MetaFilter posts tagged with socialengineering

Social Engineering in the Facebook Era

ericb — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:34:13 -0800

‘Forgot your password?’ may be weakest link. Herbert Thompson, chief security strategist of People Security, "asked some of his acquaintances for permission to break into their online banking accounts. The goal was simple: get into their online accounts using the information about them, their families and acquaintances that is freely available online."

"Questions about hacking through password resets have been raised before. When Paris Hilton's cell phone was famously hacked in 2005, some tech sites reported that criminals simply used her dog's name, easily found online, to break in. That theory was later discredited, but it likely sent criminals scurrying to find famous people's dog's names. It also prompted researchers to study the issue, which is also known as 'fallback authentication.' Ariel Rabkin, a researcher at the University of California at Berkeley, is probably the first to attempt to quantify the problem. He recently published a research paper (PDF) titled in part, 'Security Questions in the Era of Facebook.' It examined password reset questions at 20 banks. Of the 215 questions used by the banks, he classified only 75 as secure and usable. The others were either easy for hackers to guess or obtain, or simply too hard for consumers to remember."

24c3

kolophon — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 15:16:05 -0800

The 24th Chaos Communication Congress, "the annual four-day conference organized by the Chaos Computer Club is taking place in Berlin right now. The Congress offers lectures and workshops on a multitude of topics and attracts a diverse audience of thousands of hackers, scientists, artists, and utopians from all around the world." Lectures are also being streamed live (Check the CCC Tube) Among other topics: Open Source, a capitalist movement. Free Software, Free Drugs and an ethics of death; Cyborg Feminism, The Arctic Cold War; Absurd Mathematics; Linguistic Hacking, How to know what a text in an unknown language is about? Quantum Cryptography and Possible Attacks; Freifunkerei, And a Do-It-Yourself society against the state; All Tomorrow's Condensation, A steampunk puppet extravaganza by monochrom and friends. At 00:30 CET today you should be able to watch "I can count every star in the heavens above but I have no heart I can't fall in love…". The image of computers in popular music, presented by the Vienna art collective monochrom (linked above). Recordings will also be made available to download in a few days time; here are last years 23c3 lectures.

caller id spoof service

crunchland — Thu, 10 Feb 2005 22:17:07 -0800

Covert Call allows you to alter the caller id that is sent to the phone you are calling. It can operate just like a calling card, all for the price of a normal long distance call. Caller-ID spoofing for 5¢ a minute, for all your prankster/paranoid/social engineering needs.

Sign on the X

DBAPaul — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 06:53:03 -0800

Testing the limits of credit card receipt signatures. Are there any?

Urban Gentrification and Eugenics

monju_bosatsu — Fri, 10 Dec 2004 09:47:06 -0800

The connections between post-war urban reconstruction, demographics, social engineering, and eugenics are explored in this treasure trove of links, from things magazine.

This is the cardinal sin of urinal etiquette: Never pee beside someone.

anastasiav — Sun, 23 Nov 2003 22:51:15 -0800

The International Center for Bathroom Etiquette makes me really glad that I'm a girl. I had no idea there were such complex decisions to be made about where to stand and which sink to use.

Caution: Fake Blogger.com

hoder — Wed, 30 Jul 2003 11:44:18 -0800

Don't be fooled by fake blogger.com. Crackers are after your Blogger password.