In any successful social engineering attack, a certain framework is followed. The framework has seven discrete steps that guide a social engineer on a path towards knowing more about the target, choosing an attack strategy, and then executing it meticulously. The framework is as follows:

This is regarded as the most tortuous step in the whole social engineering exercise and may last anywhere from a few hours to a few years. Not only is it long, it is demanding and requires an attacker to always be keen in observing the target. Today's social engineer needs to be well-informed of the data to look for and the software tools that can help with this. The quick adoption of social media platforms by a large percentage of people has made this process somewhat simpler. However, this data is at times insufficient or too fabricated to be of help and therefore, more data sources may be required. An attacker may, therefore, be forced to gather data using specialized software tools or using soft skills to get this data directly from the target without raising alarm.

Information is rarely gathered all at once. Doing so is hard and therefore it is common for a social engineer to collect small pieces of data and combine them to complete a puzzle about the target. For instance, if gathering information about a CEO, an attacker may start by interviewing people that the CEO comes across or talks to. Janitors, secretaries, subordinates, or even visitors may be interviewed to find out small pieces of information that may not be so useful discretely, but very powerful when put together. Even the most insignificant of people that a target interacts with may have a key to unlocking a much larger puzzle. Therefore, any source of information is treated as valuable.

There are two main methods of data gathering that can be employed by an attacker—nontechnical and technical methods.

These methods disregard the use of any technological means to collect data. They may be more tiresome but they are most likely to find more accurate data about the target. The non-technical methods are discussed as follows:

• Dumpster diving: This involves going through the paper waste of a target to find out valuable information that may have been disposed of. Even with paper shredders, humans are still lazy enough to carelessly throw away some valuable data that attackers may find by dumpster diving.
• Physically tailing a target: This gives the attacker information about the target's routines, schedules, likes, dislikes, and so on. The end game involves approaching the target with some questions and then presenting offers that they cannot refuse. With this, a social engineer can potentially get a ton of information and access to restricted places. The rationalization of a target, once figured out, can be abused to get a lot more. Non-technical methods are, however, being phased out and today most information gathering is done through technical methods:

These methods include the use of technological products for obtaining information about the client. One of these methods is by stalking the target on their social media accounts. Most targets will have active profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat. Users on these platforms are so careless with their data that social engineers need not look far in many instances. Even after repeated warnings for people to change their privacy settings, it is more likely than not that the target's account will be visible to the public and thus anyone. Users have put out their entire lives to strangers and anything that can get a like is likely to be posted. Information that was once private is now put indiscriminately on public domains. This makes it even easier for a social engineer to collect the data available about the target. However, in some instances, the attacker might not be so fortunate either because the data given is too little or the account is set as private. This, therefore, requires the social engineer to create a fake account that matches the preferences and likes of the target. With this, a client may request the target to either become friends or follow them. Another common approach has been through the use of a fake account created in the name of someone known to the target. Close friends, relatives, and bosses at work have been used in many social engineering attacks with a high success rate.

The second commonly used technical social engineering method is a search on search engines. Search engines index many sites and some of these store user information collected from many sources and pooled together at a central place. There are special Google queries that can be used to mine information about people contained on websites. These will be discussed in detail in the next chapter about data gathering. An example is the following query:

"David Wilson" intitle:"curriculum vitae" "phone" "address" "email""

This is a very powerful query that can be used to unearth any information about a person called David Wilson. The query will make Google look for any website that has an entry by the name David Wilson and has titles such as curriculum vitae, phone, and address:

Many job boards that keep the data of job seekers keep the job seekers information in the public domain. Therefore, it will be easy to find a person called David Wilson from where personal details can be retrieved. This query might even bring up the resume of David Wilson if there is a site that has kept information about it:

A site known as Pipl (https://pipl.com) is one of the largest archives of information about a large number of people. For each person it has on its database, the site keeps the person's email address, social media accounts, phone number, and physical address. The site claims to have details of over three billion people:

It is fast approaching half the human population on earth. This site is a goldmine for social engineers as they can find out rather personal information about their targets without much hassle. There are many other sites like it dishing out private information about people to anyone that requests such information. These sites have a wide source for these records, which include social platforms, data sold by third parties, data released by hackers, data stolen from other websites, and data in government agency websites. They keep updating their data as often as their sources can. Unfortunately, such sites are not illegal and therefore it is hard for anyone to compel such sites to have their data removed.

