The Art of Deception Part 10

Beyond these steps, I strongly recommend use of the less common, but no less important, software packages that guard against Trojan Horse attacks, so-called anti-Trojan software. At the time of this writing, two of the better-known programs are The Cleaner (www.moosoft.com), and Trojan Defense Sweep (www.diamondcs.com.au).

Finally, what is probably the most important security message of all for companies that do not scan for dangerous emails at the corporate gateway: Since we all tend to be forgetful or negligent about things that seem peripheral to getting our jobs done, employees need to be reminded over and over again, in different ways, about not opening email attachments unless they are certain that the source is a person or organization they can trust. And management also needs to remind employees that they must use active virus software and anti-Trojan software that provides invaluable protection against the seemingly trustworthy email that may contain a destructive payload.

Chapter 8.

Using Sympathy, Guilt, and Intimidation.

As discussed in Chapter 15, a social engineer uses the psychology of influence to lead his target to comply with his request. Skilled social engineers are very adept at developing a ruse that stimulates emotions, such as fear, excitement, or guilt.

They do this by using psychological triggers--automatic mechanisms that lead people to respond to requests without in-depth a.n.a.lysis of all the available information.

We all want to avoid difficult situations for ourselves and others. Based on this positive impulse, the attacker can play on a person's sympathy, make his victim feel guilty, or use intimidation as a weapon.

Here are some graduate-school lessons in popular tactics that play on the emotions.

A VISIT TO THE STUDIO.

Have you ever noticed how some people can walk up to the guard at the door of, say, a hotel ballroom where some meeting, private party, or book-launching function is under way, and just walk past that person without being asked for his ticket or pa.s.s?

In much the same way, a social engineer can talk his way into places that you would not have thought possible - as the following story about the movie industry makes clear.

The Phone Call "Ron Hillyard's office, this is Dorothy."

"Dorothy, hi. My name is Kyle Bellamy. I've just come on board to work in Animation Development on Brian Gla.s.sman's staff. You folks sure do things different over here."

"I guess. I never worked on any other movie lot so I don't really know. What can I do for you?"

"To tell you the truth, I'm feeling sort of stupid. I've got a writer coming over this afternoon for a pitch session and I don't know who I'm supposed to talk to about getting him onto the lot. The people over here in Brian's office are really nice but I hate to keep bothering them, how do I do this, how do I do that. It's like I just started junior high and can't find my way to the bathroom. You know what I mean?"

Dorothy laughed.

"You want to talk to Security. Dial 7, and then 6138. If you get Lauren, tell her Dorothy said she should take good care of you."

"Thanks, Dorothy. And if I can't find the men's room, I may call you back!"

They chuckled together over the idea, and hung up.

David Harold's Story I love the movies and when I moved to Los Angeles, I thought I'd get to meet all kinds of people in the movie business and they'd take me along to parties and have me over to lunch at the studios. Well, I was there for a year, I was turning twenty-six years old, and the closest I got was going on the Universal Studios tour with all the nice people from Phoenix and Cleveland.

So finally it got to the point where I figured, if they won't invite me in, I'll invite myself. Which is what I did.

I bought a copy of the Los Angeles Times and read the entertainment column for a couple of days, and wrote down the names of some producers at different studios. I decided I'd try hitting on one of the big studios first. So I called the switchboard and asked for the office of this producer I had read about in the paper. The secretary that answered sounded like the motherly type, so I figured I had gotten lucky; if it was some young girl who was just there hoping she'd be discovered, she probably wouldn't have given me the time of day.

But this Dorothy, she sounded like somebody that would take in a stray kitten, somebody who'd feel sorry for the new kid that was feeling a little overwhelmed on the new job. And I sure got just the right touch with her. It's not every day you try to trick somebody and they give you even more than you asked for. Out of pity, she not only gave me the name of one of the people in Security, but said I should tell the lady that Dorothy wanted her to help me.

Of course I had planned to use Dorothy's name anyway. This made it even better.

Lauren opened right up and never even bothered to look up the name I gave to see if it was really in the employee database.

When I drove up to the gate that afternoon, they not only had my name on the visitor's list, they even had a parking s.p.a.ce for me. I had a late lunch at the commissary, and wandered the lot until the end of the day. I even sneaked into a couple of sound stages and watched them shooting movies. Didn't leave till 7 o'clock. It was one of my most exciting days ever.

a.n.a.lyzing the Con Everybody was a new employee once. We all have memories of what that first day was like, especially when we were young and inexperienced. So when a new employee asks for help, he can expect that many people-- especially entry-level people--will remember their own new-kid on-the- block feelings and go out of their way to lend a hand. The social engineer knows this, and he understands that he can use it to play on the sympathies of his victims.

We make it too easy for outsiders to con their way into our company plants and offices. Even with guards at entrances and sign-in procedures for anyone who isn't an employee, any one of several variations on the ruse used in this story will allow an intruder to obtain a visitor's badge and walk right in. And if your company requires that visitors be escorted? That's a good rule, but it's only effective if your employees are truly conscientious about stopping anyone with or without a visitor's badge who is on his own, and questioning him. And then, if the answers aren't satisfactory, your employees have to be willing to contact security.

