The aim of this study was to explore the extent to which persuasion principles are used in successful social engineering attacks. Seventy-four scenarios were extracted from 4 books on social engineering (written by social engineers) and analysed. Each scenario was split into attack steps, containing single interactions between offender and target. For each attack step, persuasion principles were identified. The main findings are that (a) persuasion principles are often used in social engineering attacks, (b) authority (1 of the 6 persuasion principles) is used considerably more often than others, and (c) single-principle attack steps occur more often than multiple-principle ones. The social engineers identified in the scenarios more often used persuasion principles compared to other social influences. The scenario analysis illustrates how to exploit the human element in security. The findings support the view that security mechanisms should include not only technical but also social countermeasures.@en

Purpose – When security managers choose to deploy a smart lock activation system, the number of units needed and their location needs to be established. This study presents the results of a penetration test involving smart locks in the context of building security. We investigated how the amount of effort an employee has to invest in complying with a security policy (i.e. walk from the office to the smart key activator) influences vulnerability. In particular, the attractiveness of a no-effort alternative (i.e. someone else walking from your office to the key activators to perform a task on your behalf) was evaluated. The contribution of this study relates to showing how experimental psychology can be used to determine the cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of physical building security measures. Design/methodology/approach – Twenty-seven different ‘offenders’ visited the offices of 116 employees. Using a script, each offender introduced a problem, provided a solution and asked the employee to hand over their office key. Findings – A total of 58.6% of the employees handed over their keys to a stranger; no difference was found between female and male employees. The likelihood of handing over the keys for employees close to a key activator was similar to that of those who were further away.Research limitations/implications – The results suggest that installing additional key activators is not conducive to reducing the building’s security vulnerability associated with the handing over of keys to strangers. Originality/value – No research seems to have investigated the distribution of smart key activators in the context of a physical penetration test. This research highlights the need to raise awareness of social engineering and of the vulnerabilities introduced via smart locks (and other smart systems).@en

The aim of the current study is to explore to what extent an intervention reduces the effects of social engineering (e.g., the obtaining of access via persuasion) in an office environment. In particular, we study the effect of authority during a ‘social engineering’ attack. Methods Thirty-one different ‘offenders’ visited the offices of 118 employees and on the basis of a script, asked them to hand over their office keys. Authority, one of the six principles of persuasion, was used by half of the offenders to persuade a target to comply with his/her request. Prior to the visit, an intervention was randomly administered to half of the targets to increase their resilience against attempts by others to obtain their credentials. Results A total of 37.0 % of the employees who were exposed to the intervention surrendered their keys while 62.5 % of those who were not exposed to it handed them over. The intervention has a significant effect on compliance but the same was not the case for authority. Conclusions Awareness-raising about the dangers, characteristics, and countermeasures associated with social engineering proved to have a significant positive effect on neutralizing the attacker.@en

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to explore how the opening phrase of a phishing email influences the action taken by the recipient. Design/methodology/approach - Two types of phishing emails were sent to 593 employees, who were asked to provide personally identifiable information (PII). A personalised spear phishing email opening was randomly used in half of the emails. Findings - Nineteen per cent of the employees provided their PII in a general phishing email, compared to 29 per cent in the spear phishing condition. Employees having a high power distance cultural background were more likely to provide their PII, compared to those with a low one. There was no effect of age on providing the PII requested when the recipient's years of service within the organisation is taken into account. Practical implications - This research shows that success is higher when the opening sentence of a phishing email is personalised. The resulting model explains victimisation by phishing emails well, and it would allow practitioners to focus awareness campaigns to maximise their effect. Originality/value - The innovative aspect relates to explaining spear phishing using four sociodemographic variables.@en

In the field of security, attack trees are often used to assess security vulnerabilities probabilistically in relation to multi-step attacks. The nodes are usually connected via AND-gates, where all children must be executed, or via OR-gates, where only one action is necessary for the attack step to succeed. This logic, however, is not suitable for including human interaction such as that of social engineering, because the attacker may combine different persuasion principles to different degrees, with different associated success probabilities. Experimental results in this domain are typically represented by regression equations rather than logical gates. This paper therefore proposes an extension to attack trees involving a regression-node, illustrated by data obtained from a social engineering experiment. By allowing the annotation of leaf nodes with experimental data from social science, the regression-node enables the development of integrated socio-technical security models.@en

In the field of security, attack trees are often used to assess security vulnerabilities probabilistically in relation to multi-step attacks. The nodes are usually connected via AND-gates, where all children must be executed, or via OR-gates, where only one action is necessary for the attack step to succeed. This logic, however, is not suitable for including human interaction such as that of social engineering, because the attacker may combine different persuasion principles to different degrees, with different associated success probabilities. Experimental results in this domain are typically represented by regression equations rather than logical gates. This paper therefore proposes an extension to attack trees involving a regression-node, illustrated by data obtained from a social engineering experiment. By allowing the annotation of leaf nodes with experimental data from social science, the regression-node enables the development of integrated socio-technical security models.@en

