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By: Hunter Storm

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Hunter Storm: “The Fourth Option.”

Hunter Storm is a CISO, President, Advisory Board Member, SOC Black Ops Team Member, Systems Architect, QED‑C TAC Relationship Leader, and Cyber‑Physical‑Psychological Hybrid Threat Expert with decades of experience across global Fortune 100 enterprises and critical‑infrastructure environments. She is the originator of the field of Human‑Layer Security and multiple adjacent disciplines through her foundational framework, Hacking Humans: The Ports and Services Model of Social Engineering (1994–2007), which established system‑level metaphors that now underpin modern socio‑technical security practice.

Hunter Storm is also the creator of The Storm Project: AI, Cybersecurity, Quantum, and the Future of Intelligence (2023-2026), a long‑horizon research initiative examining the convergence of emerging technologies, governance, and hybrid‑threat dynamics. Her work spans AI, cybersecurity, quantum technologies, platform governance, and systemic risk across complex global socio‑technical systems.

She contributes to ANSI X9, FS‑ISAC, NIST, and QED‑C, shaping standards, strategy, and policy in cybersecurity, financial systems, and post‑quantum cryptography (PQC). Her research, frameworks, and advisory work place her among the small group of practitioners influencing the United States’ quantum and post‑quantum governance landscape from within the ecosystem.

Hacking Humans | The Ports and Services Model of Social Engineering Keynote Presentation Biography and Additional Notes

(Primary Source Document), (Arizona Security Practitioners Forum, University of Advancing Technology, 2007)

 

Hunter Storm Research — Hacking Humans | The Ports and Services Model of Social Engineering

Hacking Humans Archive (1994–Present)
Foundational Research Series — Primary Source Corpus

Prepared by: Hunter Storm (https://hunterstorm.com/), Founder, Hunter Storm Enterprises
Originator of the Hacking Humans Framework (1994–2007)
Version 1.0 — Published December 2025

 

Archival Preface

This page contains the original keynote speaker biography and additional notes from Hunter Storm’s 2007 and 2013 presentations of her Hacking Humans framework. These materials are preserved exactly as originally created and first delivered by Hunter Storm in 2007. They remain unedited to maintain historical accuracy and document the earliest public articulation of the Hacking Humans framework. Formatting, tone, and structure reflect the working materials used at the time.

 

Hunter Storm Keynote Biography

© 1994-Present Hunter Storm

Social Engineering: Building a More Secure World Thru Innovative Use of the Truth

HACKING HUMANS: Social Engineering with Real-Life Methods, Models, and Theories

How do you hack humans? By using social engineering, of course!  Hunter Storm’s presentation entitled Hacking Humans will give you an entirely new theory and perspective on this topic.  Affectionately nicknamed “Hunter Mitnick” by colleagues, you’ll be educated and entertained by her stories.  You will:

  • Receive an overview of social engineering
  • Discover its uses in your organization
  • Learn Storm’s original theory and psychological model of how to hack humans
  • Find out how to prevent someone from social engineering you and those in your organization
  • Enjoy the jokes and sanitized stories of social engineering exploits so much that everyone will look at you funny for laughing so loud and long!

 

Hunter Storm Hacking Humans | The Ports and Services Model of Social Engineering Keynote Presentation Additional Notes

AZ Sec Practitioners’ Forum

  • Discover the uses of social engineering, positive and negative.  Cars and guns comparison—good in right hands and with right intentions.
  • Learn Storm’s original theory and psychological model of how to hack humans
  • Discover how to install your personal IPS to prevent being hacked yourself
  • Enjoy the bad jokes and sanitized stories of social engineering exploits so much that everyone will look at you funny for laughing so loud and long!

 

Psychology is often mistaken for the astrology of the social sciences, versus astronomy.  I think that’s mainly because we can’t see or touch the mind under normal circumstances so it appears to be magic and smoke.  However, we can’t see Higgs-Bosun particles, either, yet Sheldon would argue with you that they exist.  He’d win, too.

