social engineering (noun)

Rick Howard: The word is social engineering. Also known as propaganda, advertising and marketing, influence operations, information warfare and confidence games.

Rick Howard: Definition: the art of convincing a person or persons to take an action that may or may not be in their best interests.

Rick Howard: Example sentence: Professional conmen Johnny Hooker and Henry Gondorff social engineered the mobster Doyle Lonnegan out of five hundred thousand dollars.

Rick Howard: Context: social engineering in some form or the other has been around since the beginning of time, the biblical story of Esau and Jacob might be considered one of the earliest written social engineering stories. As applied to cybersecurity, it usually involves hackers obtaining information illegitimately by deceiving or manipulating people who have legitimate access to that information. Common tactics involve phishing attacks and watering hole attacks.

Rick Howard: In the movie "The Sting" that debuted in 1973 and won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, professional conmen Johnny Hooker, played by Robert Redford and Henry Gondorff, played by Paul Newman, won a confidence game against mobster Doyle Lonnegan, played by Robert Shaw. They steal five hundred thousand dollars in 1936 money to avenge their conman friend Luther because Lonnegan had Luther killed.