# What do you think of in the first 5 seconds when you hear the term "social engineering"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 17, 2018, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-in-the-first-5-seconds-when-you-hear-the-term-social-engineering/806821 "2018-01-17T13:24:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-in-the-first-5-seconds-when-you-hear-the-term-social-engineering/806821/41 "2018-01-17T23:36:31Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > The term has been around in the more general [political science usage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_engineering_(political_science)) since at least 1894. It was originally a positive idea, and gained its negative connotation after misuse of the concepts. Social engineering is still in wide use today - tax deductions for a mortgage and child tax credits are social engineering attempts to encourage home ownership and raising children. Those could be either positive or negative depending on your views. This is the sense I’m familiar with, and that occurred to me. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-in-the-first-5-seconds-when-you-hear-the-term-social-engineering/806821/42 "2018-01-17T23:38:42Z")
Centralization, Collectivism, Purges, Cultural Revolution, Year Zero - that sort of thing. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-in-the-first-5-seconds-when-you-hear-the-term-social-engineering/806821/43 "2018-01-17T23:40:07Z")
Hitler ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-in-the-first-5-seconds-when-you-hear-the-term-social-engineering/806821/44 "2018-01-17T23:56:24Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > I’m a computer security guy, so I immediately think of the way the term is used in my profession – when a bad guy uses trickery and deceit to get access to passwords or data (rather than using a technical exploit). This, because I have it drummed into my head from the three or four information security training courses I have to take at work every year. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-in-the-first-5-seconds-when-you-hear-the-term-social-engineering/806821/45 "2018-01-18T00:02:29Z")
> [@Human\_Action](#): > > Right-wing bullshit, trying to demonize the idea of the government improving peoples’ lives. This is the correct answer. ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-in-the-first-5-seconds-when-you-hear-the-term-social-engineering/806821/46 "2018-01-18T01:40:56Z")
> [@zobbo](#): > > What do you think of in the first 5 seconds when you hear the term “social engineering”? > > I am just trying to figure out what to most people think of when they hear the term > “social engineering”? euthananasia, lobotomies, social stratification, this time, the list varies with context though, both in order and in content now to read the thread and see what others said ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-in-the-first-5-seconds-when-you-hear-the-term-social-engineering/806821/47 "2018-01-18T02:32:34Z")
Looks like if you are liberal you think of it as a term the ultra right use to demonize “government”. If you’re a right winger, you think of it as a term to describe “government” aka Death Squads just around the corner. If you’re an IT person you have a very specific definition which isn’t either of those. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-in-the-first-5-seconds-when-you-hear-the-term-social-engineering/806821/48 "2018-01-18T02:34:56Z")
I love how many people have no idea what the term means but assume it must be that \ uses the term to denounce \ ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-in-the-first-5-seconds-when-you-hear-the-term-social-engineering/806821/49 "2018-01-18T03:02:43Z")
I work in IT. I also think it just means getting ignorant inside people to release valuable information by malicious actors posing as someone else like outside vendors. I have had it happen to me and I just told them the completely wrong information to waste their time and reported it to our security groups. Everyone is trained against it but it works much better on some than others. Why try a dictionary attack when you can just call the dumbest person you can find to just give you all the passwords because a printer supposedly has a deadly virus that has to be fixed right away and it will require all the information possible to fix? Some of the most infamous hackers in history were quite good at it and used it as a primary strategy. They probably would have done better just doing regular sales. At least that would have been legal but they liked the challenge. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-in-the-first-5-seconds-when-you-hear-the-term-social-engineering/806821/50 "2018-01-18T03:07:05Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > I associate the term with computer passwords. > Hackers use “social engineering” to get friendly with people and convince them to share their passwords. This. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-in-the-first-5-seconds-when-you-hear-the-term-social-engineering/806821/51 "2018-01-18T07:34:22Z")
I think of the hard left using political correctness to try and change society in ways which might be… let’s be polite and say “disruptive” to the good order of things. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-in-the-first-5-seconds-when-you-hear-the-term-social-engineering/806821/52 "2018-01-18T07:37:37Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Some of the most infamous hackers in history were quite good at it and used it as a primary strategy. They probably would have done better just doing regular sales. At least that would have been legal but they liked the challenge. It’s pretty much the same set of skills that have been used by confidence tricksters of many genres since way before computers existed. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-in-the-first-5-seconds-when-you-hear-the-term-social-engineering/806821/53 "2018-01-18T13:52:26Z")
> [@Human\_Action](#): > > Right-wing bullshit, trying to demonize the idea of the government improving peoples’ lives. My response was “conservatives” for the same reason. (I didn’t read Martin’s post before this response but that’s a good illustration of what I thought about.) ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-in-the-first-5-seconds-when-you-hear-the-term-social-engineering/806821/54 "2018-01-18T13:57:54Z")
Without reading thread, I thought of “ways that cultures (through government-run or -mandated tools like taxes) encourage their citizens toward certain behaviors deemed beneficial for individuals and society.” ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2018, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-in-the-first-5-seconds-when-you-hear-the-term-social-engineering/806821/55 "2018-01-23T19:07:33Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > Sorry, to me the idea of “the government improving peoples’ lives” is the bullshit here. “Sure as I know anything I know this, they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten, they’ll swing back to **the belief that they can make people… better**. And I do not hold to that. So no more running. I aim to misbehave\*\*.”\*\* ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2018, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-in-the-first-5-seconds-when-you-hear-the-term-social-engineering/806821/56 "2018-01-23T21:09:44Z")
Another IT guy chiming in, so it’s all about exploiting people to gain access to computers and networks. Not just the “This is Paul from IT, can I get some information from you?”, but leaving flash drives in employee traffic areas with the near certainty that someone is going to plug it into a workstation and install the embedded keylogger or other malware. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-in-the-first-5-seconds-when-you-hear-the-term-social-engineering/806821.md?page=2)