Social engineering is actually used in many setups and professions by people and institutions, discussed here as follows:
- Lawyers and psychologists: These groups of people have to get people into a certain state of mind to manipulate their minds. They use the same tactics as any other social engineer would use. It is just that they use them with non-malicious intentions. Through these tactics, they are able to conduct successful interrogations and interviews and get people to reveal information that they would otherwise withhold.
- Governments: Governments have to use social engineering to have control over the people that they govern. One of the key ways of social engineering people is by using authority. Governments are in control of most of the authority in the country and human brains are conditioned to adhere to authority. Another way is by using scarcity. If it is not there, governments will create scarcity so that they can retain the perception in people's minds that they (governments) are the ones still in charge. Scarcity can be of many things, such as information, money, or even food. In countries such as North Korea, food and information scarcity is abused by the regime in power to keep people obedient.
- Salespeople: They have mastered the art of convincing people to buy things including those that they have no need for. Salespeople are good social engineers since they are good at using multiple people skills to elicit demand for their products from potential customers. Today, salespeople are leveraging technology to assist them with information gathering and influencing people to buy certain products. Social engineering is playing a key role in all this.
- Recruiters: The human resource (HR) departments in most organizations are occupied by expert social engineers. Recruiters have mastered the art of reading people's minds to find out what really drives them and their suitability for advertised positions. Social engineering is used to get applicants to open up and divulge information that could help HR determine whether or not to hire them.
- Spies: Spies are extensively taught special social engineering techniques that they employ to fool people into believing that they are the people they have been posted as. They are also taught how to use social engineering tactics to collect intelligence from unsuspecting people. Spies can easily get confessions from hardcore criminals due to social engineering. Even when compromised, they can recover their secret identities using social engineering. Social engineering means survival for them and they are therefore extremely good at it.
- Scammers: Scams are mostly made possible by social engineering. A con artist must know how to attract people into buying a con without question. Con artists identify their marks from afar and study them over time. They pick up critical cues about their marks until they have enough information to hit them. Scammers have perfected the art of creating certain scenarios that are irresistible to their marks. It is through social engineering that all this is made possible.
- Identity thieves: Identity theft is a crime bigger than just stealing someone's name, bank account, address, and financial details. An identity thief at times has to become the person that he or she has stolen an identity from in order to commit a bigger crime that has higher returns. This is where social engineering comes into play. An identity thief will use different tactics to get along with people in the life of the victim. An identity thief will exploit the status of the victim's profile to get favors done for him. If the identity that has been stolen is of a senior staff member at an organization, the identity thief could use authority to coerce finance employees to make some unverified payments. Identity theft is highly supported by social engineering.
All these people use social engineering in both positive and negative ways. However, the focus of this book is social engineering for malicious purposes. It is a major concern for many people, organizations, and governments. It has made many lose faith in the protection of their systems.