Have we effectively taught ourselves how to be antisocial?

[tgoe]

Ok, I understand that. By "hacker" I didn't mean "the one who can break systems" type, but "the one who can build and tweak systems creatively" type of hackers. SE is purely a black hat skill. Yes, it takes some skill and even creativity to social engineer, but it still is what it is: immoral cheating. That's why I'm confused.

There is the The Art of War angle. "Know thine enemy".

i.e. "White Hats" should be interested in SE simply because it is a "Black Hat" tool.

Social engineering simply means to lie to other people, manipulate them and cheat them to do harm.

I disagree. The main goal of SE is to advantage oneself, not harm others.

[sanddbox]

I partially agree with Neuromanta. While Social Engineering is a legitimate skill, many people use social engineering as a guise to pretend to be hackers without any actual technical knowledge. Then again, it usually works, so they must be good social engineers.

[Goatboy]

I partially agree with Neuromanta. While Social Engineering is a legitimate skill, many people use social engineering as a guise to pretend to be hackers without any actual technical knowledge. Then again, it usually works, so they must be good social engineers.

Yea, like if someone SE'd their way to a high position in a security forum but in reality was just REALLY good at bullshitting.


But srsly, SE is definitely not an inherently bad skill. You can use it to help people, usually called reverse psychology in this case. If someone is dead-set on fucking up some aspect of their life, you can SE the situation and get them to stop without realizing it. Usually though, it's to benefit the user. I recently found out that that to check in at the Rio for DefCon, you have to be 21. I'll be 20.8 by then. Using my quick wit and good looks, I was able to get the receptionist to tell me a work-around that didn't involve time travel or date-rape*.

* This didn't actually happen. I just needed to give a good example. I am, however, quick-witted and good-looking**.
** Depending on who you ask, this can have multiple truth values.***
*** INCEPTION