[Discuss] OT: cartoon about cryptography

[tmetro+blu at gmail.com (Tom Metro)]

jc at trillian.mit.edu wrote:
> It sort goes along with http://xkcd.com/538/,
> though the details are all rather different.
> 
> The name for the general concept seems to be
> "social engineering" these days.

Actually, no, the xkcd comic depicts "rubber-hose cryptanalysis":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber-hose_cryptanalysis

It's similar to social engineering in that a technical attack is not
being performed on the cryptography, but social engineering is the art
of extracting secrets by manipulating people, often without their
awareness, rather than using coercion.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_engineering_%28security%29

 -Tom


-- 
Tom Metro
The Perl Shop, Newton, MA, USA
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