Re: Re-set User Id.

[Chuck Lewis <clewis@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Yep, think that is refereed to as "social engineering" ?
They also used/use "dumpster diving" to get user names...

There was an infamous case years ago where a group of hackers said they could
get into the nerve center of one of the West Coast telco's. The telco told
them, yah, fat chance. Then the hackers told the press they had and the telco
said they were lying and then the hackers produced video tapes of them
strolling around inside this place... They were kids and had gotten everything
they needed from the telco's dumpsters !

Chuck

Mike Naughton wrote:

> I remember reading that Kevin Mitnick (for a while one of the most-wanted
> hackers) said that the easiest way to gain entry to a system is simply to
> call up and ask for it (pretending, of course, to be someone who has a
> genuine need for it). Once he was in, he used his considerable computer
> skills to play around, but IIRC he claimed that he rarely had to use them
> to get in  in the first place. . . . .
>
> midrange-l@midrange.com writes:
> >We get phone calls from people trying to spoof our security.
> >MIS errs on the side of caution ... WHO THE HELL ARE YOU & WHY DO YOU
> >NEED TO
> >BYPASS OUR SECURITY?
> >
> >A receptionist type person is likely to err on the side of letting HACKERS
> >GET IN.
> >"I am manager at X site & I need security access for my new employees."
> >and
> >the receptionist person has no idea that the caller is in fact a person
> >with
> >no such authority.
> >
> >MacWheel99@aol.com (Alister Wm Macintyre) (Al Mac)
>
> Mike Naughton
> Senior Programmer/Analyst
> Judd Wire, Inc.
> 124 Turnpike Road
> Turners Falls, MA  01376
> 413-863-4357 x444
> mnaughton@juddwire.com
>
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