The Art of Attack Attacker Mindset for Security Professionals

Elevate your ethical social engineering and hacking skills with a proven set of techniques

Unethical social engineers use deception to manipulate people into doing things contrary to their best interests. Whether this means attempting to discover passwords or gaining access to data, assets or physical locations, they use dishonest techniques to their benefit. Ethical social engineers and hackers, on the other hand, are paid by companies to use social engineering and attacker mindset (AMs) to legitimately probe systems, processes, and people for weaknesses so those vulnerabilities can be addressed, and future damages prevented.

In The Art of Attack, accomplished social engineer and physical pentester Maxie Reynolds delivers an inside look at the attacker mindset, how best to use it and how to defend against it. The book explores the principles of the attacker mindset, including where to start an attack, persistence, non-linear thinking, observation techniques as well as the skills and laws of the mindset. It delves into processes, how to engage in reconnaissance and privilege escalation, and how to obtain redundant access, all without being detected.

The Art of Attack is an invaluable resource for social engineers, pentesters, red teams and anyone in cybersecurity. You’ll discover how to:

• Discover strategic tools you need to build your attacker mindset, including attack formation, process, recon, and more.
• Utilize the skills and laws of attacker mindset.
• Detect the unique tells of an attack and how to avoid becoming a victim of one.

Take on the perspective of an attacker with this insightful new resource for ethical hackers, pentesters, and social engineers

In The Art of Attack: Attacker Mindset for Security Professionals, experienced physical pentester and social engineer Maxie Reynolds untangles the threads of a useful, sometimes dangerous, mentality. The book shows ethical hackers, social engineers, and pentesters what an attacker mindset is and how to use it to their advantage. Adopting this mindset will result in the improvement of security, offensively and defensively, by allowing you to see your environment objectively through the eyes of an attacker.

The book shows you the laws of the mindset and the techniques attackers use, from persistence to "start with the end" strategies and non-linear thinking, that make them so dangerous. You'll discover:

• A variety of attacker strategies, including approaches, processes, reconnaissance, privilege escalation, redundant access, and escape techniques
• The unique tells and signs of an attack and how to avoid becoming a victim of one
• What the science of psychology tells us about amygdala hijacking and other tendencies that you need to protect against

Perfect for red teams, social engineers, pentesters, and ethical hackers seeking to fortify and harden their systems and the systems of their clients, The Art of Attack is an invaluable resource for anyone in the technology security space seeking a one-stop resource that puts them in the mind of an attacker.