DEF CON 24 SE Village - Cyni Winegard, Bethany Ward - Human Hacking: You ARE the Weak Link

Description: Social engineering is quickly becoming more prevalent in the InfoSec industry. Users are becoming more educated about social engineering attempts, but they still fall victim to attacks. Why? Well, like all in all industries, with great improvement to technology comes great improvement to exploitation, and maybe not so great improvement to security. This presentation explores the subtleties involved in wordcrafting, tone of voice, and adaptability during – shudder – human interaction. We’ll also discuss gender roles and stereotyping and the effect it has on the victim. This presentation stemmed from an academic paper and virtual presentation done during Cyni's coursework for CyberSecurity.

BIOS:
Cyni Winegard & Bethany Ward
“Cyni: Cyni Winegard is currently an information security analyst with TraceSecurity. Starting her career as a systems administrator at a financial institution, she has moved into the information security industry and fallen in love with pen testing and social engineering. Cyni has a Bachelor of Science degree in history with a minor in anthropology from Florida A&M University and is currently working on a Masters in Cyber Security, as well as a Graduate Certificate in Terrorism and Homeland Security. She enjoys applying anthropological concepts to social engineering projects, and is passionate about compromising users. If not lost in cyberspace, Cyni can most likely be found practicing krav maga or seeking her soulmate (in the form of pizza).



Bethany: Bethany Ward fell in love with information security and digital forensics while pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Arkansas. After graduation, she began her career in network security by joining TraceSecurity as an Information Security Analyst. In this position, she currently performs security assessments, pen-testing, social engineering, and audits for financial institutions. When not having way too much fun developing her pen-testing skills, Bethany enjoys volunteering with STEM-Up and geeking out over superheroes.