Another technical source of information that is still in use by social engineers is the use of telephones. This is commonly targeted at older people since they are easy to fool. The callers always claim to be from reputable companies or government agencies. They use enticing offers or grave threats to get the targets to send them some cash. There are reports of some callers that claim to be the police and threaten to arrest the targets if they do not send some amount of money within a certain period. Other people are also targeted and the greatest asset that social engineers have is some information about the target. Just knowing a target's bank account could be enough incentive to get the client to trust that it is the bank calling. They can use a bank account number to get the target to reveal even more data including social security numbers. When the targets come to the realization that it might not be the bank calling, it is normally too late. The social engineers will have enough information to plot an attack.

Data gathering is indeed tedious, lengthy, and tasking. It is, however, worth it. The amount of information gathered from the targets is vital in the planning of an attack. The best data gathering method is one that does not preempt the motive of the social engineer. Therefore, data gathering is done discreetly. Small chunks of information are pulled bit by bit and pooled together. With time, the social engineer will have more than enough information to profile a target. The social engineer will know more about a target's life than the target's family or spouse. This is the information that will determine the success of an attack. There are very many other data-gathering methods and tools that are used in this process. The ones that have been discussed have also not been discussed in depth. These will, however, be discussed in the following topic about data gathering. The chapter will identify all the methods and tools, describe them, and give examples of the use of each. At the end of the chapter, one will be proficient at collecting data about targets exactly as a social engineer does.

Even with their weaknesses, humans will generally be withdrawn at first about confiding with anyone. It takes skills to be able to break people from their security comfort zones so that they can start spewing out private information. Elicitation is more than building rapport with strangers; it's a technique used in interrogation rooms, used by therapists, and by doctors to get information from people that would otherwise withhold such information. Elicitation, therefore, is the second step in the social engineering framework that is followed during social engineering attacks. The attackers use elicitation techniques after gathering enough information about a target to initialize a conversation.

Elicitation can be defined as the act of drawing something out using logic. It is done through stimulation to get one to act in a certain class of behaviors. The definition, therefore, means that elicitation is the ability to draw out people from their security comfort zones by stimulating them to act in a certain way. A social engineer will have mastered the art of elicitation to a point where they can bring a target to a point of just wanting to respond truthfully to any question posed. Spies and interrogators are trained in how to use this skill to draw information during normal conversations. This shows that it is already a skill valued by governments. It is difficult for a target to detect an elicitation attempt. It appears so innocent and occurs in normal settings. The following are some of the factors that make elicitation so effective:

• Most humans will try to be polite when talking to a stranger
• Professionals, when questioned, will want to appear knowledgeable
• Most people would not lie to someone who appears genuinely concerned
• It is more likely than not for someone to respond to well-posed questions about themselves

In elicitation, a social engineer will be looking to tie a target into a certain path so that they openly share sensitive information without second thoughts. It is presented as a simple question-answer interaction while in a real sense, the target is conned into divulging secretive information. The social engineer will try to keep the target compliant with answering some questions that may be uncomfortable in the first place. The target will keep on answering them as long as the social engineer plays their cards right. When it comes to playing their cards right, there are a number of things that a social engineer is strict about. These are as follows:

• Being natural: One of the best ways to keep a conversation going without raising eyebrows is by keeping the target comfortable by sounding genuine and natural. It is easy to spook a target if the conversation appears to be unnatural or scripted. Therefore, a social engineer will engage a target in a conversation that he/she (the social engineer) is conversant with. The social engineer will also work on his or her posture, body language, and assertion of knowledge. Everything has to be made to look perfectly normal so that the social engineer appears confident and natural. It is common for social engineers to role-play with their friends so as to get their act together before making the actual elicitation attempt.

