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Welcome to the module devoted to social engineering and fake programs in this part we will analyze a

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very interesting example of a massive scale social engineering attack which was actually conducted a

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few years ago.

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The attack used programs which seemed to do something other than they actually did.

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Let's start by defining the term social engineering.

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It describes a body of methods used to convince a person to do something they normally wouldn't do.

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This is an attack aimed at the mass user most technological solutions don't provide protection against

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social engineering attacks because they are targeted at users and not machines.

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Whether the system is up did it or not doesn't matter here.

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The end of the attack is to convince the user to reveal their password or to start a malicious program.

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The program will work within the user's privileges.

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And it will start processes and services.

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No matter if the system is updated or not.

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Why do we fall for social engineering attacks.

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Please have a look at the picture you see in the slide.

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What can you say about the person you see well he's definitely fit.

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But as is his judgment of risk sound.

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Can you properly assess the risk in an extreme situation.

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Probably not in these situations we're not able to properly assess the risk.

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This doesn't apply to operating systems only

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if a person tries to wrangle some money out of an elderly lady by pretending to be her long lost grandson.

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This is also a social engineering attack of sorts.

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We fall prey to such attacks because we underestimate the risk connected with well-known situations

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such as those that happen at home or at work.

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Because we feel safe in that kind of environment.

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We also feel safe about everything that is part of that environment even if it's new and a typical

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people have a tendency to react conventionally even to unconventional situations.

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If we don't know what to do we either ignore the threat or try to eliminate it at the lowest cost possible.

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For example by giving in to the attacker so that he stopped nagging

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we trust computer systems and computer applications too much.

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If we recognize our superiors name in the email header We very rarely question the e-mails authenticity.

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We have to be aware however the emails are sent by programs not people.

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Whether or not a social engineering attack is successful depends largely on how much information about

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the target the attacker manages to obtain.

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Many people have changed their attitude towards security recently obtaining that information is no longer

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a problem.

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It can be done at low cost remotely and almost fully automatically.

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That's why social engineering attacks are getting more and more widespread.

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We'll have a chance to try out one of the methods for the attack in the practical part of this module

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and social engineer dotcom will be able to track the operation from the perspective of the attacker

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social engineering attacks are so effective for one more reason.

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They are cheaper and easier to conduct than attacks targeted at operating systems

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from the attackers perspective.

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It's more efficient to attack users as the weakest point of the security.