We all know that computers and networks are vulnerable to hacking and malicious actors, but what about us, the humans who interface with these devices? Con games, scams, and strategic deception are far older than computers, and in the modern era, these techniques can make humans the weakest link in even the most secure system. This episode, security consultant and master social engineer, Christopher Hadnagy, joins us to share his stories and wisdom. He describes what it was like to be a social engineer before the world knew what social engineering was and tells some of his amazing stories from his long career in penetration testing.

A big thanks to Christopher Hadnagy from social-engineer.org for sharing his stories with us.

Check out his book Social Engineering: The Science of Human Hacking, affiliate link here.

Check out his podcast called The Social-Engineer podcast.

Sponsors

This episode was sponsored by Thinkst Canary. Their canaries attract malicious actors in your network and then send you an alert if someone tries to access them. Great early warning system for knowing when someone is snooping around where they shouldn’t be. Check them out at https://canary.tools.

Support for this episode comes from LastPass. LastPass is a great password manager but it can do so much more. It can setup 2FA for your company, or use it to monitor what your users are doing in the network. Visit LastPass.com/Darknet to start your 14 day free trial.

Sources

• https://www.social-engineer.org/
• How phishing scammers manipulate your amygdala and oxytocin TEDxFultonStreet
• DEF CON 22 - Chris Hadnagy - What Your Body Tells Me - Body Language for the SE
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_C._Parker

Book Recommendations with affiliate links:

• Social Engineering
• Influence
• What Every Body is Saying
• Emotions Revealed
• Presence
• It’s Not About “Me”, Top 10 Techniques for Building Rapport