• Being knowledgeable: Knowledge is the perfect shield for a social engineer during their interaction with a target. Therefore, whatever questions one will have for the target, he or she must be knowledgeable about their expected response. This will allow the social engineer either to acknowledge or differ with the target using some knowledge and this will keep the conversation going. Of course, the social engineer is not expected to be very knowledgeable about the responses to be given; this might raise a red flag. All that is needed is the basic knowledge to be able to give follow-up questions and to respond to the answers given by the target.
• Avoiding greed: Social engineers need to ensure that they do not appear to be greedy to their targets. If it becomes evident to the target that the social engineer is after particular information, the target will most likely shut off the social engineer. Therefore, a common practice is for the social engineer to practice give and take. The social engineer comes up with fake information and offers it to the target. Upon seeing this openness, the target reciprocates by giving out some information, but, in this case, it happens to be factual information.

These three are the essential cards that any social engineer needs to have up his or her sleeves when interacting with a target. Apart from this, it is very important for the social engineer to use the correct facial expressions at the right time. There are some expressions that are hard to fake and therefore require the social engineer to do extensive trials to get them right. Facial expressions affect the way that people respond to questions. Therefore, the social engineer needs to employ expressions that show interest and uplift the mood of the target if necessary. Facial expressions say a lot and can potentially affect the outcome of an elicitation attempt. In any case, the social engineer needs to be able to appear really into the conversation.

Elicitation is a core step in social engineering. There are several proven elicitation skills. These and the ones already highlighted will be discussed further in the Chapter 6, Elicitation of the book. The chapter will train a newbie on how to master the art of elicitation to the point of a professional. The knowledge gained will be applicable in and out of social engineering.

This is normally the third step in a social engineering attack. It is where the attacker becomes anyone in a position to influence the target into making some decisions. The attacker chooses a certain personality that befits the character he or she opts to become during the social engineering attempt. With the advent of the internet, it is easy to become anyone.

There are so many information resources that a social engineer can use to adapt the character of anyone. Pretexting is an imperative skill that any social engineer needs in order to accomplish an attack. Pretexting is more than just acting the role of a person; it can be considered as becoming the person. There should not be an iota of doubt to the target that the social engineer is not the person he or she claims to be. The social engineer's character, their manner of speech, body language, and any other noticeable characteristic must fit that of the person he or she is pretending to be. It is a vital skill that will allow a social engineer to carry out an attack unsuspected.

There are very many dynamics involved when it comes to pretexting. They ensure that a social engineer is able to invent a scenario and get the target to take some actions or release some sensitive information. In most recent attacks, social engineers have been noted increasingly to use people in certain highly respected jobs or the profiles of senior employees in some organizations. Social engineers are willing to put an adequate amount of time to research the roles that they will take with their new personalities. They train until they get to a point where they are perfect clones of the people that they want to impersonate. They can then use these impersonations to persuade their targets into doing what they want them to easily.

Pretexting is highly effective and it is commonly used in other fields. Doctors, lawyers, and even therapists have some sort of pretexting techniques whenever they interact with people in their professional lives. They are able to get people into a comfort zone where they release information that they have been holding back. Social engineers work towards achieving the same amount of persuasion and trust in their pretexting attempts.

