Hello, I am
I was asked to teach a class on Social Engineering for an organization and I quickly wanted to tell you how I got into the building.
Class was on a Saturday and it was raining in downtown Brussels and the temperature was a couple of degrees Celsius and windy. As a social engineer I like this weather since it allows me to become less visible. A big scarf, a hat, … you know what Western Europeans are like.
Class took place in a building where a couple of organizations organize courses so what I did was simple but very effective. I knocked on the window of the closed door and smiled. A young man came to open and I stepped inside and said “hello” while taking my scarf off. It looked like I knew why I was there and then I said “I am today’s teacher”. The guy looked at me and said an organizations’ name.
I could have said “yes” but I had the risk of him calling somebody to come and fetch me thus what I did is say another name (the actual name of the organization I was teaching for but a bit mumbled) and it was immediately clear he did not know them so I repeated the mumbled name.
He said “I do not know them”. I walked towards the stairs and said “That is OK, I know my way” with a confident smile and walked into a building with a bag full of teaching materials (laptop, lock picks, … ).
So what happened? The door guy had a situation for which he had no script. That meant he now has to deal with a situation where he doesn’t want to make a mistake wasting other people their time during a weekend and does not want to be rude against a person that calls himself the teacher.
The wording in itself is important because we have all be told as little kids that the teacher is a figure of authority and all had the experience in our life that standing up against authority is a bad idea.
In the end I offered the guy an easy way out, let me walk up the stairs and I am not your problem anymore.
I must say the class was fun, the people taking the course had a good time.
As a closure to this post I want to congratulate the one student that took on the challenge of actually went into the designated place to try out social engineering. I am really proud of her because it takes a lot of guts the first time you do SE.
