social engineering

Term used among crackers and samurai for cracking

techniques that rely on weaknesses in wetware rather than

software; the aim is to trick people into revealing passwords

or other information that compromises a target system's

security. Classic scams include phoning up a mark who has the

required information and posing as a field service tech or a

fellow employee with an urgent access problem. See also the

tiger team story in the patch entry.

[Jargon File]