social engineering

n. Term used among crackers and samurai for cracking techniques that rely
on weaknesses in wetware rather than software; the aim is to trick people
into revealing passwords or other information that compromises a target
system's security. Classic scams include phoning up a mark who has the
required information and posing as a field service tech or a fellow employee
with an urgent access problem. See also the tiger team story in the patch
entry, and rubber-hose cryptanalysis.
