Manipulation is one of the hallmarks of social engineering. A social engineer is able to bring a target under his or her control. We will be able to defend ourselves more effectively against attacks if we understand the signs and methods of manipulation. Manipulation ranges from total brainwash to subtle hints to make a target make a certain decision. Manipulation overcomes a target's critique and free thought ability. With these out of the way, a social engineer can feed a target external ideas and reasoning and make them feel like it is their (the target's) own. Manipulation is used in the following six ways:
- To increase the predictability of the target
- To control the target's actions and environment
- To destabilize the target with doubt
- To make the target feel powerless
- To bring about certain emotions to the target
- To intimidate the target
Manipulation is used in many real-life setups. There are many manipulation tactics in social engineering.
One of these is conditioning. It follows the classical example of Ivan Pavlov's dog, which was conditioned to salivate when a bell rang. The conditioning made the dog salivate even when there was no food in sight but the bell rang. Social engineers manipulate people through conditioning by associating certain words with certain actions or results. A target will, therefore, be put in a state of the expectation of a certain result or action when the social engineer says a particular word. Social engineers also use things that the human brain is already conditioned to. For example, the sight of a young baby or a cute puppy elicits a smile. By handing over target materials that contain such pictures, the client will be put in a happy state and will likely make decisions favorable to the social engineer. Such a type of conditioning is used in adverts. Michelin tires once ran adverts with a cute baby seated next to a Michelin tire. The impact of such an advert is that a car owner will associate Michelin tires to the happy feeling of seeing the baby. Even if there might be better or cheaper tires, one will buy the Michelin tires simply to get the happy feeling. The aim is not to sell the product but rather to sell the pretext that will affect the actions a target takes.
Another manipulation tactic is diversion. This is where a social engineer diverts attention from what he or she is actually doing to cover it up. By preoccupying a target with a distraction, the social engineer can easily get a social engineer out of trouble if something goes wrong during an attack. For example, if security guards confront the social engineer for illegally being in a secured premise the engineer could bring the attention of the guards to other things such as how organizations are unprepared for attacks and why the top management has been hiring people to test out the current state of security in the organization.
There are several incentives to using manipulation instead of other persuasion tactics. To begin with, manipulation has a lot of financial incentives. Many get-rich-fast schemes are based on manipulation. Lotteries and any sort of gambling games are facilitated by the financial incentives. Coupons are also a type of financial manipulation. Social engineering is a largely financial affair where the attacker wants to get hold of the target's money. The social engineering attacks that use manipulation tend to be concerned with charity. Another incentive in social engineering is the ideological incentive. It is hard to fight off an ideology and that is why social engineers use manipulation to plant some ideologies in their targets. Social engineers will use ideologies that have some sort of reward to a cooperative target. The target will, therefore, strive to attain this reward. The social engineer will use the ideology to milk whatever he or she can while deluding the target that there will be a greater reward at the end of it all.
Social incentives are the next type of incentives that manipulation gives. Human beings are social and mostly want to be around people that recognize them and want to interact with them. They normally want to be acceptable to other people. That is why they take care of their looks, try to acquire wealth, or anything that might be seen as impressive by society. It is apparent that peer pressure is a major challenge for many youths and teens. This is because they discover that there are certain social incentives that come with being likable. They, therefore, try out anything that their peers deem likable. Social media is a good example of people seeking social incentives. In sites such as Instagram, a number of users strive to show to others that they live the platinum life where they get the best of everything. They are ready to try or buy anything that brings them attention. Their major reward is likeability by many people. That is why the platform is largely built on the premises of liking and following people. Social engineers also pursue the same avenue. They use social incentives to make targets comply with their commands. They sell to people likeability, whether they are telling them to contribute to charity or to give some resources to the social engineer that will make him or her happy.
Manipulation is a strong persuasion tactic. It enables social engineers to make people unquestionably do what the social engineers want. Psychological forces are used to bring about compliance. Manipulation is, however, done subtly so as not to arouse any suspicion from the target. However, some manipulation methods are dark. These are the methods that cause anxiety, stress, and duress on the target so as to force certain decisions to be made. Social engineers do not have any true feelings for their targets and will not hesitate to push them down this route. After all, the end justifies the means.