We had talked about this briefly on the
podcast the other night, but I wanted to go into it further. it's one of those subjects that sticks with me...read into that how you want.
First off, to those of you who are reading this that don't know what social engineering is, here is the popular and generally accepted definition from
wikipedia:
Social engineering is the act of manipulating people into performing actions or divulging confidential information, rather than by breaking in or using technical cracking techniques; essentially a fancier, more technical way of lying.[1] While similar to a confidence trick or simple fraud, the term typically applies to trickery or deception for the purpose of information gathering, fraud, or computer system access; in most cases the attacker never comes face-to-face with the victim.
The most basic form of Social Engineering can be viewed as the "breaking the ice" between a man and a woman. Man engages woman and through various discerned observations attempts to discern some information to further the encounter.
Note: If you`re new to the social engineering game, learn to start random conversations with men and women, regardless of how awkward the situation. Once you find you can enter into conversations with ease as well as exit from them with some useful information gleaned, you're on your way. By useful information I do not mean how the current weather is =)
Women are typically better at the social engineering game than men, though some will likely disagree with me on this. That's fine though, disagree and prove me wrong. No guy that I know of can engage an executive in a short skirt, with some stiletto heels and a low cut top at a bar better than a woman. Male social engineers will typically target, if there is a choice, females. Unless the "attacker" is significantly tuned into the social engineering game, males attempting to extract information from other guys is slightly more difficult. Sex sells, so does alcohol...put the two together and it's game over..why do you think strip clubs, pornography and alcohol are still around....
Yea, this should be addressed in training. Though I've found that discussion of sex and alcohol walk a thin line with some entities. Because you know. God forbid the truth be told and we discuss such "taboo" subjects...seriously, get off the damn high horse...
The most common method social engineers will use, is the telephone. This has as of late been coined Vhishing. For the record, I hate the mass media for diluting the common definition and trying to create new coined phrases to address one portion of the social engineering attacks. Doing so only confuses the issue, so to the guy who made the phrase Vhishing..I hope you get a gaping paper cut and someone dumps lemon juice on it. Anyhow, when creating the social engineering defense training program this must be included in it. It must also be included in the organizational operations procedures along with the required methodology for reporting suspicious phone calls. One thing I recommend in my training on social engineering defenses is should any employee on the phone feel a call has become questionable, engage the internal security team. Let them deal with the phone call and have the employee remain on the line in silent mode, acting as on the job training. These types of encounters should also be included in the internal security training.
Training is where it begins, the training has to be realistic though. Chris Nickerson probably gave one of the best realistic training scenario's when he stood on stage and morphed himself though numerous different personalities without any interruption between each transition. Bearing in mind of course that Chris is an exception to the rule and most social engineers are not at that level of manipulation..yet anyhow.
So what is the point of this you're likely asking yourself at this point. We're establishing the framework for the defense. The defense will typically develop itself in some type of training, whether it be formal or informal. In my experience, executives have been the least receptive to this training. Why, because they feel that they are not able to be manipulated due to their intellectual superiority. If you're an executive and you are reading this and you fall into that category; sorry, you are not superior you are just plain stupid. The most receptive to training have been the line level tech support and engineer type personnel. They are also aware they are typically the individuals being targeted.
The telephone was given much press recently with the DEFCON Social Engineering Contest. This was both a success and a failure. The contest itself was a success as it gave further proof that social engineering as an attack vector is still possible, I know..as if this needed proof right..I`m being gentle. The failure however, was not with DEFCON or the contest, but within the Public and Private Sectors in response to this. In speaking with several people about this, there were a flurry of internal communications just before the contest went off. In general, this is what social engineering is, they use a phone..don't release any information. For real...this is not training people. The other failure was there was, at least to my knowledge, no follow-up training. It was more of a yea, it came..it went..status quo..
FAILURE
Email and IM are other popular methods, email taking the most frequent over IM though. Everyone is aware of it, and amazingly many people are still happy to click on that link or open that email attachment. Again, include the attack vector in your training. There is nothing more annoying than that HR executive click on a link to learn to "optimize" his staff, load the java applet which pushes the reverse shell to some system in china. No names here of course...you know who you are...
Face-to-face encounters, in there numerous forms, are by far the most effective next to the phone calls. We are human, we like to interact, we like to be helpful. Hell, I`ll admit it, I got engineering by two guys last week sitting in a room talking techie..of course it wasn't till after we finished the conversation that I said to myself..shit..I got punk'd. Technical security people are few and far between, we love interfacing with others in the field. Don't fall prey, the training should reflect as such. Never release any interesting information, duh..even me. I admit my flaws..can you =) Good social engineers will flourish in the face to face encounters, smooth talking, well versed in various operational functions from accounting executive to janitor..switch your personality on the drop of a dime. In the end, if the identity of the individual cannot be verified, remove them from the facility. You training and procedures should dictate as such. This is also a requirement under several regulations such as PCI
[?].
General conversation is a relatively easy route, especially when targets are more than happy to speak about sensitive information with their colleagues on the phone or on the Metro/Subway. Loose lips sink ships people..seriously close them. Shoulder surfing falls into this as well. If you're reading, writing discussing it in public you're jeopardizing the security of the information. Address it in the training, enforce and reprimand on violations. Social Networking I like to dump in here as well, don't type it if it doesn't belong there. Training to address the insecurities of social networking sites, their lack of security and privacy as well as the vast methods to obtain the information on these sites....train train train..oh, policies covering it and enforcement of those policies.
Piggy-backing is still very popular, even in highly secure locations I've used this very recently. The smoker, the lost-soul, the I lost my card..all must be addressed. The training and policy must reflect the importance. Employee's must learn to confront those who do not appear as an identifiable badged employee, must confront those with no ID, require internal security to be contacted to verify those who fall into the suspicious. Those employee's allowing others to piggy-back must be reprimanded, even terminated. Again, policy is only as good as the enforcement. If your training and policy state one thing, the enforcement must follow or the policy and training are useless.
Dig through the crap, yes I mean that literally. I have on some occasions, prior to giving a training session, went through dumpsters a day or two before the session was to begin and bring with me any interesting information I found. Of course the interesting information ranged from credit card numbers of customers to ACH transaction receipt with the full account numbers tossed right into dumpsters. On other occasions full medical records of patients who have switched doctors. If you were one of those customers by the way..I love you for making my job easy and I hate you for not following your own policies on the proper disposal of information..but I mean that in the most endearing way =) Also, interesting information can include other tidbits like business cards of vendors..
This was not meant to rehash the overabundance of articles detailing common tactics. This is meant as items you need to address, and that I address, in the internal training programs.
Social Engineering Training
-What is Social Engineering
-How does it occur
--Phone
--Email/IM
--Face-to-face
-Internal Security Team Intro and Points of Contact
-Procedure on reporting Social Engineering Incidents to the Internal Security Team
If your internal policies and procedures do not address Social Engineering in its various states, or you do not have internal policies, now would be a good time to start on that project. If you lack the internal policies and are looking for templates,
SANS has a template repository online..check it out.
The policies must address what Social Engineering is from a high level as well as the penalties for not complying with the possible. The defined penalties must be both accepted by executive management and enforceable.
The procedures must be explicit in this is what you need to do if you feel you are the target of a social engineering attack. The procedure must of course reference the policy to note the potential repercussions if the employee does not abide as well the potential impact to the organization for non-compliance.
Policies and Procedures are only as good as they can be enforced..and they must be enforced or they are useless. The training must be as realistic as possible and note the importance for compliance with the policies and procedures. Any deviation will result in a failure of a portion or the entirety of the program.
