Demonstration | Head Hacker

Gaining Access.. As easy as abracadabra, alakazam

Some of you may have gathered by now, as well as infosec, social engineering, and hypnosis, I am also interested in abit of trickery pokery, magic.

In recent months I was asked to carry out an impromptu social engineering exercise as a favour to someone. Of course I obliged, almost bit their hand of infact, but we will keep that a secret. Anyway, I had discussed the generic process and results of this test with a few people, and they also found it amusing and suggested I made a post. So here we go.

You know the recon, give the building a little tour, and you are not surprised to see access controlled doors, locked windows and turnstiles on the main entrance to stop tail gating. However as we continue on our little wander we find a rear entrance, however it is also access controlled. No big surprise. However we see from the corner of our eye, something beautiful, thats right its smokers corner. The smoker is a common helper to the social engineer, and normally we could fake having a cigarette. Two problems, I have no smokes, and I don’t smoke. However I do have a set of cards on me, as I have been taking every opportunity to practice some of my tricks when ever a spare 5 minutes arise. So I sit down on the bench just up from smokers corner, and start shuffling the cards and having a little mess about.

Almost 45 mins later, a few people have been and gone, but one guy just cant resist any more. He approaches me, and in a joking tone asks “What do you think you are, a magician or something?” There is my cue. I show he a simple trick, card prediction. Hes impressed and laughing, rapport is building. He asks me if I know any others? So I get him to pick a card, and then remember it, and then go through the deck and reveal his card. He is loving it, and lets face it, who doesn’t like magic However its getting cold, and I have got work to do. So I suggest we best go in, as I am cold, and my work wont do itself. He kindly walks we me to the rear entrance, and without asking swipes his card and lets me in. Access Gained.

I am still not sure if what happened next was a good or bad thing, but he asks me if I know any more tricks and if I would show his work mates. I explained I need to get on, but I can do something quickly. So he takes me to the first floor, and to where he sits with his two work mates. I do a quick triple card routine, which involves abit of mind reading. They are amazed and loved it. Now I really need to go.

I head down a corridor and located a small empty meeting room. Locate a network point, and plug in my La Fonera. Lights are on, we have lift off. I head back down to the rear entrance, a few people are off out for a cigarette. I tail gate and head back to the car.

In the comfort of the car, I load up BT4, connect to my La Fonera, that’s connected to the corporate network and do what needs to be done. With that little smirk on my face, of what a great few hours I have had.

So basically the magic was just another method to build rapport, and a point to build upon. I don’t think it could be used everywhere, but in general people like magic, and are fascinated buy it. The best bit was the debrief the next day with the company, they couldn’t believe the chain of events, and of course again I have to show them one of the tricks.

So I have posted the basics of this due to requests, but also to demonstrate a key thing when social engineering. Use what you know, and what you have available to you and think out of the box.

Its Hypnosis Jim, but not as we know it.. Hypnosis without trance

Once again I am going to be jabbering on about Hypnosis again. So if you have not noticed by now hypnosis is something that is of great interest to me, and I think having at minimum an understanding of hypnotic language is a valuable addition to your social engineering toolset.

So just a quick history to bring us upto date. I had read a couple of books on hypnosis pre 2009, but things had never really hit home. Then I think it was March 2009 I stumbled across Anthony Jacquin‘s “Reality is Plastic” on a magic forum, and read about the success this guy was having with hypnosis since following the concepts discussed. Well it had me sold so I bought it, and thanks to this book I became The Hypnotist. I also studied other writings, online information and DVDs from Anthony, as well as speaking with him and his business partner Kev Sheldrake helped me develop my skills. I call the method of Hypnosis I learnt from Anthony “conventional” hypnosis, in the sense that it involves the concept of trance, inducing sleep and deepening. I have, and continue to get great success with this approach, and I love it to bits. The only negatives I have found is that if you don’t set up the context right, success issues occur, but that’s a hypnotist issue, and the other is using it from a social engineering perspective, you have to be more creative, and that’s no good if your lazy.