In the previous discussion about information gathering, it was noted that information gathering is a key determinant of the success of the whole social engineering attack. This is one of the stages where the information gathered counts. Social engineers must be careful to use pretexts that they are absolutely sure that a target will fall for. If in an unfortunate event a social engineer uses a pretext that the target cannot relate to, the entire attack is sabotaged. For instance, if a target uses Bank B and a social engineer calls saying that he is an official from Bank A, the target will know that this is a setup and the attack will fail. Moreover, the target will be so spooked that not even another attempt will get him or her to fall for the con. There is little that a social engineer can do once the target realizes that he or she is being targeted by attackers. The only advisable thing is to bail out and abandon the whole attack.

Therefore, it is extremely important for the pretext attempt to be successful. There are some general principles that are followed in pretexting, including the following:

• Research more: There are better chances for a pretexting attempt if the social engineer has done adequate research. The target might start asking some questions and it is extremely important for the social engineer to have some information that can be used to answer them according to the knowledge expected of his or her impersonated personality.
• Use personal interests: Pretexting puts a person in the skin of another and this is a very challenging task. There are some things that one cannot easily fake. That is why social engineers may divert a little bit from the personalities of the people they pretend to be and use their actual interests. Nothing can be as disastrous as a shameful discovery that a social engineer is not knowledgeable about any of the interests he or she conveys to a target. It is better to correct an assumption by the target of certain personal interests than to play along only to get to a point where the target starts having doubts. It is good for self-confidence and for the sake of trust building that the social engineer uses interests he or she is conversant with when building rapport with a target.
• Practice expressions or dialects: It is easy for a target to know that a person is not who he or she claims to be just by keenly listening to the dialect or expression. There are some jargons present in some professional fields and these help to solder the assumption by the target that the social engineer is indeed the person he or she claims to be. Plain talk might not be so assuring to a target about the personality taken by the social engineer. If the social engineer assumes the personality of a lawyer, for instance, there should be some level of legal jargon, such as the mention of some laws, bills, or penalties for certain crimes. This will quickly build up the belief by the client that the social engineer is a real lawyer. Therefore, dialects are very important in pretexting and social engineers usually pay lots of attention to them.
• Use simpler pretexts: The more complex a pretext becomes, the less chance it has of being successful. This is because it will take more research and effort to maintain it and it might end up failing. A simpler pretext, on the other hand, will be quicker and easier to perfect and this means that there will be higher chances of the target falling for it. Therefore, only legendary social engineers have the option of choosing complex pretexts since they have more knowledge and experience in handling such pretexts. This also means that there are many low-level social engineering attacks that can easily be staged. From the victim's side, it is more likely that one will be approached with the pretext of an old friend, a relative, or an old classmate. They are easy to fake.

• Logical conclusions: Social engineering attacks are well-coordinated. From the point of elicitation to the pretext stage, there should be a general pattern followed. The steps must be logical. In the pretext stage, information provided at the beginning must match with what the social engineer wants. A pretext of a lawyer cannot, for instance, be used to get a target to reveal work login credentials. The pretext should logically bring a target to a certain conclusion. An IT support officer pretext can be used easily to persuade a target to give out login credentials. A target could be told that there are some systems that have encountered some problems and the company is switching to backup systems and therefore the old credentials are required to facilitate the migration. This scenario has a logical conclusion. It is more likely to work than if a pretext of a lawyer is used to acquire the same information. There will be no connection and it will be hard for the target to connect the dots and give out the required information.

There are many other principles that social engineers use. These will be discussed in-depth in the Chapter 7, Pretexting. In summary, pretexting is very challenging and many social engineering attempts can fail at this stage. From a defense perspective, users should be taught about how to question suspected social engineers in order to foil attacks at this point. Pretexting is more than assuming a falsified identity; it is more of living that identity. It is difficult but if it is successful, the social engineering attack will have been plotted on the right course. There are several tools used in this step and they will be discussed in this chapter.

The whole social engineering attack is based on mind tricks so this is a step that is used in many of the other parts of the social engineering attack framework. This part of the social engineering attack involves the use of specially crafted tricks to alter the thought patterns of victims. Mind tricks are used to some degree in many other areas in life, such as in sales to make product prices appear less costly and in interrogation rooms to make suspects take a plea. Mind tricks are more of a psychological affair and they are used to unlock the minds of the targets exposing them to the control of the social engineer. An excellent social engineer is a good mind reader and this is achieved by mastering a number of mind tricks.

