social engineering throughout this chapter, I will often use the terms threat actor or attacker to describe those deliberately engaging in deceptive social engineering efforts, and I will use terms like target or victim to describe the subjects of those efforts. Nothing derogatory is implied by any of these terms. Social engineering has a broad range of applications and is used in many ways. Even when used for deception, some of these uses are based on malicious intentions, while others may be based on good intentions. The use of social engineering for deceptive purposes is a moral parallax at best. For most people, their views on morality and ethics are largely contingent upon their own personal experiences, beliefs, and values. Moreover, even a single person's opinions of morality and ethics may change and evolve over time, as they have new experiences or gain additional information. To a large extent, the differences between right and wrong are relative to cultural, geopolitical, and ideological perspectives. Depending on your perspective, sometimes the “bad guys” are not criminals, rogue threat groups, or terrorist cells. Sometimes, they are financially motivated corporate interests that seek to influence and manipulate, and sometimes ...