Social Engineering

Watch the stream here:
piratesoftware...
#Shorts #Blizzard #Hacking

[@PirateSoftware]

"Why was he training CS to not answer questions?" Really surprised how little is known about Social Engineering in the comments. Social Engineering is a branch of hacking centering around obtaining information or encouraging employees to take actions they otherwise should not. My career has largely centered around offensive security and my job at the time was to perform a social engineering pentest on Blizzard CS. CS was obviously not trained to not answer customer questions. Come on now. ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)

[@highrider9168]

Social engineering is best described as "looking for vulnerabilities in the people instead of the software or the hardware." You hiring? 😂😂😂

[@CSDragon]

you didn't mention you were in security. So it sounds like you're saying they wouldn't answer _support_ questions. When you said social engineering that sounded like you were checking how good their social skills, professionalism etc are. There's no context that you're a white-hat hacker in the vid for people that came here from the algorithm.

[@mhx6437]

Can you give an example to what kind of questions you asked? You got me hooked

[@billjenkins802]

@@mhx6437 I’m by no means a professional in this subject matter, but one that I’ve had tossed at me is a threat actor/attacker posing as their victim they want information on whose ‘reviewing’ some of their details by asking very nonchalantly something along the lines of “Oh, hey, real quick. I moved houses a little bit ago, and I was wondering if I changed my address the last time I called.” Or something of the sort. Social Engineering is a VERY broad topic with a huge amount of depth, but that’s a simpler one. Some employees will automatically spit out the victim’s old (current) address “Oh, do you mean the one at 123 Apple Drive?” Which is NOT what they’re supposed to do. They’re supposed to ask the caller what the old address was to confirm, then ask for the new one. Depending on whatever the threat actor’s goals are; even a slip-up that small could spell doom for their victim, especially if they contact other companies/businesses posing as the same victim to collect information on them.

[@nomadtealeaf1532]

@@CSDragon idk I came from the algorithm and already understood

[@snugglebadger3727]

"He's not giving you the names, bud." Best manager ever, lol.

[@nonpondo_]

I'm sorry my hands are tied, I don't know what to tell ya

[@rushink]

He was working for Blizzard, so probably not the best

[@toolittletoolate]

Some bad people working in some sections of blizzard does not mean every single employee of blizzard are bad people learn to logic@@rushink

[@deekamikaze]

At an old job I had a boss who would call me about my driving since we have the number on the back of the rig and then I'd explain why this driver was an idiot and either I ran him out of the lane because mine was ending and no matter how much I slowed down or accelerated and had my blinker on, this dude wouldn't move so I just played the "I'm bigger" game and made him move. He just replied with "ok, give em hell." There are so many other stories where that guy was an absolute Chad to me and other employees. I hope you read this Nick. You're to this day, a decade later, the best boss I've ever had.

[@m0nkEz]

​@@rushink good managers are often the only thing that keeps people at shitty companies.

[@bobwilson679]

“I’m gonna go to your boss” “Do it” Absolute Chad

[@B1gLupu]

Boss was a chad too for having his back.

[@SoHDrxy]

​@@B1gLupumore like meh, I can't control a free man 🤷‍♂️

[@Fraggr92]

​@@SoHDrxymajority of bosses don't think like that. The majority of bosses in that situation would have told him to give up the names or he'd be fired as well. Hence the cool boss.

[@Simonnejohnson474]

Chad Chadwick

[@clarkecorvo2692]

@@Fraggr92 "majority of bosses" on what st atistics do you base that statement on?

[@emptydata-xf7ps]

“Im firing you for not doing what I didn’t train you” lol

[@AlzhinSon]

They have been trained when they started though.

[@emptydata-xf7ps]

@@AlzhinSon Do you have a job at all? Policies and procedures change all the time, especially in IT related instances.

[@AlzhinSon]

​@@emptydata-xf7ps Nope, no job at all. I do have the ability to understand things I hear and read though. The 5 year employees were called complacent. Synonyms for complacent are insouciant, apathetic, nonchalant. Unknowledgeable and ignorant do not appear in the given synonyms on the Merriam-webster's website. I have a hard time believing policies relating to what information customer service can and cannot provide were changed without the existing customer service employees being made aware of that. The company is getting sued if there is a bad fuck up, it's not in its interest to just leave their employees in the dark

[@joshshultz1250]

@@AlzhinSon Found the HR manager.

