travelling

My regular readers are familiar with my interest in socializing - or networking. Thus, I attend many meetings and conferences, and usually I find it hard NOT to hone my social engineering skills. And, I am a social guy, with many years of sales experience, and a natural interest in others; so talking, asking directional (to me) questions, and fishing for answers comes kinda easy to me.

In addition, people tend to confide in me.

Now, this may of course turn into a disaster for the poor folks I am talking to. Do they really know me? How can they be sure that what they tell me (and boy, do they tell me some secrets...) will stay with me?

We all know the "Your password for a chocolate bar" tests (or Google it). These are popular in their different forms, and they show how easy it is to get access to information that should be protected.

So what if my purposes where to actually collect and gather information on you; and then pass it on to your competitor? Believe you me - it would be like taking a candy from a child.

I would first research the company. The solutions; competitors; the market; margins; products; and customers. I would know as much as possible - previous successes and failures, their results, their image and of course their owners. I would also visit their locations, and make sure to enter legally.

Next step would be to identify potential targets - obvious ones, and less obvious ones. When I know who I need, I will start looking for ways to reach them. And here come conferences, meetings, user groups, NGO’s and NPO’s and similar forums.

Most people have a passion, something they do besides their job. By meeting them in these settings, they tend to have lowered their guards, and they are more easily manipulated.

At this point, I have done extensive research on the targets, and I would know where to find them and how to approach them. Now, this seems like a tedious work (and yes it is), but it is not that hard anymore. Googling people shows up the most interesting information - but this we already know. Combining Google with public records, social networking tools and an analytic mind, and you would be stunned of what could be found out about you.

"But it does not matter what they find out about me, there are no secrets out there!" I hear you cry. You may or may not be right. You never know who publishes stuff on the Internet, and how that might be related to you. But that is not the point. The point is that I can conduct a thorough research on you - my target - with very little resources, and within a very short time span.

And then comes the fun part - I will now start befriend you. I might decide to approach you through a friend or contact of yours. Or I may decide the best approach is at a conference where I know you will be. It does not matter - I will do it slowly, and build your trust over time.

I will use my chameleon skills to adopt and alter as necessary - never spending too much time with you. I will create a curiosity within you. I will create an interest that will develop into a desire to know more about me - so you will approach me. Why? Because when you come to me, you have your guards lowered. Oh yes.

And from here on, it is only a question of patience. Asking seemingly innocent questions; let you talk.

Have you noticed that when someone lets you share your life story, your passions; and they show genuine interest in YOU; instead of shamelessly promoting themselves; that you tend to trust them more? And with that trust, you start sharing more? And enjoy these people more?

What do you think this is doing to your guard?

Exactly.

What is really interesting is that the best social engineers - those who do this on purpose only to gather information from you; or get you to do things you did not know you wanted to; they will leave you with a feeling that you did something good, that you can feel good about yourself.

And you will never know what happened.

In other words – please feel good when I give you my attention. I will never exploit you – only the information you share!