Chapter 2
He a.s.sured her it would be a breeze, quoted a fee, expenses billed at cost, and collected a check for the first payment.
Then he faced his problem. What do you do if you've never handled a piece of work like this before and don't quite know how to go about tracking down a money trail? You move forward by baby steps. Here, accord- mg to our source, is Grace's story.
I knew about CreditChex and how banks used the outfit - my ex-wife used to work at a bank. But I didn't know the lingo and procedures, and trying to ask my ex- would be a waste of time.
Step one: Get the terminology straight and figure out how to make the request so it sounds like I know what I'm talking about. At the bank I called, the first young lady, Kim, was suspicious when I asked about how they identify themselves when they phone CreditChex. She hesitated; she didn't know whether to tell me.
Was I put off by that? Not a bit. In fact, the hesitation gave me an important clue, a sign that I had to supply a reason she'd find believable. When I worked the con on her about doing research for a book, it relieved her suspicions. You say you're an author or a movie writer, and everybody opens up.
She had other knowledge that would have helped - things like what reformation CreditChex requires to identify the person you're calling about, what information you can ask for, and the big one, what was Kim's bank Merchant ID number. I was ready to ask those questions, but her hesitation sent up the red flag. She bought the book research story, but she already had a few niggling suspicions. If she'd been more willing right way, I would have asked her to reveal more details about their procedures.
LINGO.
MARK: The victim of a con. The victim of a con.
BURN THE SOURCE: An attacker is said to have burned the source when he allows a victim to recognize that an attack has taken place. Once the victim becomes aware and notifies other employees or management of the attempt, it becomes extremely difficult to exploit the same source in future attacks. An attacker is said to have burned the source when he allows a victim to recognize that an attack has taken place. Once the victim becomes aware and notifies other employees or management of the attempt, it becomes extremely difficult to exploit the same source in future attacks.
You have to go on gut instinct, listen closely to what the mark is saying and how she's saying it. This lady sounded smart enough for alarm bells to start going off if I asked too many unusual questions. And even though she didn't know who I was or what number I was calling from, still in this business you never want anybody putting out the word to be on the look out for someone calling to get information about the business. That's because you don't want to burn the source - you may want to call same office back another time.
I'm always on the watch for little signs that give me a read on how cooperative a person is, on a scale that runs from "You sound like a nice person and I believe everything you're saying" to "Call the cops, alert the National Guard, this guy's up to no good."
I read Kim as a little bit on edge, so I just called somebody at a different branch.
On my second call with Chris, the survey trick played like a charm. The tactic here is to slip the important questions in among inconsequential ones that are used to create a sense of believability. Before I dropped the question about the Merchant ID number with CreditChex, I ran a little last-minute test by asking her a personal question about how long she'd been with the bank.
A personal question is like a land mine - some people step right over it and never notice; for other people, it blows up and sends them scurrying for safety. So if I ask a personal question and she answers the question and the tone of her voice doesn't change, that means she probably isn't skeptical about the nature of the request. I can safely ask the sought after question without arousing her suspicions, and she'll probably give me the answer I'm looking for.
One more thing a good PI knows: Never end the conversation after getting the key information. Another two or three questions, a little chat, and then it's okay to say good-bye. Later, if the victim remembers anything about what you asked, it will probably be the last couple of questions. The rest will usually be forgotten.
So Chris gave me their Merchant ID number, and the phone number they call to make requests. I would have been happier if I had gotten to ask some questions about how much information you can get from CreditChex. But it was better not to push my luck.
It was like having a blank check on CreditChex. I could now call and get information whenever I wanted. I didn't even have to pay for the service. As it turned out, the CreditChex rep was happy to share exactly the information I wanted: two places my client's husband had recently applied to open an account.
So where were the a.s.sets his soon-to-be ex-wife was looking for? Where else but at the banking inst.i.tutions the guy at CreditChex listed?
a.n.a.lyzing the Con This entire ruse was based on one of the fundamental tactics of social engineering: gaining access to information that a company employee treats as innocuous, when it isn't.
The first bank clerk confirmed the terminology to describe the identifying number used when calling CreditChex: the Merchant ID. The second provided the phone number for calling CreditChex, and the most vital piece of information, the bank's Merchant ID number. All this information appeared to the clerk to be innocuous. After all, the bank clerk thought she was talking to someone from CreditChex -so what could be the harm in disclosing the number?
