*SWAT MAGAZINE ISSUE NINE: SEPTEMBER 1998* ********************************************************************** | .The Dark Art of Deception. | | By Brakis & -=The Firestarter=- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This month I am going to discuss one of the most useful skills any phreak can learn. The way of getting access codes without spending half your life trying thousands of passwords or loading up some duff war dial program that does your computer more harm than good. The only way to do this is to become good at Social Engineering. Many of my colleagues ad DARKCYDE believe Social Engineering to be a last resort after trying thoudand of codes or whatever. I think thats crap, I have Social Engineered conference passwords in five minutes compared with more "elite" phreaks who can spend a couple of years at a time on a single system. The way to become a good social engineer is practise,practise and oh yeah practise. I found I had a certain gift for this kind of Phreaking when I was doing krank calls as a child. Alot of it is just about confidence and being able to strike up a coversation with whoever comes in your way. If you have a verstile voice this also helps I can do everything from a disgruntled Irishman to a frustrated new york yuppie. Try to develope a style and use names that are believable. To me doing hard work is a last resort I wont ever try to manually "crack a system untill I have exhausted every social engineering route". But unfortunately many Phreaks and Hackers are (I am sorry for being so Brutaly ohnest) nerds,geeks etc ok alot of these people are the most dangerous men on the planet but they dont get out alot and as a result they are about as social as a stone on its first date with a rock. So if you want to become a good social engineer then get out and meet people talk, Although if you are a total recluse and dont want ot leave your home trying doing some really complex crank calls : see what you can insure try random dialling on 0800 89 XXXX and have a chat with who ever picks up its all about confidence. Another thing to practise is coming up with storeys try becoming a good bullshitter (Read my previous on deception for this) Any way if you budding Social Engineers have a problem or are interested in learning more about this technique then E-Mail me at BARAKIS@HOTMAIL.COM And believe me I am the best person in the business as far as Social Ecgineering goes (ask anyone at Darkcyde) That's how Brakis social engineer's, he decieves people and twists there words back on them in order to gain the information that he requires, it works too. I social engineer in a different way, I use psycology. Instead of tricking them into giving away information, I will usualy use a compleatly different approch. Try to play with there emotions, make them feel guilty. If you can get them onto the subject of "being in my position", try to get worked up when it comes to hostile cases but don't get carried away, if you feel that your going to lose the particular case move onto another target with the line "Let me speak to your supervisor!", this will not only give you another go but it makes your claim seem more genuine, I mean as long as you can remain calm but appear to be stressed on the phone there is no reason why you should lose. If they hang up on you then just phone back. I've trained like Brakis, doing crank calls. Where as he tries to insure his penis shapped car I will tend to find ways of winding people up, get on there nerves, making them feel happy or sad. Of course every person is different, each person has a unique personality, so I tend to build up to it, giving me time to assess the person in question. You can always tell by there voice, is it cheerful and chirpy it which case don't act all stressed as soon as they pick up the phone, build up to it, create a kind of freindship with the person, make it seem like your tring to be nice to them but your aggitated, remember as far as you know they could have an unstable personality and explode on you at any moment. DO NOT piss them off, make them feel guilty, make them think your jobs on the line. If on the other hand you get some grumpty old git then be prepared to call for the supervisor ASAP as these types of people won't get you very far, but try never the less. I'll have to say it though women are easier to social engineer stuff out of. Not wanting to appear sexist or anything but women are piss easy to get info from, where as women can social engineer stuff out of men just as easy, so I guess it goes both ways. Experiment and see which technique works best for you, well all do things differntly.