The first book to reveal and dissect the technical aspect of many social engineering maneuvers From elicitation, pretexting, influence and manipulation all aspects of social engineering are picked apart, discussed and explained by using real world examples, personal experience and the science behind them to unraveled the mystery in social engineering. Kevin Mitnick—one of the most famous social engineers in the world—popularized the term “social engineering.” He explained that it is much easier to trick someone into revealing a password for a system than to exert the effort of hacking into the system. Mitnick claims that this social engineering tactic was the single-most effective method in his arsenal. This indispensable book examines a variety of maneuvers that are aimed at deceiving unsuspecting victims, while it also addresses ways to prevent social engineering threats. Examines social engineering, the science of influencing a target to perform a desired task or divulge information Arms you with invaluable information about the many methods of trickery that hackers use in order to gather information with the intent of executing identity theft, fraud, or gaining computer system access Reveals vital steps for preventing social engineering threats Includes a direct URL to a free download of the world’s premiere penetration-testing distribution, BackTrack 4 SE Edition - geared towards Social Engineering Tools Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking does its part to prepare you against nefarious hackers—now you can do your part by putting to good use the critical information within its pages.

With the advent of rich Internet applications, the explosion of social media, and the increased use of powerful cloud computing infrastructures, a new generation of attackers has added cunning new techniques to its arsenal. For anyone involved in defending an application or a network of systems, Hacking: The Next Generation is one of the few books to identify a variety of emerging attack vectors. You'll not only find valuable information on new hacks that attempt to exploit technical flaws, you'll also learn how attackers take advantage of individuals via social networking sites, and abuse vulnerabilities in wireless technologies and cloud infrastructures. Written by seasoned information security professionals, this book helps you understand the motives and psychology of hackers behind the new wave of attacks, which enables you to better prepare and defend against them. * Learn how "inside out" attack techniques can poke holes into protected networks * Understand the new wave of "blended threats" that take advantage of multiple application vulnerabilities to steal corporate data * Read about weaknesses in today's powerful cloud infrastructures and how they can be exploited * Prevent attacks against the mobile workforce and their devices that contain valuable data * Be aware of attacks via social networking sites to obtain confidential information from executives and their assistants * Learn from case studies that show how several layers of vulnerabilities can be used to compromise multinational corporations