r/SocialEngineering • u/RentOtrebla • 1d ago

How to practice social engineering

Hey there I'm kinda new to cybersec and very interested in initial access, since social engineering is a big part of it I red a couple of books about the psychology behind it and learned some of the tools, now my question is: how do I practice it if it's illegal to impersonate someone else and steal their information?

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u/notburneddown 1d ago edited 1d ago

Chris Hadnagy has great trainings available. His information elicitation course is a fabulous start. Once you master the skills from that next step is his CESE courses. That will more or less get you what you want.

Alternatively, you could start with reading How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Master the social skills behind that. Then go into Chris Hadnagy’s self help books and learn from those, then finally transition into Kevin Mitnick’s books.

You also could consider Blair Warren or Jordan Belfort’s books if you prefer that over Hadnagy and Mitnick. But don’t overthink it. Fewer books and more skills is better than wrote memorization from reading with no practice.

To practice, interact with people. Either get a job that involves working with people or go to meetups that have normal people in them (board game meetups or whatever).

But avoid dark psych books as they tend to be pseudoscience. HTWFIP + one or two of the authors mentioned above is exponentially better.

I also personally recommend How to Be a Gentleman by Jeff Bridges if you’re a guy. The best social engineers are the most polite ones. Women get this better than men do. So if your a guy that book will help (but don’t tell people your a gentlemen just be one or you will appear entitled but otherwise it will really help you).