"Hi, this is Rick from [Internet Service Provider]. We're seeing some unusual traffic from your location. It's most likely nothing to worry about, but we have a field tech on his way to diagnose the problem. Can you make sure he has access to the network to run some quick tests?"
At most, this phone call may take 3-5 minutes, and already the risk for the target being compromised is very high, especially if the individual on the other end of the line agrees to help the "field tech" (very likely the same person who called). This technique is one very specific example of "Social Engineering," and throughout this post, we will see how these techniques are often leveraged by attackers to exploit the human element of security for malicious gain.
