Social engineering: the "Dark Art"

ABSTRACT

The key to maintaining the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of an organizations information and information systems is controlling who accesses what information. This is accomplished by being able to identify the requestor, verifying the requestor is not an impostor, and ensuring that the requestor has the proper level of clearance to access a given resource. There have always been those that attempt to by-pass this security mechanism through brute force or guile. In the past, those who use guile have been called confidence men and con artists. Today, these people are called social engineers, but the tactics remain the same even if the objectives have changed.

REFERENCES

• 1: Kevin D. Mitnick , William L. Simon , William Simon, The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, NY, 2002
• 2: Kevin D. Mitnick , William L. Simon , William Simon, The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, NY, 2002
• 3: Erianger, L. (2004) The weakest link. PC Magazine, 23, 58--59. Retrieved June 13, 2004 from EBSCOhost database.
• 4: Granger, S. (2001, December 18) Social engineering fundamentals, part I: Hacker tactics. Retrieved June 15, 2004 from <u>http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1527</u>
• 5: Manske, K. (November 2000) An introduction to social engineering. Information Systems Security 9, 53--59. Retrieved June 7, 2004 from GALILEO: Computer Source database.
• 6: Rusch, J. (1999, June 24) The "social engineering" of Internet fraud. Paper presented at the 1999 Internet Society's INET'99 conference. Retrieved June 6, 2004 from <u>http://www.isoc.org/isoc/conferences/inet/99/proceedings/3g/3g_2.htm</u>
• 7: Rusch, J. (1999, June 24) The "social engineering" of Internet fraud. Paper presented at the 1999 Internet Society's INET'99 conference. Retrieved June 6, 2004 from <u>http://www.isoc.org/isoc/conferences/inet/99/proceedings/3g/3g_2.htm</u>
• 8: Kevin D. Mitnick , William L. Simon , William Simon, The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, NY, 2002
• 9: Manske, K. (November 2000) An introduction to social engineering. Information Systems Security 9, 53--59. Retrieved June 7, 2004 from GALILEO: Computer Source database.
• 10: Kevin D. Mitnick , William L. Simon , William Simon, The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, NY, 2002
• 11: Michael E. Whitman , Herbert J. Mattord, Management of Information Security, Course Technology Press, 2004

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.0 General
          Subjects: Security and protection (e.g., firewalls)

Additional Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.4 COMPUTERS AND SOCIETY
      K.4.1 Public Policy Issues
      K.4.2 Social Issues
      K.4.4 Electronic Commerce
          Subjects: Security
  K.6 MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
      K.6.5 Security and Protection (D.4.6, K.4.2)

Keywords:
information assurance, information security, social engineering