Human Hacking Book Summary - Human Hacking Book explained in key points

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Name: Human Hacking
Rating: 4.5 (279 reviews)
Author: Christopher Hadnagy with Seth Schulman

Christopher Hadnagy with Seth Schulman

Win Friends, Influence People, and Leave Them Better Off for Having Met You

4.5 (279 ratings)

24 mins

What is Human Hacking about?

Human Hacking (2021) is a guide to the art of ethical social engineering. Using the same tools of psychology and influence deployed by security hackers, it demonstrates how to boost social interactions in daily life. It covers a range of tips on how to adjust your natural communication tendencies to steer encounters to your advantage, with practical tools on how to influence others using empathy and compassion.

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Human Hacking
summarized in 8 key ideas

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What’s in it for me? A practical guide to becoming a master human hacker.

Do you ever feel like people in your life misinterpret what you say? Or do you sometimes struggle to convince others to agree to your requests? In daily life, a lack of communication strategy leads to countless problems, from hurt feelings to slighted egos.

Luckily, you can learn how to use the principles of social engineering to plan for successful interactions. While hackers have used psychological tactics to scam and cause harm, you can use many of the same tools to your advantage – but ethically and compassionately.

In these blinks, you’ll discover tactics to influence others to help you get what you want, and at the same time leave them better off than before!

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how the position of your wrists can affect your conversation goals;
why a receptionist knowingly let a deceitful intruder into her workplace; and
how you can use nonsense to get others to reveal information

Set out to exert influence on people with their best interests in mind.

Not long ago, author Christopher Hadnagy was checking in at London’s Heathrow Airport with his family. While he was rummaging in his suitcase for passports, his wife spontaneously complimented the attendant behind the counter on her scarf. The attendant smiled and said thank you.

Maybe this seems like a completely forgettable – if pleasant– moment. But if that’s what you think, you’d be missing out on a chance at human hacking.

When faced with this scenario, the author – a security expert – sensed an opportunity for social engineering. So he stepped up to the desk and casually asked how much an upgrade would cost. The attendant took one look at his wife and whispered: “I’m putting you all in first class.”

The key message here is: Set out to exert influence on people with their best interests in mind.

So what exactly happened here? The author figured that this woman usually had to deal with grumpy and stressed-out passengers day in and day out. In this moment, though, she’d just received an unexpected compliment, and by her genuine smile, he could tell that her mood had been boosted.

Since the author had a social engineering background, he knew that this combination of events was advantageous for him and his wife. So he decided to make a request – and was doubly rewarded for it.

What’s important is that he didn’t try to coerce the attendant into offering a free upgrade. Unlike ethical human hacking, criminal hacking involves preying on people’s emotions to compel compliance, regardless of how negatively it affects them. But when you apply social engineering ethically, it enables others to feel happier about themselves by giving you what you want, as in the case of the airline attendant. It’s a win-win situation.

In the following blinks, we’ll introduce practical tools to influence both people of interest and strangers alike, for your mutual benefit. As you start using these tools, keep the human hacking code of ethics in mind, which asks that you pledge to “leave others better off for having met you” in every interaction. Employ these tactics with compassion, not for the sake of manipulation!

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Before you can influence others, you have to be able to hack yourself.

Master your own communication tendencies before assessing others.

Let’s say a friend asks your opinion on a personal matter. As you’re giving your honest assessment, he cuts you off and calls you insensitive. You’re stunned: you were just sharing your thoughts as requested. You conclude that your friend is overly sensitive. But could it simply be that your natural ways of communicating don't match up?

Here’s the key message: Master your own communication tendencies before assessing others.

Create effective pretexts to skew conversations to your advantage.

Imagine you get an email, with no greeting, from your boss that says: “Call me tomorrow at three.” For the next twenty-four hours, you worry frantically that you’re going to lose your job. But when you call your boss the next day as promised – half-asleep and full of angst – it turns out she just wants to discuss a minor issue in a presentation.

Wouldn’t it have been kinder for her to mention her reason for wanting to meet from the outset? What’s missing from her end is a clear pretext, or an effective context that sets up a social interaction for success. It’s what the author calls “the art of the start.”

Build rapport with others and motivate them to agree to your request.

Let’s face it: we’re all strapped for time. Whenever we encounter new people, we automatically consider how long an interaction will take and then judge whether it’s worth our while.

If you’re waiting in line for a coffee-to-go and the person behind you taps your shoulder, responding will probably seem like a low-risk endeavor – you can assume this interaction will only last until one of you has paid and gotten your drink, at the longest. Now, imagine you’re on your way to a meeting when someone stops you in the street. In this scenario, you’ll be more likely to avoid the interaction altogether. After all, you have places to be!

Combine subtle tactics to influence others to do your bidding.

As a security expert, the author was tasked with breaking into companies’ securities systems in order to identify vulnerabilities. On a mission to access a company’s executive offices, he noticed the receptionist in the lobby was playing a game on her computer. This presented him with an irresistible opportunity for social engineering.

The first thing the author did was warn her that he could see what was on her screen. The receptionist shut her game down, just at the moment her boss was walking past. Grateful, she mouthed “Thank you” to the author.

Get people to give you the information you want without asking.

Let’s say you’re on a first date. If you want to find out whether your date wants kids, has a job, and shares your interests, one option is to just come out and ask. Your date may answer truthfully, or not. Meanwhile, you risk turning the encounter into an interrogation.

Now, what if you could get all the information you need without posing a single question, and still keep the conversation light and fun? By employing the simple tool of elicitation, you can get people to reveal almost anything. And you don’t even have to ask.

Learning how to read and display nonverbal cues can boost communication in your favor.

When a friendly dog rolls onto its backside and exposes a soft underbelly for you to scratch, it indicates the pet trusts you. This cue is known as ventral display, referring to the belly of an animal or a human.

Indeed, if a person tilts his hips and belly toward you, this can also indicate openness and comfort – a phenomenon that former FBI investigator Joe Navarro calls ventral fronting. Gaining an understanding of such physical cues equips you with a technique you can immediately employ to improve your social interactions.

Recognize devious manipulation techniques so you can avoid them at all costs.

Have you ever put a jacket on the bus seat next to you to avoid sharing the space with another passenger? Maybe you even put on headphones to dissuade people from asking you whether the seat is taken. Such scenarios don’t exemplify human hacking, but rather manipulation.

Using ethical tactics of influence, you would engage in polite conversation with anyone who tried to sit next to you and try to motivate that person to sit elsewhere. But forcing others into making a decision based on false pretenses, and for selfish gain, strays into the territory of unfriendly or even devious manipulation.

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About the Author

Christopher Hadnagy is a global security expert and founder of Social-Engineer, LLC. He is the best-selling author of multiple technical books for security professionals, including Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking and Social Engineering: The Science of Human Hacking

Who should read Human Hacking?

Those interested in becoming more persuasive
People interested in making new friends
Anyone interested in social engineering

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Psychology Communication Skills

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