Making it too easy for outsiders to talk their way into your facilities endangers your company's sensitive information. In today's climate, with the threat of terrorist attacks hanging over our society, it's more than just information that could be at risk.

"DO IT NOW".

Not everyone who uses social engineering tactics is a polished social engineer.

Anybody with an insider's knowledge of a particular company can turn dangerous. The risk is even greater for any company that holds in its files and databases any personal information about its employees, which, of course, most companies do.

When workers are not educated or trained to recognize social engineering attacks, determined people like the jilted lady in the following story can do things that most honest people would think impossible.

Doug's Story Things hadn't been going all that well with Linda anyway, and I knew as soon as I met Erin that she was the one for me. Linda is, like, a little bit... well, sort of not exactly unstable but she can sort of go off the deep end when she gets upset.

I told her as gentle as I could that she had to move out, and I helped her pack and even let her take a couple of the Queensryche CDs that were really mine. As soon as she was gone I went to the hardware store for a new Medico lock to put on the front door and put it on that same night. The next morning I called the phone company and had them change my phone number, and made it unpublished.

That left me free to pursue Erin.

Linda's Story I was ready to leave, anyway, I just hadn't decided when. But n.o.body likes to feel rejected. So it was just a question of, what could I do to let him know what a jerk he was?

It didn't take long to figure out. There had to be another girl, otherwise he wouldn't of sent me packing in such a hurry. So I'd just wait a bit and then start calling him late in the evening. You know, around the time they would least want to be called.

I waited till the next weekend and called around 11 o'clock on Sat.u.r.day night.

Only he had changed his phone number. And the new number was unlisted. That just shows what kind of SOB the guy was.

It wasn't that big of a setback. I started rummaging through the papers I had managed to take home just before I left my job at the phone company. And there it was--I had saved a repair ticket from once when there was a problem with the telephone line at Doug's, and the printout listed the cable and pair for his phone. See, you can change your phone number all you want, but you still have the same pair of copper wires running from your house to the telephone company switching office, called the Central Office, or CO. The set of copper wires from every house and apartment is identified by these numbers, called the cable and pair. And if you know how the phone company does things, which I do, knowing the target's cable and pair is all you need to find out the phone number.

I had a list giving all the COs in the city, with their addresses and phone numbers. I looked up the number for the CO in the neighborhood where I used to live with Doug the jerk, and called, but naturally n.o.body was there.

Where's the switchman when you really need him? Took me all of about twenty seconds to come up with a plan. I started calling around to the other COs and finally located a guy. But he was miles away and he was probably sitting there with his feet up. I knew he wouldn't want to do what I needed. I was ready with my plan.

"This is Linda, Repair Center," I said. "We have an emergency. Service for a paramedic unit has gone down. We have a field tech trying to restore service but he can't find the problem. We need you to drive over to the Webster CO immediately and see if we have dial tone leaving the central office."

And then I told him, 'I'll call you when you get there," because of course I couldn't have him calling the Repair Center and asking for me.

I knew he wouldn't want to leave the comfort of the central office to bundle up and go sc.r.a.pe ice off his windshield and drive through the slush late at night. But it was an emergency, so he couldn't exactly say he was too busy.

When I reached him forty-five minutes later at the Webster CO, I told him to check cable 29 pair 2481, and he walked over to the flame and checked and said, Yes, there was dial tone. Which of course I already knew.

So then I said, "Okay, I need you to do an LV," which means line verification, which is asking him to identify the phone number. He does this by dialing a special number that reads back the number he called from. He doesn't know anything about if it's an unlisted number or that it's justbeen changed, so he did what I asked and I heard the number being announced over his lineman's test set.

Beautiful. The whole thing had worked like a charm.

I told him, "Well, the problem must be out in the field," like I knew the ,,umber all along. I thanked him and told him we'd keep working on it, and said good night.

MITNICK MESSAGE.

Once a social engineer knows how things work inside the targeted company, it becomes easy to use that knowledge to develop rapport with legitimate employees. Companies need to prepare for social engineering attacks from current or former employees who may have an axe to grind. Background checks may be helpful to weed out prospects who may have a propensity toward this type of behavior. But in most cases, these people will be extremely difficult to detect. The only reasonable safeguard in these cases is to enforce and audit procedures for verifying ident.i.ty, including the person's employment status, prior to disclosing any information to anyone not personally known to still be with the company.

So much for that Doug and trying to hide from me behind an unlisted number.

The fun was about to begin.

a.n.a.lyzing the Con The young lady in this story was able to get the information she wanted to carry out her revenge because she had inside knowledge: the phone numbers, procedures, and lingo of the telephone company. With it she was not only able to find out a new, unlisted phone number, but was able to do it in the middle of a wintry night, sending a telephone switchman chasing across town for her.

"MR. BIGG WANTS THIS".

A popular and highly effective form of intimidation--popular in large measure because it's so simple--relies on influencing human behavior by using authority.

