Kevin mitnik

THE ART OF DECEPTION
Controlling the Human Element of Security

KEVIN D. MITNICK
& William L. Simon Foreword by Steve Wozniak

Scanned by kineticstomp, revised and enlarged by swift

For Reba Vartanian, Shelly Jaffe, Chickie Leventhal, and Mitchell Mitnick, and for the late Alan Mitnick, Adam Mitnick, and Jack Biello For Arynne, Victoria, and David, Sheldon,Vincent, and Elena. SocialEngineering Social Engineering uses influence and persuasion to deceive people by convincing them that the social engineer is someone he is not, or by manipulation. As a result, the social engineer is able to take advantage of people to obtain information with or without the use of technology.

Contents
Foreword Preface Introduction Part 1 Behind the Scenes Chapter 1 Security's Weakest Link Part2 The Art of the Attacker Chapter 2 When Innocuous Information Isn't Chapter 3 The Direct Attack: Just Asking for it Chapter 4 Building Trust Chapter 5 "Let Me Help You" Chapter 6 "Can You Help Me?" Chapter 7 Phony Sites and Dangerous Attachments Chapter 8 Using Sympathy, Guilt and Intimidation Chapter 9 The Reverse Sting Part 3 Intruder Alert Chapter 10 Entering the Premises Chapter 11 CombiningTechnology and Social Engineering Chapter 12 Attacks on the Entry-Level Employee Chapter 13 Clever Cons Chapter 14 Industrial Espionage Part 4 Raising the Bar Chapter 15 Information Security Awareness and Training Chapter 16 Recommended Corporate Information Security Policies Security at a Glance Sources Acknowledgments

Foreword
We humans are born with an inner drive to explore the nature ofour surroundings. As young men, both Kevin Mitnick and I were intensely curious about the world and eager to prove ourselves. We were rewarded often in our attempts to learn new things, solve puzzles, and win at games. But at the same time, the world around us taught us rules of behavior that constrained our inner urge toward free exploration. For our boldest scientists and technologicalentrepreneurs, as well as for people like Kevin Mitnick, following this inner urge offers the greatest thrills, letting us accomplish things that others believe cannot be done. Kevin Mitnick is one of the finest people I know. Ask him, and he will say forthrightly that what he used to do - social engineering – involes conning people. But Kevin is no longer a social engineer. And even when he was, hismotive never was to enrich himself or damage others. That's not to say that there aren't dangerous and destructive criminals out there who use social engineering to cause real harm. In fact, that's exactly why Kevin wrote this book - to warn you about them. The Art of Deception shows how vulnerable we all are - government, business, and each of us personally - to the intrusions of the social engineer.In this security-conscious era, we spend huge sums on technology to protect our computer networks and data. This book points out how easy it is to trick insiders and circumvent all this technological protection. Whether you work in business or government, this book provides a powerful road map to help you understand how social engineers work and what you can do to foil them. Using fictionalizedstories that are both entertaining and eye-opening, Kevin and co-author Bill Simon bring to life the techniques of the social engineering underworld. After each story, they offer practical guidelines to help you guard against the breaches and threats they're described. Technological security leaves major gaps that people like Kevin can help us close. Read this book and you may finally realize thatwe all need to turn to the Mitnick's among us for guidance. Steve Wozniak

Preface
Some hackers destroy people's files or entire hard drives; they're called crackers or vandals. Some novice hackers don't bother learning the technology, but simply download hacker tools to break into computer systems; they're called script kiddies. More experienced hackers with programming skills develop hacker...