My new book, Betting Blind, is about a women, a female Don Juan, who preys on the lonely using computer dating sites. I’ve been researching how unsuspecting people can lose their shirts to the unscrupulous. With very little information my Donna Juan can reach into her victims’ bank accounts, their mail, their entire e-presence.
Over dinner last weekend a friend of ours told us that computer firewalls had become obsolete. Why? It’s far more likely that our computers will be hacked through social engineering. Social engineering, as defined by Wikipedia, is the art of manipulating people into performing actions or divulging confidential information… it is typically trickery or deception for the purpose of information gathering, fraud, or computer system access.
What I find fascinating about this whole field of criminal behavior is how it’s accomplished by trickery and not by blunt force. I’m starting to get my own ideas…
I found some great examples of social engineering here: “Social Engineering: The Basics”.