So as mentioned before when I was at the Blackpool Magic convention with Anthony and Kev, I was introduced to James Tripp, and he told me about his Hypnosis Without Trance method of Hypnosis. We spoke about what I do, and the social engineering aspects and we agreed that there is some possible clear benefits. Since Blackpool I have had various online interactions with James, and studied some of his online material, and then began utilising his approach in combination with “conventional” Hypnosis with great results. I didn’t feel as confident with the non trance approach to some extent, I think in a way because I had not officially read, or studied the approach, as a result there was some internal doubt. This was part of the reason for attending the No Fail Protocol Special, and looking to attend James’s Hypnosis Without Trance Workshop.

So fast forward to the 15th May 2010 and I am sat in Regents College in London on the Hypnosis Without Trance Workshop, ready for a weekend of educating my grey matter as well as hacking some

What can I say, it was an excellent two days. I really enjoy James’s teaching approach, its very casual, he gives lots of background, explanation, has no issues with interruption and questioning or challenging. Obviously as you would hope for there is also the actual doing of hypnosis and learning as you go with your fellow class mates. The class had a great selection of people, and everyone got on well. I would say about 50% had the ability to hypnotise to some degree already using “conventional” methods, so this made for good discussion and education for everyone involved.

The main objectives of the course for me were to take steps to mastering this approach and building on what I had observed and practised to date, and I would say I achieved this as I had great successes all weekend. I wanted to discuss and examine possible limitations for my work from a social engineering perspective, and how I could utilise the conventional skills I have already, and as always to meet new people, and willing subjects to practice some head hacking with, and share my thoughts and opinions. I met, and possibly exceeded these objectives. So where from here for me? Well my approach to education and developing my skills is to expose myself to information and knowledgeable people on topics I think will be of benefit me, I then take all the various information and form my own opinions and approach. So moving forward I can see myself really utilising the Hypnosis Without Trance approach, and replacing alot of the “conventional” hypnosis methods I use as I think the non trance is more covert for the lack of a better word. It will also make me become a better hypnotist, and utilise both skills sets I have at my disposal. I would certainly like to work with James again, as I have got to know him even better over the weekend, he’s not only a great guy, he has lots of good insight, and NLP knowledge (in a good way, I have NLP hang ups), and I enjoy the discussions we have.

So if you want more information on Hypnosis Without Trance visit James’s website, you can sign up for his free paper on his approach, and no need to worry he isnt a spam king. Also check out Jame’s blog for more tit bits of information and videos. If you cant make a training, its worth considering the study at home Hypnosis Mastery Programme. I have not looked at all the material myself at this stage as I attended the workshop, but the content I have seen looks excellent.

Finally I will just share a final experience from the weekend, that for me showed the benefit. I know someone who in the past I have tried to Hypnotise with “conventional” hypnosis and I never had any success. In his own words, his brain is just to powerful. First time I tried it with the Hypnosis Without Trance approach, I had multiple phenomena. Hand stuck, feet stuck, arms locked, and name amnesia. Its a powerful approach, and it works. Just imagine what can be achieved with the knowledge of both. The mind is a power tool, make sure you keep it with you, and don’t walk around in a mindless state.

After the last class on Sunday, one of the attendees was kind enough to be videoed as I carried out some grey matter hacking. This was my first time being recorded, and it wasn’t really planned, so the nerves kicked in a little, and my cold didn’t help. However, great successes, and just gives an example of what this looks like. I was unsure if I would share this, but I think it shows me where I need to develop further, and will force me to get some decent planned non amateur footage, and help measure progression.

These three video clips are all using the Hypnosis Without Trance method, no sleep, no deepening, just direct, powerful hypnosis.

If you are also interested in the courses and DVD’s offered by Anthony Jacquin in addition to the RIP booked I mentioned already, please check out his Head Hacking site, for more information on his Manchurian Approach and Trilby Connection. Please let Anthony know how you found about about his products.