How To Sneak Into the Super Bowl With Social Engineering

danielkennedy74 links to an instructive story captured on video introduced with these words: "Sneaking in near press/employee access points without going thru them, zigzagging through corridors, and once carrying a box so someone opens a door for them, two jokers from Savannah State University social engineer their way into Super Bowl XLVII for the most part simply by looking like they belong." USA Today has a slightly longer article.

Comments

Gitmo

[stormpunk]

Maybe they can use their social engineering to get out of Gitmo after this video gets labeled by people with no sense of humor as terrorist training material.

"by holding a box"

[girlintraining]

How many hundreds of millions did Homeland spend to "secure" the super bowl again? Of all the things they've been accused of, fewest of the charges have been competence. When a couple college kids carrying a box can sneak past every security check point, without either them or their box being inspected, it becomes painfully obvious that the security provided is just a show... not unlike the one they're "protecting".

Re:"by holding a box"

[Pubstar]

This whole thing reminds me of the oldest trick in the book to get into night clubs: Have an extension cord/Power strip/DMX cable over your shoulder and just book it past the bouncer saying they need it on the stage NOW or the DJ is going to flip out. Works 99% of the time without you being so much as questioned.

Re:congrats!

[Anonymous Coward]

I find it funny how You somehow make it their fault and not DHS'

The best I've seen yet...

[Anachragnome]

The best I've seen yet was a kid (I'm guessing around 16 yrs old) I watched in action at a concert at the Cow Palace in San Francisco many years ago.

A friend and I were waiting in line at a Judas Priest concert when I noticed this guy, wearing a light-blue button-up shirt and slacks, using one of them sweeper things--you know, the little broom and a pivot mounted dustpan thing on a long handle that is used to sweep trash into. He was working his way along the line, sweeping up all the crap the people in line were dropping. I watched as he filled the dustpan with trash, walked over to a trashcan near the door, emptied it and went back to work around the entrance--he swept the place clean, then started working his way around the inside of the front door area, even asking one of the security personnel to step aside so he could get to a soda can just behind him. I remember telling myself "What a lame job".

45 mins later, he was standing next to me about 10 feet from the stage, smoking a joint and obviously enjoying himself. After asking him if he minded passing that thing, I asked him where his broom was. He said with a big, stoned grin on his face that he usually leaves it in the bathroom until after the show. Sure enough, when I went to the bathroom between acts, his sweeper and broom were sitting in the corner.

Re:hmmmm

[tehcyder]

Not necessarily. Sometimes social engineering takes advantage of people's assumptions. If you wear a printer servicing uniform and people assume that you're there to fix a printer, are you lying or deceiving them? I'd posit that their assumptions are incorrect and you're not deceiving them unless you're challenged and you start lying.

Bullshit, of course you're deceiving them. You cannot expect normal human beings to question all their assumptions 24/7. Every time you blinked you'd have to prove to yourself that the whole universe hadn't just been switched off and then instantaneously recreated itself.