Introduction to the Social Engineering Sample Clauses

Introduction to the Social Engineering. The aim of this document is to present the evolution of modern social engineering and to discuss its relationship with modern cybercrime and cyberterrorism trends. The best way to open such document is to report a classic definition of Social Engineering (SE onward in the document), to better underline the difference between what is commonly perceived as SE and what is the current state of this “art”. There are many different definitions of SE, but the following is interesting because it is classic and belongs to the so-called old-school SE and at the same time it is also generic enough to contain hints on what is nowadays SE 2.0. Social Engineering (SE), in the context of information security, refers to psychological manipulation of people into performing actions or divulging confidential information. A type of confidence trick for the purpose of information gathering, fraud, or system access, it differs from a traditional "con" in that it is often one of many steps in a more complex fraud scheme. The term "social engineering" as an act of psychological manipulation is also associated with the social sciences, but its usage has caught on among computer and information security professionals1. Traditionally, the world of Systems Security mostly focuses on technological threats coming from the compromised technological systems. Nonetheless, an information system is not composed merely by a technological factor, but also by the “human” factor. When dealing with Information Security the “human” factor refers to the often forgotten user who plays an important role in a cyberattack. Traditionally Information Security considers the “human” Old school SE requires very talented hackers and often directly involve attackers. Old school SE is an early adaptation of the ageless art of deception to the modern communication media (mainly phone and mail beside classic presence). factor a potential threat only in those systems requiring «SECURITY-IN-DEPTH» [1] because for these situations all possible threats, also less common ones, are evaluated up to the innermost levels. The following2. The main characteristic of this type of SE attacks was the high level of ability required by the attacker (very few talented hackers in those years) and the direct involvement in all the phases of an attack. The old-school SE is an adaptation of the ageless art of deception to the modern communication media (mainly phone and early use of email, beside classic presence) allowing these fe...