Words have power

Social Engineering and the power of words

My professional life in IT Security has led me on a quest to understand Social Engineering. How is it that people, including highly intelligent people, are duped into giving away access to computer systems or transfer large sums of money into the hands of fraudsters?

The Answer - Words & Language. They are manipulated through compelling stories, placed into a state of fear or expectation and gently nudged through a serious of seemingly innocuous steps to the point where their human interaction is no longer needed. Then the pressure drops away and realisation of what has just happened sets in.

That led on to an understanding of the power of words. Those said over us by others, that we accept as truth, especially by loved ones and often meant in love but ultimately unhelpful and even more importantly the words we use when talking to ourselves. With this understanding you then change the way you use words when talking to others, seek to uplift, encourage and hold things lightly.

In the words of my good friend Gethin Jones - #TISIDI

Think It - Have a dream bigger than your today

Say It - Tell others that you trust and you will see regularly. A dream remains just that without action, by sharing outside of yourself your subconscious will feel accountable to move forward towards achieving it.

Do it - Momentum is everything. What small step can you take today to increasingly make the dream you have shared a reality, in the knowledge that when you next see them you will be asked about progress by those you shared your dream with.

Regularly practicing the above produces Repeated Marginal Gain

"You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step" - Martin Luther King Jr