The Social-Engineer Podcast

This month, Chris Hadnagy and Ryan MacDougall are joined by Patrick Laverty. Patrick is the Senior Team Lead at Social Engineer, LLC, working with an incredible team of professional social engineers. He was previously a senior penetration tester at Rapid7 and a member of the CSIRT at Akamai. He is a co-organizer of the Layer 8 Conference and is the host of the Layer 8 Podcast on social engineering and OSINT. He lives in Rhode Island with his daughter, dog and two cats. [April 18, 2022] 

00:00 – Intro 

00:50 – Patrick Laverty intro 

02:19 – Intro Links 

04:38 – Security Awareness in the world today 

05:25 – Malicious Domain Registrations 

06:58 – Protecting yourself from false domains 

11:24 – CISA Alert / Shields Up 

12:36 – Lowering Reporting Thresholds 

13:33 – Empowering Security Information Officers 

16:50 – Tabletop Exercises 

19:20 – Planning for Continuity 

21:09 – Beyond the Financial Effects of Ransomware 

24:29 – Trying to protect the Healthcare Sector 

25:27 – Backup & Recovery Process 

28:38 – The source of Ransomware 

30:03 – Planning for a Ransomware attack 

31:51 – Why your site will be attacked 

33:41 – 3 Actionable Tips 

35:30 – Book Recommendations 

38:20 – Wrap Up  

39:18 – Outro 


Today we will be talking with Vanessa Bohns. Vanessa is a social psychologist and professor of organizational behavior at Cornell University. She holds a PhD from Columbia University and an AB from Brown University. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review, and her research has been widely featured in the media, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Economist, and on NPR’s Hidden Brain. Her first book, You Have More Influence Than You Think, was just published in September 2021. [April 11, 2022]

00:00 – Intro

01:53 – Vanessa Bohns intro

02:43 – How did you make Social Influence your field?

05:48 – Why do we assume people will be negative when we make a request?

08:01 – The surprising results of asking for things

11:12 – We are wired to be agreeable

13:34 – What are the security implications of our default attitudes?

16:59 – What are the consequences of underestimating your own influence?

19:32 – Understanding how the situation can influence ethics

21:05 – What would you say is your favorite find?

21:48 – Enlisting someone to influence their ethics

24:00 – Paying attention to the human side of security

25:04 – What is your next study?

27:11 – The importance of a predefined script

28:54 – Will "keywords" change a person’s sense of agreeability?

30:10 – Recognizing your own influence

31:41 – Who would you consider some of your biggest mentors?

  • Frank Flynn – Professor
  • Father

33:39 – Book Recommendations:

35:47 – Guest Wrap Up

36:17 – Find Vanessa Bohns on the web

36:49 – Outro

 


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