I think most people would accept, that when it comes to building rapport and getting to a stage of some form of manipulation is normally always possible with anyone give a decent amount of time. This is great for making REAL friends, but in the social engineering context we normally don’t have or want this lucky, we like it quick and dirty so to speak. We have discussed many ways to have this happen, but I think we have a little...

In my recent talk Social Engineering Like In the Movies – The Reality of Awareness and Manipulation I talk about how important it is to understand body language, especially in the right context. I also mention how even though generally once you have a baseline alot of body language is global, but some gestures can catch you out. With this in mind I thought I would share something with you that I stumbled across this week. Its a book...

I have the great pleasure of speaking at the 2011 IRISSCERT Cyber Crime Conference in Ireland this November. IRISSCERT Cyber Crime Conference The IRISSCERT Cyber Crime Conference will be held this year on Wednesday the 23rd of November 2011 in the D4Berkley Court Hotel, in Ballsbridge Dublin.  This is an all day conference which focuses on providing attendees with an overview of the current cyber threats facing businesses in Ireland and...

The dictionary defines Elicitation as bringing or drawing out information, or to call forth and provoke a desired reaction. Elicitation is a powerful tool to anyone looking to influence and gather information in a relatively low risk and covert manner. The reason for me remembering I should write a post on this topic is due to an experience that happened this weekend at a local beer festival, as well as lots of drinking I entertained with...

This year I have the honour of giving a workshop at Hash Days 2011 in Lucerne Switzerland. The course will run on the 26th and 27th October 2011, coffee breaks, snacks and lunch will be provided, all located at the Radisson Blu in Lucerne. All attendees will receive full copies of the workshop slides including notes, and will have the opportunity to have 1 to 1 discussions with myself to discuss other related workshop topics that they...

Albert Einstein was once quoted as saying “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand”. I believe this is very appropriate to social engineering today, and could be what separates someone being successful or not in their abilities to persuade and influence. Remember as a...