Christopher Hadnagy - Human Hacking

In this ebook edition, please use your devices note-taking function to record your thoughts wherever you see the bracketed instructions [Your Notes]. Use your devices highlighting function to record your response whenever you are asked to checkmark, circle, underline, or otherwise indicate your answer(s).

To Areesa, the love of my life. You are my best friend and one of the most beautiful humans I have ever met.

To Colin, watching you become the man you are has given me endless hope. I am so proud of you.

To Amaya, there are no words to describe the depth of my love for you. Your beauty and talent astound me.

The tools contained in this book are uniquely powerful. Every year, criminals around the world use them to manipulate others to do their bidding, stealing trillions of dollars from businesses and individuals, wreaking havoc on the lives of millions, and altering the political destinies of entire nations. In sharing these techniques with you, I trust that youll use them for the cause of good, not evil. Youll help others, not just yourself, and youll refrain from behaving in ways that harm others. This is serious businesslives are at stake here! So, before proceeding, please read and sign the following pledge:

I , ________________________ , solemnly swear not to use these skills to manipulate people for selfish, one-sided gain. While I may use these skills to benefit myself, I will ensure that the others with whom I interact benefit as well, and that they dont compromise their own best interests by acceding to my wishes. Further, I promise to respect the privacy of others in using these skills, and I promise to use these skills to enhance my own self-awareness, so that I can become a better partner, family member, friend, colleague, and neighbor. Most of all, I promise to use these skills in ways that ultimately leave people feeling better for having met me. If I fail in this task, as I occasionally might, I promise to learn from the experience and do better next time.

Signed,

__________________________________

(Sign and date here)

Its one oclock in the morning, and were in a rented black Suburban, creeping along off-road through desert scrubland with our lights off. I squint in the moonlight, navigating around boulders, clumps of underbrush, and the occasional small tree. My buddy Ryans knuckles are white as he grips the passenger seat. Every few minutes, he cranes his neck to make sure nobody is following us. I take deep breaths, trying to stay calm. Neither of us talks, save an occasional crap from one of us when we take a hard bounce or narrowly avert a boulder.

Going just a few miles per hour, we make our way toward a group of boxy, nondescript buildings illuminated by powerful floodlights and other scattered industrial lighting. More precisely, we head toward the ten-foot-high security fence topped with razor wire that stands between us and those buildings.

At one point, about five miles into it, I brake hard as a coyote darts in our path. We shouldnt be doing this, I tell myself.

About a quarter mile from the fence, I spot a large and deep gully cutting down into the earth off to my left. How about there? I ask.

Fine, Ryan says.

I maneuver into the gully, trying not to scratch the car on the thick, dry brush that lines either side. I go as far down as I can before parking so that guards or workers walking around this dusty wasteland cant see the car. From here, well proceed on foot. Any company? I ask, shutting off the engine.

Dont think so, Ryan says.

Lets roll.

We get out and close the doors softly behind us. Rattlesnakes and scorpions abound in this habitat, so we tiptoe around, alert to the slightest movement. We open the back hatch and pull out an aluminum ladder and some lengths of rope. Aside from the ladder, were traveling lightyou never know if well have to make a run for it. Okay, I say, pointing to a section of fence a bit to our left. Over there, that dark area. Looks like a light is out. Its our best bet.

We walk, carrying the ladder between us. Its eerily quiet, save for a low hum coming from the buildings and the occasional, soft clanging of the ladder. Were fifty miles from the nearest town, unarmed and uninvited. If anything happens to us, nobody will know. And something might happen. Ive been arrested and had guns put to my head. And those were easy jobs compared to this one.

I cant divulge what kind of facility this is, or where in the world it is located. What I can say is that beyond this barbed-wire fence a powerful organization is keeping watch over something immensely valuable. This something is so valuable, in fact, that the organization has spent tens of millions of dollars designing this facility and outfitting it to be, as we were told, absolutely impenetrable, one of the most secure facilities on the planet. Besides the barbed wire, dozens of highly trained guards armed with automatic weapons patrol the grounds, making rounds throughout the night. Other guards stand watch inside high turret towers. Powerful spotlights illuminate the fence at regular intervals, with hundreds of cameras monitoring movements on the grounds and around the perimeter. An array of other costly and sophisticated equipment that I cant reveal is also in place, all with one objective: keep people like Ryan and me out.

We know about the security in such detail because weve spent weeks preparing for this mission. Working from a remote location, we gathered reams of detailed information via phishing and vishing (phishing phone calls) attacks. In the course of seemingly innocuous conversation, people working behind the razor wire and at other facilities maintained by this organization revealed operational plans, scheduling details, even the names of employees and managers who worked hereenough of them so that we could piece together large portions of the organizations management hierarchy.

In recent days, we continued to amass information while poking around the facilities in person. We had learned that the organization was building a new facility near this one, and that they were holding a groundbreaking ceremony this week. Although no information about the new facilitys location was available online, that didnt stop us. Noticing that a local journalist had written articles about the construction, we hatched a plan to pose as this journalist and his colleague from the same news site. To learn the location, we had Debra, one of our female colleagues, call the facilitys main office posing as an assistant to the journalist. Hi, she said, in a cheerful tone. This is Samantha over at WXTT [not the television stations real name]. Im Pete Robichauds secretary. Hes coming out to cover the ribbon ceremony on Saturday at ten thirty. I just have a couple of follow-up questions.

Hold on a sec, a man on the other end of the line said, probably checking that Pete (also not his real name) was on the guest list. Go ahead.

Okay, so first off, what kind of ID does he need to bring? Hell need a government ID with a photo, right?

Yep. Drivers license is fine, as is a passport.

Great. So, next question, hes planning on bringing his own camera equipment. Is that okay? Anything he shouldnt bring?

Thats fine, the man said. Well search him on the way in, though.

Absolutely, our colleague said. So, my last question is... I just want to verify. We seem to have lost his invitation, so I want to verify the facilitys location and where he needs to go.

No problem, the man said. He gave us exactly the information we needed.

It was a seemingly trivial conversation, lasting only thirty seconds. The man on the other end of the line probably didnt give it another thought. But there was more to the exchange than meets the eye. Debra only wanted to obtain one piece of informationthe addressyet she posed two warm-up questions, eliciting basic information that we knew the man on the other end of the line would have no problem answering. This technique is what people in our line of work call concession. The warm-up questions served to get the man comfortable