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Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by Amadou on Sunday November 03, 2013 @04:10PM (#6665065)
There was a comment in the story that I think is misleading - Attractive women can open locked doors in the male-dominated IT industry. Attractive women can do that in any industry, it doesn't need to be male dominated. Men are stupid that way (if we weren't stupid that way birth rates would probably be 1/100th of what they are now), you only need a handful of men to have a good probability of finding at least one who is thinking with more than one brain.
Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by nether on Sunday November 03, 2013 @06:29PM (#6665625)
I doubt a pretty girl would have so many employees bending over backward to help her if they were all women. You're kidding yourself if you think a female-dominated industry wouldn't have handled her more appropriately.
Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by fleitz on Sunday November 03, 2013 @06:53PM (#6665722)
Yes, likely the opposite would occur.

I can't comment how how commonplace it is, but having worked in an office with many women there seemed to be a lot of animosity towards the more attractive women from the less attractive women. Could have just been that office.

Another friend who ran a support department told me she refused to hire a quite attractive candidate because she felt that the attractive woman would 'distract the men'. My personal feelings were that she liked being the only woman in the department. To be fair she also refused to hire candidates based on their age. We stopped talking shortly after that conversation.

Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by enraged_camel on Sunday November 03, 2013 @07:30PM (#6665897)
>>I can't comment how how commonplace it is, but having worked in an office with many women there seemed to be a lot of animosity towards the more attractive women from the less attractive women. Could have just been that office.

Nah, this is incredibly common. It goes even further: if an attractive woman is successful, her entire success will be attributed to her attractiveness, rather than her intelligence or skill. It's a major factor that contributes to the glass ceiling they inevitably hit.

Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by rosser on Sunday November 03, 2013 @09:19PM (#6666359)
This reminds me of the Ani Difranco lyric, "Everyone harbors a secret hatred for the prettiest girl in the room."
Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by jessaustin on Sunday November 03, 2013 @10:33PM (#6666638)
It's been so long since I listened to that album. Thanks for reminding me.
Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by walshemj on Sunday November 03, 2013 @07:21PM (#6665862)
heard that called "queen bee" syndrome.
Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by victorf on Sunday November 03, 2013 @09:07PM (#6666321)
But the queen bee is surrounded by female bee laborers.
Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by atmosx on Sunday November 03, 2013 @07:32PM (#6665901)
Her? Sure. What if instead of her you put Alain Delon or the next beautiful, skilled, attractive in multiple ways male on the frame. See how women start acting stupidly just to get into his pants... It's human nature.

That said, there's no remedy for stupidity.

Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by marquis on Sunday November 03, 2013 @06:00PM (#6665537)
Instead of bringing the conversation down to a question of pretty-woman-duped-the-gullible-man, which isn't productive for anyone, I'm sure this could have been achieved many other ways, e.g 'Leaked new Tesla car' or "Cupcakes downstairs now!". The issue at hand is the security failure, not how the person in question was duped.
Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by ivix on Sunday November 03, 2013 @07:26PM (#6665875)
If you find this topic beneath you, why did you read it? The article is precisely about a specific type of social engineering, which is a worthy topic of interest even if you find it insufficiently cerebral.
Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by marquis on Sunday November 03, 2013 @07:29PM (#6665890)
I find no fault with the article however many of the comments here are focusing the bait rather than the prize.
Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by detcader on Sunday November 03, 2013 @04:33PM (#6665190)
I think the point was that _because_ men dominate the computer industry, you will have an easier time targeting IT systems for exploitation with this method.
Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by enraged_camel on Sunday November 03, 2013 @07:34PM (#6665908)
Forget about attractive women. The focus should be on the fact that in any system or process that needs to be secure, humans are by far the weakest link. The legendary/infamous hacker Kevin Mitnick wrote about his social engineering practices in his book Art of Deception. Everyone here should give it a read.
Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by reneherse on Sunday November 03, 2013 @09:32PM (#6666399)
For an entertaining dramatization of social engineered IT infiltration (that does include tradecraft by femmes fatale), there is 2003's Battlestar Galactica.
Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by beachstartup on Sunday November 03, 2013 @04:14PM (#6665088)
> (if we weren't stupid that way birth rates would probably be 1/100th of what they are now)

uh, no. very attractive women don't have kids with the legions of dorks that give them unearned help throughout their life. in any industry.

women aren't stupid. they're actually very smart.

Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by Amadou on Sunday November 03, 2013 @04:27PM (#6665159)
Your assumption does not follow from what I wrote, in fact it is practically the reverse since my point was that any industry is vulnerable.

It isn't just "dorks" who give even marginally attractive women special treatment - there are very few categories of men who don't (primarily gay men). Try this experiment out in real life - any time you see a man helping a female stranger with anything consider if he would do the same for a male stranger. The number of times a straight guy will go out of his way for another man who isn't a friend is practically zero.

women aren't stupid. they're actually very smart.

The idea that women deliberately take advantage of "dorks" sounds vaguely bitter and misogynistic.

Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by a3n on Sunday November 03, 2013 @05:23PM (#6665396)
> The idea that women deliberately take advantage of "dorks" sounds vaguely bitter and misogynistic.

And human.

It happens enough that it's a (probably undeserved) stereotype.

People are no damn good, regardless of gender. Or at least, enough of them are no good to give a bad name to the rest of us. We suck.

Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by beachstartup on Sunday November 03, 2013 @04:28PM (#6665167)
> there are very few categories of men who don't.

yeah, exactly. those are the guys who are getting with the attractive women.

specifically, high value men who don't give handouts.

also, dorks isn't exclusive to IT. every industry has dorks.

Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by gaius on Sunday November 03, 2013 @04:35PM (#6665197)
Oh, you're a "PUA". Good luck with that.
Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by kbenson on Sunday November 03, 2013 @08:21PM (#6666110)
I would hardly call not falling over yourself to help a pretty member of the opposite sex purely because of their attractiveness the same as the targeted psychological games pick up artists use. One is manipulation, the other is having some self respect.
Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by beachstartup on Sunday November 03, 2013 @04:47PM (#6665250)
i'm not really sure what you're referring to, but i'm talking about pretty basic human psychology.
Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by gaius on Sunday November 03, 2013 @04:34PM (#6665192)
Women are people. Some are very smart, some are stupid, in the same proportions as men. For every male IT worker who's been duped by an attractive women, there's a female secretary who thinks her boss is really going to leave his wife for her.
Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by beachstartup on Sunday November 03, 2013 @04:53PM (#6665276)
i agree - men thinking a commitment/favor/gifts will get them sex is about as stupid as women thinking sex will get them a commitment/favor/gifts.

anyone who's ever been in an adult relationship could tell you as much.

Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by MrBuddyCasino on Sunday November 03, 2013 @05:31PM (#6665425)
> stupid as women thinking sex will get them a commitment/favor/gifts

You can't be serious? This happens a lot, I can't imagine how one cannot see it.

Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by xerophtye on Monday November 04, 2013 @12:45AM (#6667063)
I believe this was in reference to the girls duped by guys into giving up sex. Where girls think that now that they have had sex, they are bound together. Like that comment about the secretary hoping for the boss to leave his wife
Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by ye on Sunday November 03, 2013 @05:29PM (#6665416)
> in the same proportions as men

Women are actually smarter than men on average, or so IQ tests tell us.

Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by gaius on Monday November 04, 2013 @12:11AM (#6666963)
Whites are smarter than blacks, according to IQ tests too. That's why IQ testing is discredited now.
Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by icecreampain on Sunday November 03, 2013 @06:10PM (#6665579)
That must explain why men are outnumbered in science and business, right?
Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by rglullis on Sunday November 03, 2013 @06:16PM (#6665600)
Looks like someone need a lesson about standard deviations before making snarky comments.
Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by jessaustin on Sunday November 03, 2013 @10:37PM (#6666647)
To be fair, that was responding to a comment that was almost as dumb, although it weaseled out with that "IQ tests tell us" clause.
Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by euroclydon on Sunday November 03, 2013 @09:36PM (#6666412)
Or the opposite of your conclusion: Women in Science: http://philip.greenspun.com/careers/women-in-science
Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by ye on Sunday November 03, 2013 @07:49PM (#6665969)
What does the number of women in science or business have to do with smartness?

Most businesses are pretty stupid, if you think about it - buy cheap sell high, or produce something people need.

As for science, it's mostly tedious research by poor PhD students with professors taking most of the credit. Occasionally there's a breakthrough, a cause for celebration (and hopefully real world application).

Re:Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency by dopamean on Sunday November 03, 2013 @04:16PM (#6665100)
You're ruining the dream bud.