(TL16) (INCYBER) Social engineering, quand le pirate préfère hacker votre cerveau que votre clavier

In this talk, Damien Bancal, a cybersecurity expert with 40 years of experience, presents a live demonstration of social engineering attacks, emphasizing that hackers often target the human mind rather than technical systems. He begins by recounting historical examples, such as the first documented Ponzi scheme in 1832 and the famous con artist Frank Abagnale, to illustrate the long-standing nature of social manipulation. Bancal then showcases real-world attack scenarios, including retrieving a hotel guest’s ID by impersonating a family member, using OSINT to gather personal information from social media, and exploiting children’s photos to target their parents’ companies. He highlights the importance of understanding human behavior, such as observing which hand people raise to determine their dominant side, which can be used in physical social engineering. The talk also covers the use of fake advertisements in legitimate magazines to collect data, and the infiltration of cybercriminal groups to understand their methods. Bancal stresses that even seemingly innocuous information, like a class photo, can be leveraged to attack individuals and organizations. He concludes by urging the audience to educate themselves and their teams about social engineering, as it is a critical defense against cyber threats, and shares personal anecdotes of threats he has received from cybercriminals.