All of this laid the groundwork for the third call. Grace had everything he needed to phone CreditChex, pa.s.s himself off as a rep from one of their customer banks, National, and simply ask for the information he was after.
With as much skill at stealing information as a good swindler has at stealing your money, Grace had well-honed talents for reading people. He knew the common tactic of burying the key questions among innocent ones. He knew a personal question would test the second clerk's willingness to cooperate, before innocently asking for the Merchant ID number.
The first clerk's error in confirming the terminology for the CreditChex ID number would be almost impossible to protect against. The information is so widely known within the banking industry that it appears to be unimportant - the very model of the innocuous. But the second clerk, Chris, should not have been so willing to answer questions without positively verifying that the caller was really who he claimed to be. She should, at the very least, have taken his name and number and called back; that way, if any questions arose later, she may have kept a record of what phone number the person had used. In this case, making a call like that would have made it much more difficult for the attacker to masquerade as a representative from CreditChex.
MITNICK MESSAGE.
A Merchant ID in this situation is a.n.a.logous to a pa.s.sword. If bank personnel treated it like an ATM PIN, they might appreciate the sensitive nature of the information. Is there an internal code or number in your organization that people aren't treating with enough care?
Better still would have been a call to CreditChex using a nun bank already had on record - not a number provided by the caller to verify that the person really worked there, and that the company was really doing a customer survey. Given the practicalities of the real world and the time pressures that most people work under today, though, this kind of verification phone call is a lot to expect, except when an employee is suspicious that some kind of attack is being made.
THE ENGINEER TRAP.
It is widely known that head-hunter firms use social engineering to recruit corporate talent.
In the late 1990s, a not very ethical employment agency signed a new client, a company looking for electrical engineers with experience in the telephone industry. The honcho on the project was a lady endowed with a throaty voice and s.e.xy manner that she had learned to use to develop initial trust and rapport over the phone.
The lady decided to stage a raid on a cellular phone service provider to see if she could locate some engineers who might be tempted to walk across the street to a compet.i.tor. She couldn't exactly call the switch board and say, "Let me talk to anybody with five years of engineering experience." Instead, for reasons that will become clear in a moment, she began the talent a.s.sault by seeking a piece of information that appeared to have no sensitivity at all, information that company people give out to almost anybody who asks.
The First Call: The receptionist The attacker, using the name Didi Sands, placed a call to the corporate offices of the cellular phone service. In part, the conversation went like this: Receptionist: Good afternoon. This is Marie, how may I help you?
Didi: Can you connect me to the Transportation Department?
R: I'm not sure if we have one, I'll look in my directory. Who's calling? I'm not sure if we have one, I'll look in my directory. Who's calling?
D: It's Didi.
R: Are you in the building, or...?
D: No, I'm outside the building.
R: Didi who?
D: Didi Sands. I had the extension for Transportation, but I forgot what it was.
R: One moment.
To allay suspicions, at this point Didi asked a casual, just making conversation question designed to establish that she was on the "inside," familiar with company locations.
D: What building are you in - Lakeview or Main Place?
R: Main Place. (pause) It's 805 555 6469.
To provide herself with a backup in case the call to Transportation didn't provide what she was looking for, Didi said she also wanted to talk to Real Estate. The receptionist gave her that number, as well. When Didi asked to be connected to the Transportation number, the receptionist tried, but the line was busy.
At that point Didi asked for a third phone number, for Accounts Receivable, located at a corporate facility in Austin, Texas. The receptionist asked her to wait a moment, and went off the line. Reporting to Security that she had a suspicious phone call and thought there was something fishy going on? Not at all, and Didi didn't have the least bit of concern. She was being a bit of a nuisance, but to the receptionist it was all part of a typical workday. After about a minute, the receptionist came back on the line, looked up the Accounts Receivable number, tried it, and put Didi through. phone number, for Accounts Receivable, located at a corporate facility in Austin, Texas. The receptionist asked her to wait a moment, and went off the line. Reporting to Security that she had a suspicious phone call and thought there was something fishy going on? Not at all, and Didi didn't have the least bit of concern. She was being a bit of a nuisance, but to the receptionist it was all part of a typical workday. After about a minute, the receptionist came back on the line, looked up the Accounts Receivable number, tried it, and put Didi through.
The Second Call: Peggy The next conversation went like this: Peggy: Accounts Receivable, Peggy.