 

TOPICS

  • Social Engineering Presentation @ Mindworks September 24 6:30 PM

Social Engineering: Building a More Secure World Thru Innovative Use of the Truth (courtesy of Will Pocknell)

  • Se’ing the human element (programmers, LOB contacts, etc.)
  • How-to, simple examples
  • Before presentation, get people to show DL’s, get glimpse credit cards
  • Bring up what can be done if have name, email address, and know that someone is customer (send targeted emails from company, or blat from customer to company, or hack customer’s email account
  • Process reengineering (AT&T datacenter email from me @ GoDaddy)
  • STORIES—how the guys took servers from datacenter
  • I walked out with servers, guards offered to help me carry it
  • A major certificate authority transferred total ownership of 50 domains to me
  • NO NAMES!!!
  • Interactive pieces—ask them to do exercises on each other

 

Social Engineering:  Building a More Secure World Thru BS

Social Engineering:  Building a More Secure World Thru ********

Social Engineering:  Building a More Secure World Thru Finesse

Social Engineering: Hacking the Easy Way

Social Engineering: Building a More Secure World Thru Innovative Use of the Truth

 

  • Social Engineering the human element (programmers, LOB contacts, etc.)
  • How-to, simple examples
  • Real-life examples of Social Engineering

 

Enumeration, scanning, etc.

Know yourself first!!!  What/who can you be?  Be believable, cannot “act as if;” must BELIEVE it

Kernel of truth, facts

 

  • IDS / IPS
  • Basics of what it is and why you’d want to use it
  • Differences between the 2
  • HID/PS, NID/PS, WID/PS
    • Pluses and minuses of each
    • Testing is important
    • Things to think about
      • Bandwidth for managing alerts, which are worthless if not tuned
      • Have someone test your competency—are analysts catching alerts?
      • If no group for this, outsource it!!!
  • How to architect devices into the network
  • Visio diagrams to show where to put them into the network
  • SIM and Event Correlation
  • BCP

 

INFO

  • 30 minutes
  • Questions at end
  • Assume that all are moderately geeky

 

Jinx.com

HDLP

Dress the part

Control Fear

Give good energy

Be the PARTS of yourself that are ACCEPTABLE in target person’s group

 

Original Presentation Notes (Uploaded Word Document, 2007)

 

Related Pages in the Hacking Humans | The Ports and Services Model of Social Engineering Archive

 

How to Cite This Report

 

Citation for This Report

  • Citation guidance and standards: How to Cite the Hacking Humans Archive
  • Citation: Storm, Hunter. Hacking Humans | The Ports and Services Model of Social Engineering. Hacking Humans Archive. https://hunterstorm.com/hacking-humans-ports-and-services-model/

 

Citation Metadata

Version Control: This page is part of the Hacking Humans Archive (1994–Present). Series: Human‑Layer Security Series — Report No. 1 (2026)

Additional guidance: Citation Metadata for Hacking Humans

 

Citation for Human-Layer Security

Storm, Hunter. Human‑Layer Security | Definition, Origin, Variants, and 1994–2025 Lineage (Authoritative Guide). Hacking Humans Archive (1994–Present). https://hunterstorm.com/hacking-humans-ports-and-services-model/human-layer-security-definition-origin/

 

Preserved as part of the Hacking Humans | Ports and Services Model of Social Engineering Historical Archive.

 

Disclaimer

This report is provided for educational and informational purposes only. Hunter Storm does not provide legal, regulatory, or compliance advice. All analysis reflects practitioner‑level interpretation of publicly available information at the time of publication.

 

Note on Document Integrity

Some high‑visibility materials on this site have previously experienced post‑publication formatting interference. All content has been verified and restored to its correct form. If you notice anything that appears visually inconsistent, please report it via my contact page so it can be corrected promptly.

Learn more in these articles, with screenshots documenting post-publication interference in Hunter Storm’s Hacking Humans presentation notes. Each alteration has been identified and corrected, ensuring the work remains verifiable and intact.

 

Discover More from Hunter Storm

 

Last Updated: April 2026