We are losing the battle, and quite frankly the war, against the conman, the trickster, but not the social engineer. I have to hold my hand up and admit that I’ve been duped; I’ve been had; I’ve been scammed by the greatest con of all time, social engineering. No, this isn’t were I tell you this talk is about the tricks we all fall for, to err is human, there’s no patch for human stupidity and all that crap. You’ve heard all that before. No, the greatest con of all time is ‘Social Engineering’ itself, or at least how we as a collective whole view it. ‘Social Engineers’ are our construct, our hypothetical, nay, mythical bad guy/gal. We have all fallen for it, and I am more guilty than most having being typecast as a ‘Social Engineer’, and revelling in it. Well, enough is enough. This talk is a journey, starting with why even the term ‘Social Engineering’ is wrong and moving on to how we have evolved as an industry to pick up (and implement) some very bad practices and viewpoints on the use of such ageless techniques. In my usual, Jac0byterebel trademark style, I will rant, I will swear, I will name and shame, I will piss many off, but win the hearts and minds of so many more. I will leave you, the attendee, the viewer, in no uncertain doubt as to the sins of our fathers. All of the above would be an utterly useless venture without providing solutions, takeaways we can use right away, not in some hypothetical scenario or roleplay, but in real life. Starting with the most rudimentary of fixes, a simple name change, you will be taken along the final stages of this journey and shown that all is not lost. We have learned much over the years but do not apply the knowledge in the way we should. We have many fonts of inspiration that have brought us to where we are, but are missing many more, sources of far greater value that can change the game. At the danger of sounding like the high school coach we all loved to hate I ask you this ‘Do you want to win the battle against the real enemy?’. Then come journey with me for an hour. Don’t want to win? Get out of my talk, hell, get out of my industry! half the battle, staying in wins the war.

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