Dafuq - This is how hackers hack you using simple social engineering

As far as my Security+ training went, pretty much. It's something you have to research since no amount of software/hardware preparation can defend against human error.

There was a story we were told. A boss goes to the network administrator and tells him "oh, man, we're having a security test tomorrow, and this guy's some kind of super hacker! There's never been a network he couldn't shut down. If he brings it down by 5pm tomorrow and tells us how, we'll pay $500, but if not, he won't charge us at all."

So the adminstrator steels himself for that day, makes sure there's no way into the network, double-checks everybody's credentials, everything's perfect. And yet, 4pm, the network is down. The man is paid, and the question becomes, how did this happen? Where was the flaw?

He goes and checks the server, and finds it is quite simply unplugged. Straight out of the wall. He receives an email, only a few scant words long: "paid the janitor $20 to unplug it."