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]
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