Delve into social engineering
The Twitter accounts of Elon Musk, former President Obama, and President Biden were hacked in 2020 to push sales of cryptocurrency. Based on the book entitled “Social engineering: The Art of Human Hacking,” these incidents are real-life examples of human beings being the weakest point of security infrastructure. No one, not even tech titans or celebrities, is immune to social engineering attacks.
What is social engineering? What has it done? How do we protect ourselves and businesses from the attack? “Social engineering: The Art of Human Hacking” can answer the fundamentals. As the title suggests, this book focuses on human beings as the weakest point that can be easily exploited. This book is an eye-opener that this method is used every day, even without us knowing, not only by con artists, and hackers, but also by sales representatives, employers, teachers, and even children.
Unlike other books that cover the same subject, this book provides the world’s first framework for social engineering. This framework describes the skills and tools needed to become an excellent social engineer. This 363-page book also analyzes and dissects the characteristics of successful social engineering, including tips on how to use these skills to assist readers in practicing this method that can be useful in all aspects of life.
This book is arranged into nine sections that are well-written structurally. It starts by introducing the concept of social engineering. Then comes the describing, developing, dissecting, and demonstrating the application using real cases. From the sections, readers can learn, just to name a few, how to build pretext, master elicitation, read microexpressions, tactics in interrogation, framing, etc. Chris Hadnagy’s writing style, which flows conversationally, and the way he presents stories of real-life situations keep one reading and help them understand.
Based on his LinkedIn account, Chris Hadnagy is the President and CEO of Social-Engineer, Inc. He has spent the last 16 years in security and technology, specializing in understanding the ways in which malicious attackers are able to exploit human weaknesses to obtain access to information and resources through manipulation and deceit. He is a graduate of Dr. Paul Ekman’s courses in Microexpressions, having passed the certification requirements with an “Expert Level” grade.
Besides providing ways how to execute successful social engineering, this book also provides ways to prevent and mitigate. This section covers, among others, Learning to identify the attacks, Creating a personal security awareness culture, and Keeping software updated.
Overall, this book is the best source for us to learn how to become less vulnerable. It is recommended not only for those who work in cyber security fields, but also for the general public who wants to learn more about social engineering and protect themselves and their businesses from rampant social engineering attacks.
Putri