Didi: Hi, Peggy. This is Didi, in Thousand Oaks.
P: Hi, Didi.
D: How ya doing?
P: Fine.
Didi then used a familiar term in the corporate world that describes the charge code for a.s.signing expenses against the budget of a specific organization or workgroup: D: Excellent. I have a question for you. How do I find out the cost center for a particular department?
P: You'd have to get a hold of the budget a.n.a.lyst for the department.
D: Do you know who'd be the budget a.n.a.lyst for Thousand Oaks - headquarters? I'm trying to fill out a form and I don't know the proper cost center.
P: I just know when y'all need a cost center number, you call your budget a.n.a.lyst.
D: Do you have a cost center for your department there in Texas?
P: We have our own cost center but they don't give us a complete list of them.
D: How many digits is the cost center? FOr example, what's your cost center? cost center?
P: Well, like, are you with 9WC or with SAT?
Didi had no idea what departments or groups these referred to, but it didn't matter. She answered: D: 9WC.
P: Then it's usually four digits. Who did you say you were with?
D: Headquarters--Thousand Oaks.
P: Well, here's one for Thousand Oaks. It's 1A5N, that's N like in Nancy.
By just hanging out long enough with somebody willing to be helpful, Didi had the cost center number she needed - one of those pieces of information that no one thinks to protect because it seems like something that couldn't be of any value to an outsider.
The Third Call: A Helpful Wrong Number Didi's next step would be to parlay the cost center number into something of real value by using it as a poker chip.
She began by calling the Real Estate department, pretending she had reached a wrong number. Starting with a "Sorry to bother you, but.... " she claimed she was an employee who had lost her company directory, and asked who you were supposed to call to get a new copy. The man said the print copy was out of date because it was available on the company intranet site.
Didi said she preferred using a hard copy, and the man told her to call Publications, and then, without being asked - maybe just to keep the s.e.xy-sounding lady on the phone a little longer - helpfully looked up the number and gave it to her.
The Fourth Call: Bart in Publications In Publications, she spoke with a man named Bart. Didi said she was from Thousand Oaks, and they had a new consultant who needed a copy of the company directory. She told him a print copy would work better for the consultant, even if it was somewhat out of date. Bart told her she'd have to fill out a requisition form and send the form over to him.
Didi said she was out of forms and it was a rush, and could Bart be a sweetheart and fill out the form for her? He agreed with a little too much enthusiasm, and Didi gave him the details. For the address of the fictional contractor, she drawled the number of what social engineers call a mail drop,, in this case a Mail Boxes Etc.-type of commercial business where her company rented boxes for situations just like this. in this case a Mail Boxes Etc.-type of commercial business where her company rented boxes for situations just like this.
The earlier spadework now came in handy: There would be a charge for the cost and s.h.i.+pping of the directory. Fine - Didi gave the cost center for Thousand Oaks: "IA5N, that's N like in Nancy."
A few days later, when the corporate directory arrived, Didi found it was an even bigger payoff than she had expected: It not only listed the names and phone numbers, but also showed who worked for whom - the corporate structure of the whole organization.
The lady of the husky voice was ready to start making her head-hunter, people-raiding phone calls. She had conned the information she needed to launch her raid using the gift of gab honed to a high polish by every skilled social engineer.
Now she was ready for the payoff.
LINGO.
MAIL DROP: The social engineer's term for a rental mailbox, typically rented under an a.s.sumed name, which is used to deliver doc.u.ments or packages the victim has been duped into sending The social engineer's term for a rental mailbox, typically rented under an a.s.sumed name, which is used to deliver doc.u.ments or packages the victim has been duped into sending MITNICK MESSAGE.
Just like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, each piece of information may be irrelevant by itself. However, when the pieces are put together, a clear picture emerges. In this I case, the picture the social engineer saw was the entire internal structure of the company.
a.n.a.lyzing the Con In this social engineering attack, Didi started by getting phone numbers for three departments in the target company. This was easy, because the numbers she was asking for were no secret, especially to employees. A social engineer learns to sound like an insider, and Didi was skilled at this game. One of the phone numbers led her to a cost center number, which she then used to obtain a copy of the firm's employee directory.
The main tools she needed: sounding friendly, using some corporate lingo, and, with the last victim, throwing in a little verbal eyelash-batting.
And one more tool, an essential element not easily acquired - the manipulative skills of the social engineer, refined through extensive practice and the unwritten lessons of bygone generations of confidence men.
