Unmasking the Social Engineer: The Human Element of Security

Chapter 6

Understanding Nonverbal Displays of Comfort and Discomfort

Comfort zones are most often expanded through discomfort.

—Peter McWilliams

Whenever I teach a class about social engineering, I cover body language and facial expressions, in a similar manner to the previous chapters of this book. Some students are overwhelmed by all the things they are told to look for and feel that trying to notice too many things will distract them. Instead of trying to come up with tricks to help them notice all the expressions or signs, I tell them to do one thing: Look for signs of comfort and discomfort. Noticing that someone has a certain baseline body language that changes to discomfort can tell you a lot as a social engineer. PK, one of the “truth wizards” mentioned earlier, notes that Dr. Ekman refers to such changes in baseline as “hot spots.” Dr. O'Sullivan, who coordinated research on the “wizard project,” noted that the wizards often cited recognition of such displays while observing their subjects as a factor in their assessments.

Imagine that your target is Ben. Your goal is to start a conversation that will lead to elicitation. As you approach him, you see him sitting with his hands behind his head and a contented look on his face, as shown in Figure 6-1.

Figure 6-1 Ben is content and feeling comfortable and confident.

As you start speaking to him, your conversation starts to ...