Re: proposed pen-test

[Steve Friedl <steve () unixwiz net>]

On Mon, Mar 08, 2010 at 12:43:20PM -0800, John Kinsella wrote:
> I'll guarantee that real attackers won't worry about the legalities of  
> impersonation or using the postal service for fraud...who would sue in  
> the pentest example?

Nobody, because a pen-test is not *actual* fraud, and there is no
actual damage.

There are all kinds of Postal Service rules, such as it being illegal to
open somebody else's mail, but when you dig in, you find that opening
the mail of a previous resident for the purposes of tracking them down
or informing the sender, is NOT illegal.

Fraud requires an actual intend to defraud; saying "gotcha"
is not the same as defrauding.

This may draw some attention, but if you have your approvals in order
and you are scrupulous with not abusing any actual personal data you come
across, you'll be fine.

... and I suspect you'll get plenty of customers - please do let us know
if you try this.

Steve

--- 
Stephen J Friedl  | Security Consultant |  UNIX Wizard  | 714 694-0494
steve () unixwiz net | Orange County, CA   | Microsoft MVP |  unixwiz.net

> I doubt the social engineering network wants to  
> draw attention to the topic, and I'd hope they would appreciate using  
> the results to educate your users...I also suspect it's too small of a  
> fish to fry to the USPS...
>
> John
>
> On Mar 7, 2010, at 11:03 AM, John Grimes wrote:
>
> > Hi--
> >
> > A consultant firm has recommended to my university's IT department
> > that we run the following pen-test:
> >
> > We send, through regular mail, a letter to members of the staff and
> > faculty, that appears to come from a well-known social networking
> > site, that is, it uses a facsimile of the actual letterhead and
> > envelope of the site, including the correct return address. In this
> > letter, we invite the recipient to beta-test a new version of the
> > social networking site by using the program on the enclosed usb stick.
> > We offer a gift card to a major online retailer as further inducement.
> > If any staff member plugs in the usb stick, they will be told in a
> > pop-up window that they have been duped, and the fact will be logged
> > to a server at the university.
> >
> > It seems to us that there are two potential legal problems here:
> > impersonating the social networking site, and using the US postal
> > service for a fraudulent, if well-intentioned, purpose. Can anyone
> > here comment on this?
> >
> > Beyond the legalities, does this seem like an effective and  
> > worthwhile test?
> >
> > Thanks for any insight.

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