A caution is in order. Psychiatric labelling, if used carelessly, clearly may do more harm. Everyone has felt or acted crazy during brief periods of stress or high emotion. A social engineer with enough time, patience and resolve will eventually exploit some weakness in the control environment of an enterprise. Employee awareness and acceptance of safeguard measures will become our first line of defense in this battle against the attackers. The best defense against social engineering requires that employees be tested and that the bar of acceptance be raised regularly.

Some potential security breaches are so mundane that they hardly seem to be of concern. Impersonation and Data Breach: Using an easily accessible government computer directory, a four-flusher called Rene Johnson, of Central City Management, in Sacramento, California was able to obtain the name of the personal information of a tenant, including medical records, which she made public, and asked someone to investigate, six times, over a four month period. Rene Johnson used her basic knowledge of computer systems and terminology, as she called a medical office to find gather information on a subject. She sweet-talked her way into obtaining the name of the individual’s secretary and then hung up.

Using this information, she changed tactics. She switched from being nonchalant to authoritative. Her “boss,” was having problems accessing the system and she wanted to know why. Using threats, she got the access and, according to her, was in the system within 20 minutes.

By pretending to be someone she was not, Rene Johnson was able to schmooze her way to the information she wanted. She found out the weaknesses and allergies of the person and allowed other residents to ignore the terms of their lease, to hang decorations that the young man has deadly allergies to outside of his door. The young man would wake up choking and with burning eyes after being exposed to the agents, but no one would do anything to protect his safety. Instead, the manager, Rene Johnson and other tenants tried to get him evicted and harassed him, like it was a game, knowing they could possible kill him by exposing him to latex.

These are typical examples of how social engineers work to obtain the information they need. They will often contact the help desk and drop names of other employees. Once they have what they need to gain further access, they will attack a more vulnerable person. As you can see, Rene Johnson is  someone who has information, but not necessarily the clout to challenge anyone of “authority”.

Rene Johnson used the typical third-party authorization, by illegally talking to a higher-up, who had the authority to grant access to the young man’s medical record. They were basically trying to kill him, drive him crazy, evict him, and take everything he owned, including his car.

Rene Johnson called the authorizing office to establish if they would be available to corroborate the request, and they complied and had fun harassing the young man.

Not only that, but Rene Johnson and the maintenance man, Don, allowed a stalker into the building, when they were changing locks, to access the young man’s apartment, while he was home. They allowed the stalker, Kenny Holmes, to  enter the building and pretend to be an employee he was even dressed in a uniform and became part of the crew for that particular job. Kenny Holmes gained access to facility by posing as service repairmen, complete with tool belt, clipboard and repair orders.

Kenny Holmes is what is known as a trash trawler or garbagolist and he was willing to get dirty to get the information they need. It was all confidential and sensitive information, which has now been exposed to the public. Rene Johnson, Don, Kenny Holmes, and David H. rooted around like a pigs, and likes and used illegal methods to harass them young man and gain access to his personal information.

They called the young man crazy, and physically attacked him, over a period of seven to ten years so no one would believe him. As you see, social engineering can be successful when certain personality traits can be exploited. However, the target was made to believe that he was not solely responsible for their actions, and that they are looking out for him to gain his trust.

While the young man was depressed, about the investigations, two before Chistmas and two more before Valentine’s Day, they sent Dave in, who had date raped and fractured the young man’s back, because they knew he was vulnerable. Most men will not report being raped and may even think they are overacting, so they are usually willingly to get over it. So Dave took the young man out to the bar, and slowly got him drunk. As they were headed back to the building, Dave begged the young man, who has been isolated and dejected back to his apartment to hang out. Once again, Dave waited until the Jello shots kicked in and sodomized the young man, while he was incapacitated.

The next door neighbor was aware of what happened in the past, and she was in the next room when she heard someone being attacked. There were screams and the sound of falling furniture. Eventually everything went quiet. No one went to investigate. The lady who had heard the noise has a thirteen year old grandson, and days later, she packed her bags and moved out because she did not want her grandson to be attacked by Dave. The lady believed that “somebody’ll do something about it.” And they did. They had the young man intensely investigated over a week’s period and called him on the phone and harassed him and threatened him.

The young man was concerned about his health, so he went to the doctor all bruised, beat up, and depressed and was forced to open up about the attack. Blood work was done and came back normal (negative), and this attack happened 7 months after the first one, so he is fine. However, the doctor and the young man that it was best to see a psychiatrist, which he did, and they scheduled a series of appointments to get him back in the right frame of mind again.  He was shocked and they made him for comfortable. However, Rene Johnson and her friend David (not the same as Dave), from the office called the young man and told him that they would cut his income off if he did not cancel his doctor’s appointments and come to see them. The young man was so stressed out that he went home and told his mother, and the situation is currently under investigation.

The doctor told the young man that he needs to move because he is not safe there, and never to get drunk because it is not safe. The young man explained what happened and it was just a bad situation and out of the ordinary. Everyone else made the young man feel like he was overacting and that it was not a big deal. After dealing with some of the other people in the building, the young man started thinking they maybe they were right, and Dave is not such a bad guy.

Dave caught the young man in the elevator and asked him to have lunch with him, the young man agreed. Dave took him to the Delta King River boat and offered him drink, the young man had coffee, knowing that he could not get drunk, but Dave ordered up the booze, as usual, so he could get him wasted. After a few hours, they went back to Dave’s apartment and hung out, the young man was not really aware of how much he had been drinking, as they did not drive.

There was a party across the hall from Dave’s place, and when Damon walked him, he heard Dave telling the young man to take him clothes off, as he was refusing to let him go. Dave saw Damon and let him go right away out of fear. Thank God. The young man felt like he had a  shared responsibility because he should have known better, but he was being manipulated. The results are consistent with recent findings demonstrating that diffusion of responsibility is typical of someone who has experienced date rape.

The victim is lead to believe that compliance with the request will enhance their chances of receiving benefit. This includes gaining advantage over a competitor, or getting in good with management. The social engineer spends time developing a relationship with the intended victim. Through a series of small interaction, like offering him magazines and inviting him out, a relationship is established.

By calling a person crazy and having it established as common knowledge make it easy for predators to target a victim.  The differences we have reviewed illustrate the subtle influence that culture can have on perceptions of disorder and normality. Be cautious before you leap to conclusion about the mental health of others.  The aggressors, however, seem to suffer from a delusional dominating personality disorder.  This is clearly an unhealthy environment. The people are vain, emotional, and irrational. The predators even spread rumors about the young man’s gender, by calling him a women, even after the date rapes confirmed he had a penis, and is a male.

And he was basically made to stay home because every month, for five months, he would get packets saying he had to fill forms out within ten days or he would lose his income. The manager, Rene Johnson, even put a 24 hour tow notice on his car for no reason and performed an illegal search of his apartment, so the target was not only fearing for his life, and experiencing something he did not want to talk about, but was also under threat. The abuse is now well known, and the community and family is very concerned. “I will repay you for the years the locust have eaten, the great locust and the young locusts, the other locusts and the locust swarm, my great army that I sent among you. You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the LORD, you God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed.” Joel 2:25-27