Thread: Social Engineering

I know enough about it to recognize when it is used, and to tell when someone has bought into it. Generally most of it is based around lying and tricking people, and so it is defenitly not a good thing. In many cases, it is down right evil. Government and war propaganda is the worst.

I am not to sure what you want to know about it. The easiest thing to do, is to appeal to people's emotion. When people base their opinion on emotion rather than logic they often become stupid or naive.

Global warming, gun control, the war, terrorism, gay marriage, all revolve around emotions. Most often fear is the best. Statics say the planet is cooling and not warming. Places with gun control actually have more crimes. And most terrorist come from central and south america, not the middle east. Iraq didn't have any al'quada in it before the war. And it is impossible for gay marriages to harm anyone.

All the issues are based around fear. When you look at it logically, there is no real issue.

Another example is health care. Polls taken showed most people were happy with their health care. However the politicans wanted more control and so they made up the entire health care issue. While a small percentage of people were unhappy, and people generally did agree that things could be done to fix high insurance costs, most people never wanted anything like what they are tryin to push on us.

They created the issue out of nothing, and used emotion to get people to agree with them. If you don't pass health care, people will die from lack of health care. This isn't true and people die all the time regardless. However, they used emotion to convince people to support it.

If you want someone to agree to someone. Put it in a light that will make it sound scary, and try to scare them with what might happen. Appeal to their emotion, not logic.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley shows a great example of manipulation of peoples thoughts and bodies in order to keep the social body together.

Originally Posted by Alric

If you want someone to agree to someone. Put it in a light that will make it sound scary, and try to scare them with what might happen. Appeal to their emotion, not logic.

This is how you turn a group of intelligent people into a herd of sheep to be directed at your will. "Marijuana" prohibition is another prime example of this.

Great replies. I'd suggest yet another book - 1984 by George Orwell. Classic. Available free here: http://www.george-orwell.org/1984/0.html Actually having this book in your hands and being able to enjoy it with a hot cup of coffee or something is, of course, a different experience Anyway, I feel Orwell's work really brings out the mechanisms used to manipulate a lot of people. Indeed, great emphasis is placed on emotions.

A great example is the whole business of swine flu. It's practically harmless - even common flu is deadlier when you take a look at the numbers -, yet it's a big thing here in Eastern Europe. The media just won't stop writing about every other victim, certain online-editions have special swine flu sections... Some people remain cool-headed and cautious, but some are scared s*itless, demanding vaccine immediately. And fear is apparently far more infectious than swine flu or some next laboratory-grown virus blown into a big thing by the media.

Great replies. I haven't figured out how I can use any of this in my personal lif-- I mean, how it applies to individuals, but I'm glad to see this topic has garnered some interest.

First of all, I've read another of George Orwell's books, Animal Farm, which had much the same theme. I enjoyed it and may just read 1984 if I get the chance. Thanks for the link by the way.
Also, Swine Flu was a huge deal in the US recently (although that all blew over about 2 months ago). They were always talking about how people with underlying health conditions were the ones dying. And since, in our family of 5 people, my mom's got diabetes, lupus, and others; I've got reactive airways disease; my brother has severe asthma; etc., she took us out of school and drove 3 hours to Orlando to get one of the ~75 doses available within a 300-mile radius.

Also, I agree with what a lot of you said. I've always said that the best way to get people to do something is to tell them that they're not allowed to do it. Mostly drugs, guns, etc.

Social engineering is about groups, not individuals. The key to manipulating individuals, is finding out what they want then using that to control them.

Great replies. I would also recommend Kevin Mitnick's The Art of Intrusion and The Art of Deception. He has several stories that incorporates Social Engineering performed by hackers in order to infiltrate past security systems. It's a really good read and it covers a vast array of Social Engineering techniques.