Just the name of the a.s.sistant in the CEO's office can be valuable. Private investigators and even head-hunters do this all the time. They'll call the switchboard operator and say they want to be connected to the CEO's office.

When the secretary or executive a.s.sistant answers, they'll say they have a doc.u.ment or package for the CEO, or if they send an email attachment, would she print it out? Or else they'll ask, what's the fax number? And by the way, what's your name?

Then they call the next person, and say, "Jeannie in Mr. Bigg's office told me to call you so you can help me with something."

The technique is called name-dropping, and it's usually used as a method to quickly establish rapport by influencing the target to believe that the attacker is connected with somebody in authority. A target is more likely to do a favor for someone who knows somebody he knows.

If the attacker has his eyes set on highly sensitive information, he may use this kind of approach to stir up useful emotions in the victim, such as fear of getting into trouble with his superiors. Here's an example.

Scott's Story "Scott Abrams."

"Scott, this is Christopher Dalbridge. I just got off the phone with Mr. Biggley, and he's more than a little unhappy. He says he sent a note ten days ago that you people were to get copies of all your market penetration research over to us for a.n.a.lysis. We never got a thing."

"Market penetration research? n.o.body said anything to me about it.

What department are you in?"

"We're a consulting firm he hired, and we're already behind schedule." "Listen, I'm just on my way to a meeting. Let me get your phone number and . . ."

The attacker now sounded just short of truly frustrated: "Is that what you want me to tell Mr. Biggley?! Listen, he expects our a.n.a.lysis by tomorrow morning and we have to work on it tonight. Now, do you want me to tell him we couldn't do it 'cause we couldn't get the report from you, or do you want to tell him that yourself?."

An angry CEO can ruin your week. The target is likely to decide that maybe this is something he better take care of before he goes into that meeting. Once again, the social engineer has pressed the right b.u.t.ton to get the response he wanted.

a.n.a.lyzing the Con The ruse of intimidation by referencing authority works especially well if the other person is at a fairly low level in the company. The use of an important person's name not only overcomes normal reluctance or suspicion, but often makes the person eager to please; the natural instinct of wanting to be helpful is multiplied when you think that the person you're helping is important or influential.

The social engineer knows, though, that it's best when running this particular deceit to use the name of someone at a higher level than the person's own boss.

And this gambit is tricky to use within a small organization: The attacker doesn't want his victim making a chance comment to the VP of marketing. "I sent out the product marketing plan you had that guy call me about," can too easily produce a response of "What marketing plan? What guy?" And that could lead to the discovery that the company has been victimized.

MITNICKS MESSAGE.

Intimidation can create a fear of punishment, influencing people to cooperate.

Intimidation can also raise the fear of embarra.s.sment or of being disqualified from that new promotion.

People must be trained that it's not only acceptable but expected to challenge authority when security is at stake. Information security training should include teaching people how to challenge authority in customer-friendly ways, without damaging relationships. Moreover, this expectation must be supported from the top down. If an employee is not going to be backed up for challenging people regardless of their status, the normal reaction is to stop challenging--just the opposite of what you want.

WHAT THE SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION KNOWS ABOUT.

YOU.

We like to think that government agencies with les on us keep the information safely locked away from people without an authentic need to know. The reality is that even the federal government isn't as immune to penetration as we would like to imagine.

May Linn's Phone Call Place: A regional office of the Social Security Administration A regional office of the Social Security Administration Time: Time: 1 0:1 8 A.M., Thursday morning 1 0:1 8 A.M., Thursday morning "Mod Three. This is May Linn w.a.n.g."

The voice on the other end of the phone sounded apologetic, almost timid.

"Ms. w.a.n.g, this is Arthur Arondale, in the Office of the Inspector General. Can I call you 'May'?

"It's 'May Linn'," she said.

"Well, it's like this, May Linn. We've got a new guy in here who there's no computer for yet, and right now he's got a priority project and he's using mine.

We're the government of the United States, for cryin' out loud, and they say they don't have enough money in the budget to buy a computer for this guy to use.

And now my boss thinks I'm falling behind and doesn't want to hear any excuses, you know?"

"I know what you mean, all right."

"Can you help me with a quick inquiry on MCS?" he asked, using the name of the computer system for looking up taxpayer information.

"Sure, what'cha need?"

"The first thing I need you to do is an alphadent on Joseph Johnson, DOB 7/4/69." (Alphadent means to have the computer search for an account alphabetically by taxpayer name, further identified by date of birth.) After a brief pause, she asked: "What do you need to know?"

"What's his account number?" he said, using the insider's shorthand for the social security number. She read it off.

"Okay, I need you to do a numident on that account number,"

the caller said.

That was a request for her to read off the basic taxpayer data, and May Linn responded by giving the taxpayer's place of birth, mother's maiden name, and father's name. The caller listened patiently while she also gave him the month and year the card was issued, and the district office it was issued by.

He next asked for a DEQY. (p.r.o.nounced "DECK-wee," it's short for "detailed earnings query.") The DEQY request brought the response, "For what year?"

The caller replied, "Year 2001 ."

May Linn said, "The amount was $190,286, the payer was Johnson MicroTech."