Manipulative communication—from early twentieth-century propaganda to today's online con artistry—examined through the lens of social engineering. The United States is awash in manipulated information about everything from election results to the effectiveness of medical treatments. Corporate social media is an especially good channel for manipulative communication, with Facebook a particularly willing vehicle for it. In Social Engineering, Robert Gehl and Sean Lawson show that online misinformation has its roots in earlier techniques: mass social engineering of the early twentieth century and interpersonal hacker social engineering of the 1970s, converging today into what they call “masspersonal social engineering.” As Gehl and Lawson trace contemporary manipulative communication back to earlier forms of social engineering, possibilities for amelioration become clearer. The authors show how specific manipulative communication practices are a mixture of information gathering, deception, and truth-indifferent statements, all with the instrumental goal of getting people to take actions the social engineer wants them to. Yet the term “fake news,” they claim, reduces everything to a true/false binary that fails to encompass the complexity of manipulative communication or to map onto many of its practices. They pay special attention to concepts and terms used by hacker social engineers, including the hacker concept of “bullshitting,” which the authors describe as a truth-indifferent mix of deception, accuracy, and sociability. They conclude with recommendations for how society can undermine masspersonal social engineering and move toward healthier democratic deliberation.
Author(s): Robert W. Gehl, Sean T Lawson
Edition: 1
Publisher: The MIT Press
Year: 2022
Language: English
Commentary: TruePDF | Full TOC
Pages: 342
Tags: Social Media: Security Measures; Computer Networks: Security Measures;>> Internet Fraud; Social Engineering
Cover
Half title
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction | The Emergence of Masspersonal Social Engineering
Why “Social Engineering” Is a Good Label
On Social Engineering
On Masspersonal Communication
Masspersonal Social Engineering
Plan of the Book
I | Engineering the Social
1 | Crowdmasters: The Rise and Fall of Mass Social Engineering, 1920–1976
Engineering Society
Social Reformers
Managerialist Social Engineers
Public Relations and the Mass Social Engineers
“Social Engineering” Becomes a Pejorative
Conclusion
2 | Phreaks and Hackers: The Rise of Interpersonal Social Engineering, 1976–Present
Intellectual Roots of Hacker Social Engineering
The Phone Phreaks
Phreaking and Hacking via Social Engineering
Hacker Social Engineering as Interpersonal Communication
Relating Mass and Interpersonal Social Engineering
Conclusion
II | The Social Engineering Process
3 | Trashing: From Dumpster Diving to Data Dumps
What Makes Social Engineering Trashing Possible?
Making a Trash Society: Sanitary Engineering and Mass Social Engineering
A Philosophy of Garbage
In the Dumpster
The Digital Dumpster
Trashing in the Digital Dumpster
Conclusion: Surveys, Dumpster Diving, and OSINT
4 | Pretexting: Recognizing the Mitnick Mythology
Hacker Pretexting
Mass Social Engineering Pretexts
The “World’s Most Famous Hacker”
Theories of Identity Play
Recognizing Mitnick’s Pretexting Successes: Structural Factors
Social Engineering and Stereotyping
Conclusion
5 | Bullshitting: Deception, Friendliness, and Accuracy
On Bullshit with the Phone Phreaks
Bullshitting the Operator: Best Practices
Bullshitting in Hacker Social Engineering
Bullshit among the Mass Social Engineers
Conclusion
6 | Penetrating: The Desire to Control Media and Minds
Interpersonal Penetration Metaphor: Sexual Conquest
Professional Penetration
Mass Social Engineering Metaphors: Bullets
Media Penetration by the Numbers
Penetrating Us for Our Own Good?
Conclusion
III | Masspersonal Social Engineering
7 | Contemporary Masspersonal Social Engineering
The Social Engineering Process
Masspersonal Social Engineering Cases: Russia and Cambridge Analytica
Masspersonal Social Engineering since 2016
Conclusion
8 | Conclusion: Ameliorating Masspersonal Social Engineering
Is Masspersonal Social Engineering Effective?
Can Masspersonal Social Engineering Be Ethical?
What to Do about Masspersonal Social Engineering?
Notes
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Bibliography
Index
