Case-Study-I-Social-Engineering-and-Insider-Threat-10-05 - .pdf

So c i a l Eng i neer i ng and I ns i der Threa t
In recent years insider threat and social engineering techniques have been ever so prevalent. It
is the combination of these two techniques that make it almost impossible to detect and mitigate. One
well known insider threat used social engineering within a classified data center and happens to be one
of the most wanted in the latest espionage cases in The United States. There are two distinct
classifications of social engineering and several social and psychological characteristics that may let you
know who may be considered an insider threat at the work place.
The two major categories of social engineering are:
1. Internal
2. External
Some of the psychological and social characteristics of insider threat detection are:
1. Showing financial troubles by complaining in the work place about bills and asking to borrow
money
2. Distress
3. Depression
4. Moody and angry disposition
5. Continuous family drama and problems that may result from work or is constantly talked about
at their place of employment
6. Drug and alcohol abuse
Now that you know some of the basic characteristics and the different categories of social engineering
and insider threats, let’s see if you can detect some of these in the following brief case scenario:
Joe is a manager of a big box store that recently opened and is named “Housing Warehouse
Stores.” The technology in the new store was state of the art. The newly opened store was supplied with
its own independent client servers, patch panels, and communication demarcation access point for the
communication fiber backbone and distributed LAN and WAN network system.