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Unwitting Collaborators, Part 1: Breakdown of the Human Firewall

  • Jun 21, 2002
Policies and procedures are essential to protecting your organization, but they're useless unless properly implemented by human beings who get the point. Frank Fiore and Jean François explain how easy it is for a "social engineer" to bypass these protection systems with nothing more technological than a smile and a friendly question.
Read the introduction to this article series.
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Introduction

When considering network security, thoughts turn immediately to technology. But technology is just a screwdriver in the security toolbox. A broader—and just as important—piece in the security equation is the human factor. When putting your network on a war footing, the human firewall is just as important as the technical one. Protecting your security by controlling access to your building, personnel, and information systems may seem like an obvious problem, but you'd be surprised how many organizations—businesses especially—fall down on this simple yet effective threat-prevention tactic.

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Last Update: November 17, 2020