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Social Engineering is not hacking

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Phoning up customer support and convincing them that you are indeed James Patterson the 3rd does not count as hacking. If someone does that and then steals your Xbox Live Gamertag it doesn’t mean that Xbox Live has been hacked.

There are now new stories doing the rounds saying that ‘social hackers’ are gaining access to your accounts and taking over your profiles.

Honestly this is nothing new and is something that financial institutions, video stores and numerous other companies have faced over the years. I remember when I was 10 and I managed to rent tons of video’s on other people’s accounts (all purely accidental of course).

So how do we stop this from happening? Well there is very little we can do to be honest. Don’t tell anyone your password, don’t give out personal details over the Internet and don’t get irate with customer support when they ask you that barrage of questions…

So when you get told that Xbox Live (PSN) has been hacked, again, don’t freak out. Neither system is compromised and the only ‘hacking’ going on is social engineering.

Last Updated: August 29, 2008

2 Comments

  1. Scotty777

    August 29, 2008 at 10:20

    but why are people just so stupid??? Why the hell would you give away your PERSONAL details? I mean, that call PERSONAL details because they are yours…

    But sadly, I think this is very easy to do, I mean, I gained access to my neighbors Wireless router by calling them and telling them i’m from telkom, and I need their WPA code.

    but seriously, these consoles are designed to be idiot proof, yet people continue to defy the laws of intelligence,

    Reply

  2. Yeti

    September 1, 2008 at 08:55

    Hmmm, I can only hope my account gets “hacked” hell have you seen my gamerscore?

    Reply

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