Mind tricks begin with a rapport. It is the primal effort used to gain the trust and confidence of the targets. From there, the social engineer uses several tricks aimed at altering the normal thinking of the target's brain. It can only be likened to a hacking technique called buffer overflow. This is where a program is supplied with more data than it can contain in its buffers. Consequently, the program begins behaving erratically due to the overflow of information. The human brain can have its reasoning capacity similarly overwhelmed, opening it to manipulation from social engineers. There are three modes of thinking that can be exploited in a human, as shall be seen in Chapter 2, The Psychology of Social Engineering - Mind Tricks Used. These are as follows:

• Visual thinking: Visual thinkers are people that process information visually. They are good at picturing things and their decision making is normally based on the overall image that they create in their brains. Visual thinkers are therefore targeted with things that are visually appealing rather than those that are necessarily beneficial to them. Men tend to be majorly visual thinkers and that is why their products are made to be visually appealing in adverts. To get into the minds of visual thinkers, social engineers also focus on giving them visual inputs.
• Auditory thinking: Auditory thinkers are very good at reasoning from the sound of things. They are easily won over by voices since they are biased on how they process information from different sounds. They are easily touched by sounds and they easily create memories using them. It is good to note that they must not necessarily be talked to physically. They can be put into a state of thinking where they can assume a certain voice as they read through any text. They are more concerned with the careful selection of words and will pay very little attention to low-effort word choices.
• Kinesthetic thinking: Kinesthetic thinkers are emotional thinkers and they connect to emotions brought out from a conversation. They become warm if a conversation is warm, sympathetic if a conversation relates sorrowful ordeals, alongside many other emotions. Their emotions are up for grabs whenever they engage in a conversation and this puts them at a major disadvantage since emotions tend to be very powerful. Emotions can be used to make them change their decisions abruptly without any questions. Women majorly fall into this category where their emotions can be easily swayed.

These are the three basic modes of thinking that are present in humans. It should be noted that humans are not generally tied to a particular mode of thinking. They could have all three modes of thinking but one will be more dominant over the others. This is the mode of thinking that a social engineer will be looking for. Upon discovering it, the rest will be child's play. It will be very easy to come up with the scenarios that will make the target forfeit normal reasoning and act as the social engineer would wish.

The biggest hurdle is always discerning the dominant method of thinking. This calls for a conversation from which the social engineer can try out different contexts of stories and see whether they evoke the dominant sense in the target.

A visual thinker can be determined by the use of visual questions and comments. If the target seems to respond in kind, citing more visual aspects, it can be concluded that he or she is a visual thinker. A kinesthetic thinker, on the other hand, can be determined by the use of touching stories. He or she can also be determined by the willingness to touch and feel things. Therefore, if a target is eager to touch and feel a cloth or a watch, most likely he or she is a kinesthetic thinker. Similarly, if small stories filled with emotions seem to move the target, it can be said that the target is a kinesthetic thinker. A dominantly auditory thinker can be determined by observing his or her reactions when listening to or reading something. Those that hardly flinch are non-auditory thinkers. On the other hand, those that seem to be connecting to the words spoken or written are auditory thinkers.

The topic of mind tricks is very long and it will be looked at in more depth in the Chapter 2, The Psychology of Social Engineering - Mind Tricks Used. However, it is important to note that mind tricks are not a science. They rely on active adjustments on the social engineer's part. The discussed modes of thinking, for example, are not easy to determine. The only thing that a social engineer can do is observe as much as possible. The use of questions to discover one's mode of thinking can be irritating and off-putting. Therefore, the best weapon is observation. There are very many other things tied to thinking that will be discussed in the chapter. As was mentioned, mind tricks tend to be cross-cutting all the steps in the social engineering framework. They are not reserved for a certain event; they are brought in to play the moment a social engineering attack begins. Information gathering, elicitation, and pretexting are used to build up a more open stage for them to be employed. They are vital in the social engineering attack since they can make it shorter and more successful. After conquering the target's mind, the attack is as good as done. This interesting topic will be discussed in a future chapter.