[@charlie2224ffd]

@@emptydata-xf7ps Did you watch the video at all?

[@storminmormin14]

Man imagine falling for a fake social engineering attack from in-house and automatically getting fired. That’s a toxic work environment.

[@Menuki]

Didn’t you catch the part where it was Blizzard/Activision?

[@tonoornottono]

@@Menukilol

[@tuvoca825]

Dumb people in charge

[@alanjurado474]

@@storminmormin14 Whether it's a failure to an in-house tester or to a real attacker, it's still a failure. Firing them is literally a liability protection move. You know they must have already done it before. Up training is the correct solution. But it's not immediate. If you're being actively audited or something similar, you need it solved on the spot. It's truly incredible people fail to protect personal information in today's society. The ability to identify social engineers is a basic skill nowadays, as necessary as knowing how to fry a damn egg.

[@storminmormin14]

@@alanjurado474 well if you’re test is only a bare minimum competency test then the people who pass it are still pretty easily defeated.

[@Lego5114]

“You see, the problem isn’t with your staff. It’s with you…”

[@ivyr336]

**Confused management noises**

[@X23Natalie]

Words that management pretty much refuse to hear or even consider 90% of the time.

[@m1nd_fl4y3r_m80]

"But we threw them a pizza party... shouldn't they kiss the ground we walk on and get paid less to do more?"

[@oneleapforward903]

"... True I AM perfect"

[@lostinbravado]

As a manager I tried so hard. Our mistakes as leaders so easy to fix. But so many leaders suck at their job and believe it is their job to "catch the bad person". Idiots. Automation can't move fast enough.

[@finebook281]

Typical manager would rather fire all of his employees than actually manage.

[@45calGunslinger]

>Blizzard 'nuff said

[@gamesguy]

True story

[@HansDester]

​@45calGunslinger Any place, actually. They would fire the problems to make it look like it's not their fault. It's been an issue everywhere I have been. That's when I decided to work to become the boss so I could change that way of thinking. Idiots didn't get reprimanded they got retrained or I changed the training of it was efficient to teach the idiots. Of course it ostracized the people who weren't idiots. As they believed the bosses thought they were also idiots. They got over it quickly once it was explained that the training was for the actual idiots and that because we're a cohesive unit we are only as strong as our weakest links. Plus getting a half day off of work paid really smooths things out with the non-idiots.

[@initiatedcrown]

I hate how common high turn over rates are!

[@aegis062]

while there are plenty of bad managers there are also many reason they want to get rid of many old employees one of those reason being that none of the current workers are ppl he can trust or use since it takes time to build a relationship. so bringing in his own ppl and putting them in positions to handle all the other foot soldier is a power move to put the workers in line with what he want to do.

[@street_stunts]

This is the combination of intelligence, morality, AND wisdom. Never seen this dude before but i like him already

[@UltimateSpinDash]

@@shoopoop21 True, but even if you're in a position where you can afford to be moral, that doesn't mean most people would do it if it would inconvenience them.

[@LeonShuriken]

@@shoopoop21 why are you going through all the comments and passively aggressively calling Thor a nepo baby??? like you couldve stopped at one thread bud. he's dad worked at blizzard but a lot of people who worked there didnt know that they were related for a good while, he said so in his streams chill out bro.

[@C00l-Game-Dev]

You have picked A wise starting point, young goblin

[@Freedi2of2]

it's almost as if people running companies usually have no fucking idea what they are doing

[@quickdraw6893]

You don't go to business school to learn how to run a good business, you go there to learn how to make money and order your underlings to make you more money. These things do not align very often, or even much at all.

[@roguetune03]

@@quickdraw6893Sounds like a systemic issue with business school. Go figure, another education system failure in America. Formal education in America might as well all be Trump U.

[@lolwtnick4362]

@quickdraw6893 lmao. obviously you've never been. you go to biz school to learn to be middle managers. you learn how to make money with experience or scamming the system

[@aephos.overwatch]

Not that they have no idea, rather they see nothing but profits, and employees as just numbers. That's what leads to behaviors and decision like this. In fact that's what got them in these positions to begin with, because unfortunately those qualities are valued in many companies. How you be a "boss". So they have a good idea what they're doing, they're just indifferent or don't want to put in any effort.