MORE "WORTHLESS" INFO.
Besides a cost center number and internal phone extensions, what other seemingly useless information can be extremely valuable to your enemy?.
Peter Abel's Phone Call "Hi," the voice at the other end of the line says. "This is Tom at Parkhurst Travel.
Your tickets to San Francisco are ready. Do you want us to deliver them, or do you want to pick them up?"
"San Francisco?" Peter says. "I'm not going to San Francisco." "Is this Peter Abels?"
"Yes, but I don't have any trips coming up."
"Well," the caller says with a friendly laugh, "you sure you don't want to go to San Francisco?"
"If you think you can talk my boss into it..." Peter says, playing along with the friendly conversation.
"Sounds like a mix-up," the caller says. "On our system, we book travel arrangements under the employee number. Maybe somebody used the wrong number. What's your employee number?"
Peter obligingly recites his number. And why not? It goes on just about every personnel form he fills out, lots of people in the company have access to it - human resources, payroll, and, obviously, the outside travel agency. No one treats an employee number like some sort of secret. What difference could it make?
The answer isn't hard to figure out. Two or three pieces of information might be all it takes to mount an effective impersonation - the social engineer cloaking himself in someone else's ident.i.ty. Get hold of an employee's name, his phone number, his employee number--and maybe, for good measure, his manager's name and phone number--and a halfway- competent social engineer is equipped with most of what he's likely to need to sound authentic to the next target he calls.
If someone who said he was from another department in your company had called yesterday, given a plausible reason, and asked for your employee number, would you have had any reluctance in giving it to him?
And by the way, what is your social security number?
MITNICK MESSAGE.
The moral of the story is, don't give out any personal or internal company information or identifiers to anyone, unless his or her voice is recognizable and the requestor has a need to know.
PREVENTING THE CON.
Your company has a responsibility to make employees aware of how a serious mistake can occur from mishandling non public information. A well thought-out information security policy, combined with proper education and training, will dramatically increase employee awareness about the proper handling of corporate business information. A data cla.s.sification policy will help you to implement proper controls with respect to disclosing information. Without a data cla.s.sification policy, all internal information must be considered confidential, unless otherwise specified.
Take these steps to protect your company from the release of seemingly innocuous information: The Information Security Department needs to conduct awareness training detailing the methods used by social engineers. One method, as described above, is to obtain seemingly non sensitive information and use it as a poker chip to gain short-term trust. Each and every employee needs to be aware that when a caller has knowledge about company procedures, lingo, and internal identifiers it does not in any way, shape, or form authenticate the requestor or authorize him or her as having a need to know. A caller could be a former employee or contractor with the requisite insider information. Accordingly, each corporation has a responsibility to determine the appropriate authentication method to be used when employees interact with people they don't recognize in person or over the telephone.
The person or persons with the role and responsibility of drafting a data cla.s.sification policy should examine the types of details that may be used to gain access for legitimate employees that seem innocuous, but could lead to information that is, sensitive. Though you'd never give out the access codes for your ATM card, would you tell somebody what server you use to develop company software products? Could that information be used by a person pretending to be somebody who has legitimate access to the corporate network?
Sometimes just knowing inside terminology can make the social engineer appear authoritative and knowledgeable. The attacker often relies on this common misconception to dupe his or her victims into compliance. For example, a Merchant ID is an identifier that people in the New Accounts department of a bank casually use every day. But such an identifier exactly the same as a pa.s.sword. If each and every employee understands the nature of this identifier - that it is used to positively authenticate a requestor--they might treat it with more respect.
MITNICK MESSAGE.
As the old adage goes - even real paranoids probably have enemies. We must a.s.sume that every business has its enemies, too - attackers that target the network infrastructure to compromise business secrets. Don't end up being a statistic on computer crime - it's high time to sh.o.r.e up the necessary defenses by implementing proper controls through well-thought-out security policies and procedures.
No companies - well, very few, at least - give out the direct dial phone numbers of their CEO or board chairman. Most companies, though, have no concern about giving out phone numbers to most departments and workgroups in the, organization - especially to someone who is, or appears to be, an employee. A possible countermeasure: Implement a policy that prohibits giving internal phone numbers of employees, contractors, consultants, and temps to outsiders. More importantly, develop a step-by-step procedure to positively identify whether a caller asking for phone numbers is really an employee.