Remember last year, when I ate dinner with Steve Wozniak?
Same event, different date.
THIS year, it was Kevin Mitnick.
He’s a Hacker. He calls it Social Engineering. ( Scroll down a bit to find his thoughts on it.)
MITNICK: Social engineering is using manipulation, influence and
deception to get a person, a trusted insider within an organization, to
comply with a request, and the request is usually to release
information or to perform some sort of action item that benefits that
attacker. It could be something as simple as talking over the telephone
to something as complex as getting a target to visit a Web site, which
exploits a technical flaw and allows the hacker to take over the
computer.
So, he gets people to do what he needs them to do.
I
could
be
easily
manipulated
because I’m a "good girl".
I’d be the helpful receptionist, believing he is who he says.
I’d be the sympathetic person on the other end of the phone, "helping him out".
It kindof made me think.
I’m not good at manipulating others. But I’m sort of good at BEING manipulated.
He was an excellent dinner date. Like Wozniak, he didn’t eat the salad. He liked the dessert. He seemed like he was very comfortable speaking, but did not glorify his own hacking. He seemed reformed. He seemed sincere in wanting to help spread the word of "being careful" and vigilant and smart.
Because, as he said, there is no Microsoft patch for Stoopid!
Had to tell you this MB….in trying to be the “good receptionist”…..I had a call from someone who said “is the owner in?” and I said “No I’m sorry he’s out of town” and then “how about the CFO” and I said he was also out. The caller said “Are they in Knoxville?” and I said yes. The next day, there was a press release in the Knoxville newspaper that stated that “the receptionist at J. Herzog & Sons verified that the principals are in negotiations in Knoxville.” WHAAAAT? Did I say that???