Chris Hadnagy’s new book Social Engineering: The Science of Human Hacking is a great read for anyone interested in the subject of social engineering. Kevin is an author, speaker, and consultant.

The hacker’s most reliable techniques can be used to strengthen the defense.

The human element is the weakest link in the fortress of defense. Both good and bad hackers use a specific set of tricks to gain access to sensitive information, using human hacking techniques to convince people to hand over passwords, wire large sums of money, and willingly commit other acts that are not in their own best interests. The science of human hacking is called social engineering. The human hacker’s skill set helps security professionals identify and fix their own system’s weaknesses. Beginning with an in-depth exploration of communication modeling, tribe mentality, observational skills, manipulation, and other basics, the discussion moves on to actionable guidance for identifying, fighting, and preventing such attacks in your own organization.

Christopher Hadnagy’s updated second edition provides fresh insight into the latest social engineering trends and enduring classics, as well as his own real-world experiences. This book dives into how humans can be influenced to make compromising decisions, including how to guidance on elicitation, pretexting, information gathering, tail-gating, shoulder surfing, and much more.

In the 70’s, I used social engineering to obtain free bus rides as an adolescent, intercepting NSA phone calls in high school, and finally compromising any system of interest as a young adult. The pursuit of knowledge, challenge, and the seduction of adventure was my motivation.

I still think social engineering is the best way to conduct penetration testing. I’m not alone. Nation states, criminal hackers, and hacktivists use the same tactics to disrupt businesses to steal money and/or proprietary information, and in some cases even change the course of a country’s election. It’s not like it’s like it’s like it’s like it’s like it’s like it’s like it’s like it’s like it’s like it’s like it’s like it’s like it’s like it Kevin Mitnick is a person. The text refers to the paperback edition.

His name is Christopher Hoofy. He is the CEO and Chief Human Hacker of Social-Engineer, as well as the lead developer and creator of the world’s first social engineering framework found at social-engineer.org. He is the founder and creator of the Social Engineering Village, as well as the creator of the popular Social Engineering Capture the Flag. He is a sought-after speaker and trainer. He can be found on the internet.