Social Engineering: Zero to Hero in Social Engineering!

This course will teach you the most common social engineering threats. At the end of the course you will understand why people are the weakest link in your organisations security posture. You will understand:

1) what the most common social engineering threats and are,
2) the impact per threat for your business,
3) how these threats can be executed and / or mitigated.

You will able to understand the above-mentioned points without having to understand technical stuff (e.g. source code) within ONE HOUR!

How is that possible?
Social engineering is closely related to psychology. Social engineering can be defined as the art of manipulating people in order to achieve a goal. Therefore, this course is created for managers rather than developers. Managers must train their employees to strengthen their personal firewall (i.e. being less likely to fall victim to manipulation), because collectively all employees make up your organisation’s firewall!

So, after following this course am I a full-fledged security expert?
No. This course will teach you the most common social engineering threats so that you can critically question and discuss the impact of these security issues with your employees and management. By following this course you’ll become an expert in recognising social engineering attacks. However, remember you’ll have to keep practicing looking at social events from a hacker’s perspective.

What!?! Why should I enroll?
Only enroll when you want to strengthen your personal firewall, are new social engineering and want a complete beginners’ perspective. This course is specifically developed for:

– (Project) managers that lead in an organisation that depends on IT and have no clue how social engineering could harm their organisation;
– Security managers tasked to deliver basic security awareness training;
– Anyone interested in the basics of social engineering, explained in layman’s terms

Ok, but there is already a lot of information on available on the web. So, what’s in it for me?
I thought you would never ask! This course differentiate itself from existing available information because:

– this course is not solely based on my opinion, but substantiated with scientific evidence. This means you not only get my opinion and experience but it is also backed by science;
– Unlike most other courses, you may actually claim 1 Continuing Professional Education (CPE) after finishing this course completely
– I’ve included lots of links to websites that provide comprehensive background information, should you be interested in more detail;
– That’s not it, there is more…

BONUS Material:
– attacks that are not considered social engineering (e.g. shoulder surfing) are also included;
– Frequently asked questions. Ask a social engineering question and I’ll answer it with a video.

Why include bonus material, is the main course not exciting enough?
Is that a trick question? Getting organisational security right goes well beyond instructing employees. With the bonus material, I would like to inform you about the complementary measures that should be taken into account.
Also I’ve updated the course to include (though) quiz questions in 2021. These quizes will solidify your learning.

I’m fully convinced of the benefits, but I don’t see why I should learn all this from you.
True, let me explain by giving you an overview of my experience:
– Chief Information Security Officer (present). Managing Security, Privacy and Quality professionals. Responsible for implementing and maintaining a well balanced organisational risk posture;
– Security and privacy operations manager (2 years). Acting as a security liaison on strategic accounts, I monitor the security of 2500+ workstations, 500+ servers and 10+ firewalls and routers, report on the operational security status of European and Dutch law and integrate intelligence results from AVDS, Check Point, Nagios, Nessus, Palo Alto Traps,SCCM, SCEP, SEP, SCOM and SIEM;
– Parttime PhD Candidate (7 years – present). I read the science, you’ll get the knowledge! What more do you want?
– Software quality consultant (6,5 years). I’ve advised many managers of large / small IT projects on various software related aspects;
– IT auditor (1 year). I have closely worked with accountants and audited large governmental IT projects;
– Quality assurance engineer (3 years). I have implemented large IT systems for large companies.

You can find more details on LinkedIn on or my profile.

Go ahead and click the enroll button, and I’ll see you in lesson 1!

Cheers,
Soerin