May 15, 2003

social engineering

n.

Term used among crackers and samurai for cracking techniques that rely on weaknesses in wetware rather than software; the aim is to trick people into revealing passwords or other information that compromises a target system's security. Classic scams include phoning up a mark who has the required information and posing as a field service tech or a fellow employee with an urgent access problem. See also the tiger team story in the patch entry, and rubber-hose cryptanalysis.

Posted by Jargon File at May 15, 2003 10:29 AM

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