Ask HN: How can I learn about social engineering exploits?

16 points

16 years ago

I recently read The Art of Deception by Kevin Mitnick [1], and watched the BBC show The Real Hustle [2]. As someone who has a natural tendency to trust people, I'm interested in learning more about the underlying principles that social engineers and con artists employ, and seeing well-executed examples, from phishing to guy-on-the-street scams.

Question for security-savvy HN readers: what websites or books on this topic would you recommend? (For example, I like reading the links Schneier [3] occasionally posts about ingenious schemes he comes across.)

In case it's of interest to anyone, I'll post in the comments a compilation of the most frequent tricks & lessons I learned from the full series of The Real Hustle.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Art-Deception-Controlling-Element-Security/dp/0471237124

[2] http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=25386750441983070#

[3] http://www.schneier.com/

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