Security Compliance Associates

Social engineering is a term that describes a non-technical kind of intrusion that relies heavily on human interaction and often involves tricking other people to break normal security procedures. A social engineer runs what used to be called a con-game.

For example, a person using social engineering to break into a computer network would try to gain the confidence of someone who is authorized to access the network in order to get them to reveal information that compromises the network's security.

They might call the authorized employee with some kind of urgent problem; social engineers often rely on the natural helpfulness of people as well as on their weaknesses. Appeal to vanity, appeal to authority, and old-fashioned eavesdropping are typical social engineering techniques.

Another aspect of social engineering relies on people's inability to keep up with a culture that relies heavily on information technology.
Social engineers rely on the fact that people are not aware of the value of the information they possess and are careless about protecting it.

During this phase of the engagement, Security Compliance Associates will attempt to penetrate nonpublic areas of the facility during and after business hours, attempt to gain access to employees’ desktop computers, attempt to gain access to sensitive documents and information stored on other media, and conduct pretext calling and e-mail phishing to test and evaluate employee awareness and response.

SCA conducts elements of social engineering, during each on-site visit.