If only computer security did not have to involve people THE stereotype of the malicious hacker is a pale-skinned young man, hunched over a keyboard in a darkened room, who prefers the company of computers to that of people. But the most successful attackers are garrulous types who can talk their way into, and out of, almost any situation. In the words of Mr Schneier, the security guru, “Amateurs hack systems, professionals hack people.”Kevin Mitnick, perhaps the most notorious hacker of recent years, relied heavily on human vulnerabilities to get into the computer systems of American government agencies and technology...