In the field of security, attack trees are often used to assess security vulnerabilities probabilistically in relation to multi-step attacks. The nodes are usually connected via AND-gates, where all children must be executed, or via OR-gates, where only one action is necessary for the attack step to succeed. This logic, however, is not suitable for including human interaction such as that of social engineering, because the attacker may combine different persuasion principles to different degrees, with different associated success probabilities. Experimental results in this domain are typically represented by regression equations rather than logical gates. This paper therefore proposes an extension to attack trees involving a regression-node, illustrated by data obtained from a social engineering experiment. By allowing the annotation of leaf nodes with experimental data from social science, the regression-node enables the development of integrated socio-technical security models.@en

In the field of security, attack trees are often used to assess security vulnerabilities probabilistically in relation to multi-step attacks. The nodes are usually connected via AND-gates, where all children must be executed, or via OR-gates, where only one action is necessary for the attack step to succeed. This logic, however, is not suitable for including human interaction such as that of social engineering, because the attacker may combine different persuasion principles to different degrees, with different associated success probabilities. Experimental results in this domain are typically represented by regression equations rather than logical gates. This paper therefore proposes an extension to attack trees involving a regression-node, illustrated by data obtained from a social engineering experiment. By allowing the annotation of leaf nodes with experimental data from social science, the regression-node enables the development of integrated socio-technical security models.@en

In the field of security, attack trees are often used to assess security vulnerabilities probabilistically in relation to multi-step attacks. The nodes are usually connected via AND-gates, where all children must be executed, or via OR-gates, where only one action is necessary for the attack step to succeed. This logic, however, is not suitable for including human interaction such as that of social engineering, because the attacker may combine different persuasion principles to different degrees, with different associated success probabilities. Experimental results in this domain are typically represented by regression equations rather than logical gates. This paper therefore proposes an extension to attack trees involving a regression-node, illustrated by data obtained from a social engineering experiment. By allowing the annotation of leaf nodes with experimental data from social science, the regression-node enables the development of integrated socio-technical security models.@en

Social engineering is een aanvalstechniek waarin misleiding en bedrog worden gebruikt om doelwitten actief te laten meewerken aan hun eigen slachtofferschap. In dit artikel wordt aan de hand van een praktisch voorbeeld en bijbehorende heorieën inzicht gegeven in social engineering-praktijken. Daarnaast zal er ook orden ingegaan op een drietal experimenten (i.e. face-to-face, telefoon en e-mail) waarin systematisch onderzoek naar dit gevaar centraal staat. De resultaten geven inzicht in hoe kwetsbaar een organisatie is voor social engineering en welke medewerkers het meeste baat hebben bij een bewustwordingscampagne.@en

Social engineering is een aanvalstechniek waarin misleiding en bedrog worden gebruikt om doelwitten actief te laten meewerken aan hun eigen slachtofferschap. In dit artikel wordt aan de hand van een praktisch voorbeeld en bijbehorende heorieën inzicht gegeven in social engineering-praktijken. Daarnaast zal er ook orden ingegaan op een drietal experimenten (i.e. face-to-face, telefoon en e-mail) waarin systematisch onderzoek naar dit gevaar centraal staat. De resultaten geven inzicht in hoe kwetsbaar een organisatie is voor social engineering en welke medewerkers het meeste baat hebben bij een bewustwordingscampagne.@en

Social engineering is een aanvalstechniek waarin misleiding en bedrog worden gebruikt om doelwitten actief te laten meewerken aan hun eigen slachtofferschap. In dit artikel wordt aan de hand van een praktisch voorbeeld en bijbehorende heorieën inzicht gegeven in social engineering-praktijken. Daarnaast zal er ook orden ingegaan op een drietal experimenten (i.e. face-to-face, telefoon en e-mail) waarin systematisch onderzoek naar dit gevaar centraal staat. De resultaten geven inzicht in hoe kwetsbaar een organisatie is voor social engineering en welke medewerkers het meeste baat hebben bij een bewustwordingscampagne.@en

Social engineering is een aanvalstechniek waarin misleiding en bedrog worden gebruikt om doelwitten actief te laten meewerken aan hun eigen slachtofferschap. In dit artikel wordt aan de hand van een praktisch voorbeeld en bijbehorende heorieën inzicht gegeven in social engineering-praktijken. Daarnaast zal er ook orden ingegaan op een drietal experimenten (i.e. face-to-face, telefoon en e-mail) waarin systematisch onderzoek naar dit gevaar centraal staat. De resultaten geven inzicht in hoe kwetsbaar een organisatie is voor social engineering en welke medewerkers het meeste baat hebben bij een bewustwordingscampagne.@en