Just like mind tricks, persuasion is a cross-cutting topic in the whole of the social engineering process and thus cannot be constrained to a certain step. To persuade a target, a social engineer needs to appeal to the target's interests first. Persuasion gets targets to react, think, and do exactly as the social engineer wants.

Persuasion leads to unquestionable influence in the minds of the targets. So that the attack is successful, social engineers perfect their persuasion skills. They make sure that the influence they have on the targets is undetectable but far-reaching. Persuasion can be best understood through the five fundamentals used by social engineers to instill it in the target's mind in the first place. They include:

• Clear goals: This is defined so that a target may helplessly fall under the control of the social engineer; he or she must appear to be having clear goals during engagements. It all comes down to the saying that if you focus on something, you are likely to become it. A social engineer will have clear goals already set up and they will all be logically structured. The goals should facilitate the achievement of the goals following them. Therefore, in any engagement that the social engineer will have with the target, say bumping into them in a coffee shop, there will already be a predefined goal and the achievement of this goal will facilitate the achievement of another goal. No goal is solitary; if it is, it can be ignored since it will not affect the success of the attack.
• Rapport: Rapport is built to ensure that the target trusts the social engineer. To build a rapport that will allow the social engineer to be persuasive to the target, the social engineer must have an understanding of the target's mind. There are different modes of thinking that have been discussed in the previous section. These are very crucial in building this rapport. Additional information about understanding the target's brain will be discussed in Chapter 2, The Psychology of Social Engineering - Mind Tricks Used.
• Being in tune: Social engineers are always aware of themselves and their surroundings. This enables the social engineer to have an external view and note when the attack is or is not moving as expected. It is essential for any social engineer who wants to be very persuasive to be a master of both watching and listening. A social engineer is also human and will naturally give off some communication or signals to the target. However, a social engineer should be able to mask the true facial expressions, gestures, microexpressions, and even their breathing rate and replace them with faked ones according to the progress of the attack. Therefore, the social engineer should learn how to observe those signals as an external entity and judge his or her appeal to the target. He or she should be aware of nonverbal cues given by the body and tune them to suit the attack environment. This awareness will enable him or her to appeal continually to the target.

• Flexibility: Persuasion is not a guaranteed method of getting to a target. It is not a chemical reaction where certain reactants will lead to a certain result or solution. Sometimes, even with the best tricks, a target might not appear convinced or persuaded. This might call the social engineer to move out of the scripted attack and come up with other tricks that may eventually win the target over. Therefore, planning ahead is not always an assurance that the attack will work and in many instances, the social engineer will be required to adjust his or her methods.
• Reciprocation: This is one of the commonly used tactics for persuading targets. Reciprocation in this context refers to the characteristic of a target wanting to pay back a favor done by the social engineer. Humans are accustomed to this to the point that reciprocation is done almost unconsciously. It is a trick used to unconsciously control the minds of people into doing things in someone's favor. For instance, a pharmaceutical company that comes and gifts hospital staff with free things such as clothes, pens, books, and hats does not do this in vain. It knows that when it comes to selecting medicine for patients, staff will want to reciprocate the favors and end up picking the company's drugs over others. Reciprocation works in the same fashion as social engineering. It follows a four-step cycle which is discussed as follows:
  • At first, the social engineer will give something valuable away
  • The target that receives it gets an indebted feeling
  • After some time, the social engineer will make a simple request
  • The target will be more than willing to grant that request

With this, the social engineer gains control of the target's brain.

