Social Engineering: We all practice this

The last thread I found dealing with this is over a year old now. Hope this is in the right forum.

I've been getting interested in the practice of social engineering for about a year now, and I finally found an article that does the topic justice.

www.hg.org...

It's about 3 years old now, but it's still very timely and relevant IMO. What I found the most interesting was that the author stated that social engineering was first used by men to simply get what they wanted from women. Personal use only. But it has since evolved from that to a psychological weapon of war, gaining the most prominance during the cold war, to scamming people over the phone and internet simply to get money out of them.

I personally think social engineering can have a very positive effect on society if used for the right reasons. Unfortunately, the very nature of this practice and the fact that human beings use it does not lend itself to positive practices or outcomes. The best way I can describe this is to say say that it is mainly used to get money from people anymore. Phishing is the most popular method, and phishing is just another form of social engineering.

To those who don't know, social enginnering, at its core, is simply the art of using words when you talk or write to someone to get what you want from them. Whether it's information, or a response that will help lead the conversation in the direction that you want it to. I personally think that if we had more people in positions of power, from people who manage stores and businesses, to mayors, to the President, who have a good heart and who sincerely want to accomplish positive things, this world would start to turn in the right direction again.

As it stands though, the majority of people in positions of power have one thing on their mind; money. If there's one exception to this rule that I have seen in my lifetime though, it's that the ones who have authority who do not have money on the top of their priority list...are women. I think that may be due simply to their nature. For thousands of years, women were never the breadwinners. They have always had a different set of priotities. The social tables though have been turning for about 100 years years now, but I don't think that's enough to override a womans basic instinct to take care of people. A woman can be born and bred into a position of authority in the business world, but she will always have that basic instinct to care for and nurture other people.

This is a very unique position that a man will never find himself in, and it's something that I have a hard time finding people talking about. If the subject of women in the workplace is ever brought up in the news, it's always health related or how it effects a family's home life. Never have I seen a news article or program tha focuses on the unique social engineering aspect of women in charge of businesses. Or even countries for that matter. I think if this angle of social engineering is explored more, we might see some positive changes in the workplace.

But just because women may have have a unique place in the social engineering aspect of work, doesn't mean that we men can't learn a thing or two as well. I've been on too many jobs where the lack of communication between boss/worker and the varying levels of management is astounding. Sometimes I wonder if more businesses should incoporate a social engineering class into their management training programs. I personally think that would be a good thing to do, because I've noticed that on a daily basis, we all use social engineering in one form or another. We just don't realize it. I believe that's what they call "untapped power".

The need for money is always going to be in our society. There's no changing that. More people can use social engineering as a tool to help get money, but we don't have to do it at the expense of others. Some people may try to argue that this practice only works when you have a much more intelligent person doing the engineering over a less intelligent person. That may be true, that may be why it works in the first place, but the mindset of the intelligent person has to change from "I'm better than them" to "I was born into a different set of circumastances then them". When this happens, there is no more of the attitude of one person being better than the other. Just different. It puts people on a more emotionally level playing field, which in turn gets more things accomplished. We will always have different social classes. That cannot be avoided IMO. But the "Us and Them" mentality has to go.

This post got to be a bit more long winded then I planned. If you agree or disagree with any of the points I made, let yourself be heard. The main point I was trying to make is that we can help improve our personal and business lives if we tap into and learn more about how we can use social engineering to our benefit.




youtu.be...

reply to post by Taupin Desciple


Social engineering is about manipulating groups and populations, but this guy repeatedly says it's about intelligence gathering, then concludes:

....today these very techniques are being used not only by intelligence agencies and police forces worldwide, but by marketing agencies, fraudsters, scammers, and hackers; why? Because it’s low cost, highly effective and relatively easy to understand and practice the basic techniques.

The article is full of disinformation and misinformation - and really, just a promo piece to pitch his credentials and business.

reply to post by soficrow


I'm not seeing any misinformation there.

Just because it's a promo piece for his business does not deter from the fact that it has a lot of useful and factual information. I'm not seeing any bias either in the information that would be used to sway the reader to use his services. I'm sure he would like that to be the case, if it is a promo piece as you stated, but even so, it full of useful information whether a person uses his services or not.

The main message I was trying to get across is if this "technique" were to be used more in the business sector, American businesses might end up being more productive. Using it to gain information from the "enemy" is a waste of talent IMO.

As far as this site and the conspiracy angle is concerned, people need to realize that they are being socially engineered each and every day by people who want something from them. This may be one of the main reasons why there is getting to be such a great divide in the income classes.

Find a woman with at least a ten-year career in nursing or acute healthcare, and you'll learn a thing or two about how difficult it is for women to suppress their nurturing instinct. Chilly is one adjective.