if you are looking to simulate real world threats, then SE should certainly be a component of that threat simulation.

There is risk involved of course.
However the realities are that not many companies are good at Physical Security.
If you have these concerns I would have some additional clauses in the engagement contract to cover the event of your own personal damage.

It doesnt stop it happening granted, but it gives you some insurance.

Depending on your definition of Social Engineering you can do it full time, however in my experience you will have other skillsets to leverage also.

There are no specific certifications for SE, however there are some workshops at conferences that talk about social engineering, and red team engagements that would be of benefit.

My suggestion is to study the following areas:

Psychology
Neuro Linguistic Programming | Hypnosis
Micro Expressions
Body Language
Neuroscience
I personally also recommend study of Illusionists, Mentalists and Magicians.

Good luck on your journey.

I have not been to Source, so cant comment.
However I did go to BruCon last year and it really was an awesome conference.
I am also talking at BruCon this year, so of course I will plug that

I think what ever one you decide to attend will be money well spent, and you will have a great time.

Dale

Congratulations on passing mate, its a tough exam.

Red Bull and cake kept me going through mine

Thanks for posting this Chris, much appreciated.

It certainly is an excellent conference.

See those who can make it there

The_Eccentric,

Its a nice post mate, well done and thanks for sharing.
I will also add that an SE attack can also be a good way of helping a company really understand its critical systems and valuable assets, as the perspective is different.

Late to the party but I will still put my 2p in.

The EnCe book is the only official Encase book on the market. I did all my study with guidance software and the courses where very good, and the training material and handout was excellent. I think Encase is a good product, and its alot cheapee tha FTK.

You can contact Guidance and they will send you a demo copy, then you can play at home and increase your knowledge.
When I spoke to Access Data, you had to pay £50 for a limited demo copy, no thanks.

Chris where abouts are you based?

If your interested in Social Engineering, and some of the skills that can make you a better Social Engineer, I would like to plug my new site Head Hacker.

Its still early days, but I believe there is already some good content, and I am getting alot of good feedback. Please check it out, and feel free to email me feedback and content requests.

http://www.headhacker.net

WPA with AES is still pretty good, WPA with TKIP has issues
WPA2 is the current best offerings.

As with all things, if you use a simple password, its going to be popable by a decent wordlist.

Cracking WPA is based on the SSID and the password / passphrase. The best thing about WPA cracking is you grab the handshake and away you go, not like the old days of WEP cracking.

Rainbow tables speed things up alot, so this is something worth looking at also.
I have recently been looking into CUDA, and I am planning on doing something with this in the lab soon, and will most likely write a blog post on it. Should see at least a 5x increase in cracking speed.

The BackTrack distro has many many tools, and everything has been compiled to be interoperable, its really worth a look. Wireless attack is just one function possible.

As with everything, given enough knowledge and time, anything can be popped in theory.

Happy learning.

Personally I have a couple of Linksys USBBT100's. One is standard, and another I have adapted so I can use an external antenna.

Be interested to hear from anyone on this, and what MIFI device they are using.

I have been considering getting a MIFI device of some sort in the future when I change phones.

Look forward to the info.

Ketchup, I do believe your right this is Bluetooth.

So if you simply want to scan and detect Bluetooth devices this can be easily achieved with an bluetooth enabled device. The simple bluetooth tools on a bluetooth enabled PC will scan and find other devices.

If you want to do something once you have found them, then the fun can begin.

Check out the hcitool, btscanner, and the other offerings within BackTrack and see where you can take your results.

Will PCI become a standard for everyone..... hmmm good question, but I honestly think no, but its a step in the right direction.

As already stated PCI:DSS is only focused on payment card information, so its a narrow scope, and does not have interest in any area where this form of information is not resident or flowing. The PCI standard is still relatively new, and will of course continue to be developed and improved, but adoption is still relatively low and often misunderstood. Yes everyone who processes card data should be doing the PCI dance, but if their acquirer isnt making the push companies are not doing it, and when they do its a slow going process, and most often a minimal tick box approach.

All of these standards are best practice and common sense, some are mandated, and some are optional. Organisations still dont fully understand security benefits, its an overhead, and rarely done properly. If people who need to be PCI compliant expanded the requirements to fill their organisation this would be a good start to improved security, but I think we are some way away from this.