The Power of Social Engineers in The Art Of Deception by Mitnick

This article has this dystopian feeling, that we are fully controlled by social median and we can do nothing about it. Author of this article presents social media as “big brother” from George Orwell’s 1984 who always watch us. I agree with the fact that internet knows too much about us, and our privacy is being violated. Nevertheless Mark Andrejevic took it too far saying that there are man behind curtains who are doing it for “certain purpose” . I understand that addiction to social media is quite concerning, but when he stars telling his theories about people or organizations in charge of the whole internet, article which was beginning to sound like a decent article , suddenly

“The task is simple to explain but harder to achieve. If we do not incorporate adequate security measures in our computer and communications infrastructure, we risk being overwhelmed by external enemies. If we put an externally focused view of security ahead of all other concerns, we risk being overwhelmed by their misuse. We must find a set of rules and a mechanism for overseeing those rules that allows society to defend itself from its genuine enemies while keeping communication surveillance from stifling dissent, enforcing morality and invading privacy. If we do not, the right to use privacy –enhancing technology that was won in the 1990s will be lost again.”

The article called, The End of Privacy by Adam L. Penenberg, demonstrates the easy access an intruder can have to someone’s private information in today’s digital world with just a few taps on the keyboard, and a phone. Making your private information unprotected and defenseless. Penenberg also describes transition from mainframe computers to desktop PCs making private information vulnerable. He also reveals that marketers and busybodies have more customer data than ever. He also illustrates the advances of search methods that cyber criminals have up their sleeve, how the misrepresent themselves in order to puncture through the credit bureaus, and the Federal reserve database, spilling out all of your financial information, social security,

Over the course of the past few decades, technology has been on a fast track to more advanced opportunities for communication. These developments have increased efficiency in society, however, it is evident that the basic values, such as privacy of personal information, are compromised significantly. Privacy is an essential element of a free society and without which, individuals would lose the ability to interact with one another in private. With the advancements of technology there is a clash between an individuals right to guard their personal information and the power of the cyber world to penetrate that information. Innovative technologies such as various forms of social media and surveillance are invading the freedom to said privacy.

Daniel Solove, a professor who specializes in internet privacy law, wrote this book to give his personal take on how the internet was transforming the way people connect through social mediums and how that could change in the future. An important thing to note about this book is that it was published in 2007, so some of the social and technological aspects of the book are slightly dated. Regardless of this though, this book provides an inquisitive perspective on the dynamic nature of the internet as a vessel of our society’s changing norms on privacy in the social sphere. Many of our learning points in class relate to topics discussed in this book and help to strengthen the context and significance of the underlying message.

The goal is to inform the public of the facts about hackers and the influences from pop culture and mainstream media that have changed society’s perception of hackers over time. I will also discuss statistical data about society’s fear of hackers and how it has changed the perception of hackers. If I can convince the readers that hackers are responsible for many of the technological innovations over the last 50 years, it will help me argue my point and hopefully persuade people to reconsider their opinions of hackers. The ultimate goal is to persuade people to redefine their definition of hackers and hope that society will use the correct classifications when reporting about them or describing their character in pop culture, but I would be satisfied if I could just create a platform for the next step on the road to change. One thing that absolutely amazed me was the amount of new information that is created and distributed every year. I learned that it is important to make sure that the message is strong and loud so it will not be lost amongst all the other information. An argument must be clear and maintain focus so that the audience will not become disinterested or

The complex relationship between technology and the social sphere of human privacy becomes a major concern in modern society. Privacy is an imprescriptible right, and enjoyable. Even between family members, they all can have some secrets, which helps to build personality and makes them to be more like themselves. Instead, if everything about a person has exposed to public, and the personality might change with public opinion. Peter Singer discusses in his essay “Visible Man: Ethics in a world without secrets” that social networking makes the living circumstance becomes a Panopticon, which is no privacy in daily life and this surveillance technology helps government stifling dissent for a more secure country.

According to Mitnick, social engineering in information security simply means the psychological manipulation of people so as to divulge confidential information. It involves some kind of confidence trick with the aim of gathering information, committing fraud or getting access to the system . This is very different for the traditional conning but is one of the processes that the social engineering process that is more complex.

Just in the last decade, there has been a 29% increase in crimes committed against residents and a 22% increase for business losses due to online crimes (Meyer). Another large issue with technology is that they monitor an individualś every move, for example, a phone company, AT&T, was monitoring their customers phones to be able to “use your individual Web browsing information, like the search terms you enter and the Web pages you visit, to tailor ads and offers to your interests” (Silverman 282). Although the increase in such crimes can potentially cause many issues and obstacles for an individual, they do not physically harm anyone. Such crimes as internet fraud and any other crime that can be committed online, are all fixable and can be prevented. There are security systems that can help protect against frauds and prevent any more from occurring, which makes this issue much less crucial to stop. It is also possible to contact police and bankers to stop this from occurring and they can help you regain all of your losses. The government also has the NSA, the National Security Agency, to monitor all internet movements, which helps stop many of these issues. New technology has helped prevent an immense amount of street crimes, that without the internet, would have only continued to rise, while millions of people would have continued to be murdered.

Over the last few years the amount of security breaches that have been reported have had one factor that has been prevalent in majority of the attacks. That factor is the employee’s and how they are manipulated into giving the intruder/hacker exactly what they needed without realizing it. The use of social engineering in data breaches and fraud has been steadily increasing over the years. Confidentiality, integrity, and availability the three components of the CIA triad in network security can all be compromised by the risk of social engineering.

I agree with Dr. Thomas Plante on social engineering which is an effective way of changing people's behavior (Plante, 2012). I believe social engineering could be a useful tool to achieve public good. For example, banning public smoking has resulted in better cleaner air for all and reducing high risk to lung cancer and many other chronic diseases. We can not control each individual to avoid smoking. However, by making laws that restricted smokers in the use of public space, we can improve overall social conditions.

Social engineering can occur anytime of the day and hour. Not all hackers prepare for a time they plan to take someone information. Hackers is constantly changing the way they hack into thins and it is very hard to keep up with the changes. In conclusion we should be aware of our surrounding and make certain that we are aware when we put our personal

Social engineering is a way of manipulating people so that they can provide their personal information to the cyber criminals. These criminals try to trick the individuals to try to get their passwords and bank information or gain access over to that individual’s computer. Criminals think that it is easier to fool someone to give them their password then try to hack their password. Basically they target those people who don’t have any idea that their information can be misused by these criminals so they just give all of their information. These criminals gain trust of those people before they get those people’s information for their own benefit. Social engineering is one of the biggest problem that people should be more aware of so they can

Information gathering, through networking, social media, and both on and offline storage have made it easier to collect information about an individual than ever before, with many concerns having arisen over the years about privacy and the ability to protect that privacy. As debates over personally identifiable information continue, one cornerstone remains a constant, ethics. Ethics are defined as “the standard by which human actions can be judged right and wrong (Online, 2012)”, but even that can be debated when discussed within the realm of information technology. Have you ever been to an internet shopping site and “trusted” the secure connection? Essentially, you are entrusting an inanimate system developed by an individual or group

Attacks on critical infrastructures do not always target the vulnerabilities in the systems themselves. One of the weakest links in security is the human factor. Social engineering targets this, and it has worked very effectively for them. According to Raj Samani and Charles McFarland, social engineering is “the deliberate application of deceitful techniques designed to manipulate someone into divulging information or performing actions that may result in the release of that information” (Samani and McFarland 6). Social engineering attacks are divided into two categories: hunting and farming. In hunting, the attacker wants to extract information from the target with little interaction. An example would be a phishing