Persuasion will be discussed in more detail in future chapters. It is a very valuable tactic for any social engineer. It keeps the attack moving and ensures that the target is put in a position where he or she only can support the progress of the attack. As mentioned, it might not always pan out as expected and therefore there should be backup plans in all persuasion attempts. The social engineering roadmap is shown in the following figure:

Social engineering is best done with the aid of tools so as to bring the social engineer closer to success. It is important to note that just owning or having access to the tools is not enough; one needs to understand the intrinsic details of how to use them effectively. That knowledge is the difference between success and failure. There are two main categories of tools used in social engineering—physical and software-based. To the social engineering framework, tools are normally a welcome addition as they complement the manual efforts of the social engineer.

Physical tools refer to all the tools used to facilitate a social engineering attack that does not involve the use of computers. Organizations and individuals invest in physical security measures to ensure that they limit physical access to a few authorized people. It is the reason why homes have doors, or even better, are surrounded by a fence and a gate. Social engineers will, if needed, have to break through all the physical security systems that their targets have put in place. There are a number of physical tools used which are as follows:

• Lock-picking tool: It is used to gain entry into places whose access is blocked by locks. Lock picking works on very many locks and this is why it is still a big threat today. Organizations are responding to lock picking by using more computerized physical access controls such as magnetic badge cards. It is surprising how organizations will protect thousand-dollar hardware using a $30 lock.
• Shove knife: This tool is used to gain access to doors that have knob locks. Many homes and server rooms will have these types of doors and a shove knife is the best tool to break into them. It slips into position and releases the latch. It does so without damaging the door.
• Bump key: A closely related tool is the bump key, which is a special key that has teeth designed to bump onto a lock's pins causing them to move to the right alignment and allow the plug to turn. Similarly, it does not damage the lock.

All the tools used to gain physical access are normally used to allow the social engineer to access some items or information that either finalizes or assists in the progress of an attack. For instance, a social engineer that has brought a target to the point of revealing a secret room in a house that contains a chest full of gems will use these tools to finalize the attack and steal the gems.

Software-based social engineering tools are those that involve the use of computers. It is important to note that these are tools that can be used for many other purposes, not just social engineering. As a matter of fact, social engineers borrow some of these tools, which are discussed as follows, from people such as spies:

• GPS tracker: One of these is a GPS tracker. Is there a better way to accidentally bump into targets than tracking all their movements and knowing exactly where to find them? A good example is a $200 SpyHawk that is magnetically stuck on a target's car and uses GPS to send back the exact coordinates of the vehicle. Today, most of the software-based social engineering tools are online. They can gather information about a target from online sources.
• Maltego: It is an online site that catalogs information about domains, IP addresses, organizations, and people among many other things. It is every social engineer's dream come true.

Maltego is able to bundle up the tiniest bits of information concerning a person, including reviews written on less-known e-commerce stores. It can find out information about a person, family members, relatives, close friends, and so many other details that it will be easy to find a weakness to hit the target with. From a social engineer's perspective, the main goal is to give the target an offer he or she cannot refuse. Natural greed will take care of the rest and soon enough the target will be begging for the offer:

• Social Engineer Toolkit (SET): As the name suggests, the SET contains a set of tools that the social engineer can use in many attacks. Primarily, the kit is used to create malicious files that can be sent through email to targets. The main objective is to infect the target's device with malware that can be used either to collect more information or do malicious damage on the device. The SET is the primary tool used in spearfishing attacks. Once the target's email is known, the SET is left to do the conjuring of a spell: a file that will attack the target after it is downloaded and opened. The SET is also used to clone websites and host them. It can clone Facebook and send a target a link to allow Facebook authentication and when the target enters the credentials, an error is thrown back. This technique is used for mass information gathering, especially for credentials used in email and online banking systems.

Other software-based tools include spoofers and password profilers, among a variety of very many others.

The SET screenshot from Kali Linux is as follows: