Robert W. Gehl is F. Jay Taylor Endowed Research Chair of Communication at Louisiana Tech University and the author of Weaving the Dark Web (MIT Press). Sean T. Lawson is Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Utah, Non-Resident Fellow at the Brute Krulak Center for Innovation & Future Warfare at the Marine Corps University, and author of Cybersecurity Discourse in the United States.

Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: The Emergence of Masspersonal Social Engineering 1
I Engineering the Social 25
1 Crowdmasters: The Rise and Fall of Mass Social Engineering, 1920-1976 27
2 Phreaks and Hackers: The Rise of Interpersonal Social Engineering, 1976-Present 49
II The Social Engineering Process 67
3 Trashing: From Dumpster Diving to Data Dumps 69
4 Pretexting: Recognizing the Mitnick Mythology 89
5 Bullshitting: Deception, Friendliness, and Accuracy 115
6 Penetrating: The Desire to Control Media and Minds 139
III Masspersonal Social Engineering 163
7 Contemporary Masspersonal Social Engineering 165
8 Conclusion: Ameliorating Masspersonal Social Engineering 199
Notes 227
Bibliography 279
Index 319