Onderwêreld deur Fanie Viljoen | Log File: Social Engineering | English Summary | Onderwereld

 

Onderwêreld deur Fanie Viljoen

Log File: Social Engineering

Greg and Eckhardt exit the swimming pool, get snacks from the kitchen before settling into Greg’s room, where Eckhardt pulls up something that will illustrate the concept of social engineering. On the website of a cellphone company known as CallCom, Eckhardt clicks through various links. The company is celebrating its fifth birthday with a R2 million giveaway. Eckhardt clicks on the button labelled “Register”, bringing up a new page with various input fields, like name, surname, sex, date of birth, and cellphone number. He takes out his cellphone and calls a random CallCom number he came up with. After failing to get a number that exists, he finally reaches someone. “Emily, hello?” Eckhardt swiftly types her name in the relevant field. Eckhardt speaks to Emily in English, greeting in a voice that is different from how he usually talks. Eckhardt pretends to be a call agent from CallCom, and he tells her about the giveaway, advertising it to her with gusto, eventually convincing her to furnish him with her surname and date of birth “to make sure that they have her on record should they have to confirm that it is actually her claiming the prize”.

Emily Molope gives Eckhardt her date of birth as he fills out all the required fields, making deft conversation with her and making her laugh throughout. He finally tells her that he will be giving her a secret password via SMS that she needs to send back to him and gives her his cellphone number. He reiterates that she could have R2 million in her account by the end of the day. Greg is astonished, asking Eckhardt what that was. “Social Engineering,” says Eckhardt as he completes the registration. He explains that social engineering is a means through which one manipulates other people – usually telephonically – to expose their own or another person’s personal information. Greg is shocked at how common this technique is and wonders if many people fall for it. Eckhardt tells Greg about Doctor Cialdini, an American doctor who designed an experiment. He called nurses, telling him that he is a doctor, and issued them orders to administer prescribed medication to a patient in the wards. The medication he would order them to give to the patient was no longer allowed in the wards and the doctor would prescribe the medication at double the recommended dosage. The result? 95% of nurses were ward-bound with the medication in-hand.

Eckhardt’s SMS notifications go off as Emily’s password enters his inbox. Something about the whole thing feels wrong for Greg, but they continue and explore the website to which they have gained access. Eckhardt tells Greg that they can alter Emily’s cellphone settings and purchase ringtones and games from the website without her knowledge. They poke around the site and eventually come across Emily’s cellphone records and Eckhardt becomes curious about what they could do with the information. Greg says nothing, which prompts Eckhardt to respond “You’re right. White hat...”

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