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.
Interpretation
Social engineering manipulates individuals to divulge confidential information or perform actions that benefit an attacker.
The quote by Kevin Mitnick highlights the darker side of human interaction, where social engineering exploits trust and psychological tactics to manipulate individuals into revealing sensitive information or taking actions that could compromise their organization. It underscores the importance of awareness and caution in cybersecurity, as individuals are often the weakest link in protecting sensitive data.
In practice
This quote can be referenced during a cybersecurity training session to illustrate the risks of social engineering.
Protecting yourself is very challenging in the hostile environment of the Internet. Imagine a global environment where an unscrupulous person from the other side of the planet can probe your computer for weaknesses and exploit them to gain access to your most sensitive secrets.
Social engineering bypasses all technologies, including firewalls.
Most people assume that once security software is installed, they're protected. This isn't the case. It's critical that companies be proactive in thinking about security on a long-term basis.
I get hired by companies to hack into their systems and break into their physical facilities to find security holes. Our success rate is 100%; we've always found a hole.
I'm still a hacker. I get paid for it now. I never received any monetary gain from the hacking I did before. The main difference in what I do now compared to what I did then is that I now do it with authorization.
Hackers are becoming more sophisticated in conjuring up new ways to hijack your system by exploiting technical vulnerabilities or human nature. Don't become the next victim of unscrupulous cyberspace intruders.
The Internet in the 21st Century is as important to our future as highways were in the 20th Century. Like a highway, the Internet must remain free and open for all - not determined by the highest bidders.
An algorithm must be seen to be believed.
What's very important from my point of view is that there is one web … Anyone that tries to chop it into two will find that their piece looks very boring.
Merging the ability to conduct surveillance that reveals every aspect of a person's life with the ability to conjure up the legal authority to execute that surveillance, and finally, removing any accountable judicial oversight, creates the opportunity for unprecedented influence over our system of government.
The NSA has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything. With this capability, the vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting. If I wanted to see your emails or your wife's phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your emails, passwords, phone records, credit cards.
In digital era, privacy must be a priority. Is it just me, or is secret blanket surveillance obscenely outrageous?
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