Social Engineering

 

Let’s get real.

Nobody wants to admit that they have ever been scammed, conned, swindled, disorganized, overwhelmed or just plain sloppy.  Yet it has happened to them or their company, sometimes resulting in devastating circumstances.

Maybe it has happened to you.

Our company is about keeping you safe, strong and smart. Safe from cyber attacks against you, your people or your company that steal your identity, your private or corporate information and your sanity. Strong and smart from being harmed by people or information that lies, deceives and manipulates you into dangerous situations. This happens at home and at work every day. It’s called Social Engineering, and it can happen to you.

What is social engineering? Simply put, social engineering is manipulation to get people to do something for personal gain.  Some people also confuse it with persuasion and influence, which is also getting people to do something they may not want to do.

Huh? So what’s the difference?

One word:

INTENT

When you are manipulated because the intent is win-lose, you feel victimized.  When you are persuaded and the intent is win-win, you feel victorious. That is Social Engineering – from both sides of Intent.

Our company works on both sides of Social Engineering – to stop the bad intent and to educate for good intent for better behavior, influence, process, communication and clarity.

It’s everywhere. Imagine these scenarios REAL social engineers use to gain information to victimize you:

In a physical environment:

  • Acting like they are lost to gain access to your building (Confusion con)
  • Driving through open gates after someone else uses the code (Opportunist)
  • Random flower delivery (or other delivery) (Trusted worker con)
  • Unverified telephone/computer/security repair person (Trusted Professional)
  • Person showing up for meeting unannounced (Urgency scam)

What are they looking for? Access to your building, your security system, your network, your corporate or personal documents and much more.

These types of attacks are generally done without your knowledge.

Online or digitally, it’s explosive. It looks like this:

  • An official looking email coming from a usually trusted source (Phishing)
  • A private email from someone who claims you recently met (Spear-Phishing)
  • An email “from a friend” or someone you know telling you to click on a link (Spoof)
  • A phone call from tech support telling you there’s a problem with your computer or network (Scam)
  • A website that seems official but sets up a keyboard logger to take over your personal computer or network (Hack)
  • Put downs, smear campaigns, reputation destruction, disparaging remarks, bullying and deception used to hurt people at work and at home. (Abuse)

Why do these spammers, con artists and swindlers and bullies do what they do? Several reasons:

Money
Greed
Power
Confidence
Prestige
Recognition
Awareness
Entitlement
Self-Worth

to name a few.

Dealing with these things costs you time, money and stress.

But put with good intent, these EXACT same social engineering techniques can get great win-win results.

safestrongsmart

How?  The answer is simple:  People WANT to be persuaded.  They DO NOT want to be bullied or manipulated.  People WANT more money, power, recognition, self-worth and a lot more. This is true in sales, customer service, dating, caregiving, personal, parental, professional relationships and a whole host of other scenarios.

Safe, Strong and Smart against Scams, Cons and Swindles

By using the same social engineering techniques to plug leaks in people, technology, communication, systems and focus, more time and less stress results are guaranteed.  In fact, you may even see results like these (from our clients):

  • Tripled growth in 24 months (Systems)
  • 50% increase in sales IN ONE DAY for 85 person call center team (Communication)
  • Productivity increase in HR department by 35% in 2 months (Focus)
  • Took 12 person leadership team from fighting to future in 6 months (Behavior)
  • Immediate increase in sales after script rewrite. (Persuasion)
  • Job placement success rate through profiling properly (Behavioral Profiling)
  • Caught phishing email at the source in 10 minutes – 110 computer network (Cyber Intelligence)
  • With proper intent and techniques, you could also see this:
  • Fighting among partners/co-workers/spouses in sharp decline
  • Decreased number of successful cyber attacks
  • Soaring confidence and job loyalty
  • Fewer lost work days
  • Decreased sick time
  • Increased health
  • Stronger relationships

and so much more.

Sound too good to be true?  It’s not.  We’ve been doing this work for decades.  Safety and security is in our DNA (so to speak).

So who are we?

We are a veteran group of professional  behaviorists, writers, technicians, intelligence specialists and cyber crime investigators with decades of experience into not just technology but also human behavior that makes people and companies vulnerable to social engineering damage.

We would typically be called “White Hat” people — we use our skills for good.

Through consulting, education and publishing, we specialize in stopping damage from negative social engineering and promoting positive persuasion, both human and cyber.

Led by behavioral profiler,  best-selling author, business systems and cyber intelligence expert Stephanie Frank, we call ourselves the SuperSEC SuperHeros.  SuperSEC stands for Social Engineering Cops and we are here to help you get smart about preventing scams, cons and swindles that cost you time, lost profits and increased stress.

Here are a few of our SuperHeroes:  (because we are often upon for confidential social engineering work, our experts must remain nameless here – yet I guarantee that they are VERY real).

Plus, we have a good sense of humor and like to keep it that way.

Merlando – Wizard of the Web

A master persuader, this SuperHero is a linguistic and communications expert.  The persuasion tactics used by this SuperHero motivate people into action – quickly, confidently and comfortably.

Pandora – The Productive Process Queen

This SuperHero is a systems ninja.  Trained to spot redundancies in effort and cut through clutter quickly, this SuperHero finds and fixes process problems that put you at risk.

Doga – Deception Detector

With a quick wit and a charming smile, this SuperHero can spot a con a mile away.  By combining business mastery with persuasion, exposing untruth is the specialty that you need to make the right choices about people.

Trinity – Radically Resilient

This SuperHero stands for justice, triumph and peak performance.  By eliminating the thoughts, habits and actions that cause disorganization and overwhelm, this SuperHero saves you big in time, effort, energy and money.

Layla – Defender of the Digital Fortress

Layla is the Queen of the SuperHeroes.  She is responsible for understanding and deterring the tactics of social engineers who aim to destroy you and your company through manipulation of email and technology.