I need to share first my urge to read. I have it since I was 5 years old and never overcome it. I like to immerse myself in another reality, see the world through someone else mind. I found that for me this is so enchanting that sometimes the thin line between book and reality mingle in my head and not sure if I read it or had really happened. Two days ago I was spying on my flatmate book and the name speaks to me, inviting me to have a second pick to see the author. As I am not great at hiding my enthusiasm, he gave it to me to read, as he was just re-reading some passages. I usually read on my Kindle out of commodity and because is easier for me to buy tones of books and keep it on a tiny device rather than on bookshelves in my room. This time I had to settle for a proper book with real pages and to be honest is getting more and more difficult for me to read it and I have already checked the price on Amazon 😀 Technology is sometimes addictive and does appeal to our laziness to become part of every day life.
Based on the same laziness we have inbuilt in ourselves, we are very easy to be hacked and the book has plenty of examples of how gullible we can be on the right hands. In few minutes you can find plenty of information on someone on a simple search. I usually do use this tool of research quite often in my job as a sales engineer to find information about the company and the person I will be in contact with. We live in an era when information is power and this is what makes me excel at what I do. Until reading this book I never thought of research being such a valuable skill and the main part of information gathering in social engineering.
For me, social engineering so far is an art to read people and how you handle the information is what makes all the difference. It is the subtle use of having your homework done and be aware of the breaches you have in your system (can be your mind, your email your social life). Could you be easily the subject of blackmail or how hurt would you be if someone will know the darkest secrets of your life? Most likely those secrets are more in plain view than you ever think.
I will close this post with a link for the book https://amzn.to/2QeHgRi in case you want to be more prepared for what others can know easily about you. Hopefully is not going to get you scared by rather a bit more careful with what you let yourself out there in the digital world.
Hugs,
Teodora
Photo by h heyerlein on Unsplash
