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Best Social Engineering books
4 books in our catalog cover Social Engineering, ranked by rating. Each entry is an opinionated review with who the book is for and who should skip it.
01 · 2022
Practical Social Engineering
A Primer for the Ethical Hacker
Joe Gray's working manual for the social-engineering side of red team and threat intel: OSINT-driven recon, pretexting, phishing infrastructure, and the legal and ethical boundaries that separate professional work from criminal activity.
Intermediate4/5Joe Gray02 · 2018
Social Engineering
The Science of Human Hacking
Christopher Hadnagy's broad procedural reference on social engineering as a discipline — recon, pretexting, elicitation, microexpressions, and the structured engagement model his consultancy operationalized.
Intermediate4/5Christopher Hadnagy03 · 2011
Ghost in the Wires
My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker
Kevin Mitnick's first-person account of his 1990s social-engineering and phone-system intrusions, foreword by Steve Wozniak. Self-promotional in tone but a primary source on a defining era.
Beginner4/5Kevin Mitnick, William L. Simon04 · 2002
The Art of Deception
Controlling the Human Element of Security
Kevin Mitnick and William Simon's case-study collection of social-engineering attacks: PBX scams, helpdesk impersonation, dumpster-diving, the casual lies that sound true. The technology dates the book; the human side is timeless.
Beginner4/5Kevin Mitnick, William L. Simon