Successful pretexting

Since pretexting is all about creating and living a lie, it is best if we take real examples of some scenarios where pretexting was successfully executed. As was stated earlier in the chapter, pretexting is not only used in social engineering and therefore you should not be surprised if an example is outside the context of a malicious attack. Some of the famous pretexting cases are explained further.

Living a lie, pretending to be someone else

HP information leak

In 2006, HP was battling with a problem of the leaking of classified and confidential information from the organization. It was suspected that the leaks came from high-ranking officials of the organization who sat in boardroom meetings. The chairman at the time, Ms. Patricia Dunn, was troubled by this and sought to have the phone records of the board members obtained. The company was able to catch the mole who turned out to be a director. The mole was supplying CNET, an online news company, with the sensitive...