[@eragon78]

@@quickdraw6893 I took business classes in college and every single one was an absolute joke. I didnt major in business, so I never took the higher level classes, but the lower level ones were so absolutely basic that I cant imagine the higher level classes being much better. The entire class was basically just common sense that even a middle schooler should know. Most people who are "educated managers" are honestly jokes. They have no idea what they hell theyre doing or how to actually run a company.

[@jackbennett2269]

Literally saved many employees from abuse at the hands of an incompetent, negligent (typical) boss

[@simonji2940]

​@@wile123456based and true. It has benefitted the majority every time its been implemented

[@chuckiejoseph4979]

as if you knew the quality of a workplace from a 30 second short of a secondary source

[@PirateSoftware]

It happens most often on Social Engineering ops honestly. Always need to be mindful of the "easiest" solution for management.

[@The73MPL4R]

​@@chuckiejoseph4979This is Blizzard we're talking about. Their poor workplace quality has been well-documented for years now.

[@BeetleBys]

@@wile123456or, instead of having a system of subordination… why don’t workers control the means of their own labor within a firm

[@VatoTommyChingon]

It’s nice that your boss understood you and had your back. When someone who outranks you has a good moral compass and looks out for their team, culture can shift in the right direction.

[@steves1015]

A boss that supports you like that is worth their weight on gold. Sadly in my experience they tend to be few and far between.

[@georgehatzimanolakis1904]

We don't know if it's the case that the boss was nice. It could just be that rhe guy who wanted names has no authority over the dude's boss.

[@prestonbelgarde6896]

​@@georgehatzimanolakis1904....the director wants the names

[@truthmatters758]

tbh his dad is a major employee at the same company he works at

[@EddieHalifax]

I came here to say this and am glad you did it first 👍

[@cutemoonrose]

I appreciate the hell out of this short, I am my call center's trainer and you really made me think and I immediately went to my boss and told her look, we're uptraining. Everyone. And I explained why and she was totally on board. Thank you!

[@XimCines]

Amazing! ❤👍

[@darkin1484]

"You see the problem is not with your employees, its with.... me.. because i Have the most badass name, the most luscious hair and the most sexy voice. They never stood a chance bud"

[@skram1000]

Absolute gold 🪙 🥇

[@davidfelber1783]

This is actually an extremely interesting short, downright criminal that you don't have more views on it. Work in a CSR but its universally applicable to most jobs.

[@PirateSoftware]

Thank you! I've had a long career in this field and enjoy the hell out of it.

[@user-wo1in7jc2l]

​@@PirateSoftwareyou have a fantastic voice and delivery. Consider me subbed

[@Wishuponapancake]

@@PirateSoftware what's the path to start doing this kinda thing? super interested in it

[@bigh1708]

yup

[@deadpanfish]

Think of it this way... Professional athletes still train the very basic fundamentals. They do it more, better, and with dedicated regularity. The word "training" does not exist at my employer. Apparently everyone just knows everything they will ever need to know on the day they're hired.

[@tscoms5472]

As an internal Auditor this warms my heart

[@PirateSoftware]

Fighting the good fight.

[@KaboozeRocks]

Nice try - internal auditors don’t have a heart

[@tacolord2561]

@@KaboozeRocks fucking LMAO!!!

[@IamJustA]

​@@KaboozeRocksthat's why they said it warms their heart because previously it was an iceberg

[@TPixelAdventures]

Always blame the system first, then the procedures, then the staff last. Proper systems have proper policies. Proper policy creates proper procedures. Proper procedures allow staff to do their work without errors.

[@benjaminnewman3837]

"Too many people are answering questions." "Who are they?" "I'm not answering that."

[@taffacre261]

People need to understand the implication of this in EVERY JOB FIELD.

[@zakuraayame5091]

it is going over a lot of people because of the context and angle of perception; the social engineering is the callers getting what they shouldn't and somehow it isn't clear. Same as people fishing to get store clerks to activate gift cards and give numbers to which is now a big part of training in those environments ... to even the scammers messing with older people that scambaiters like Kitboga go after. It is all social engineering to steal information or money. It is amazing what a nice outfit, a clipboard, and confident body language and speech can have you get away with in public social environments if no one is trained. people instead are thinking blizzard are telling CS to stonewall customers about in-game issues lol

[@i_cam]

your boss is so cool for backing you up like that

[@laharlkent]

He might have been one of the people.

[@PirateSoftware]

Yep! I was a Senior Red Team Specialist at that time in my career. Both our Team Lead and the Director of our department backed me up. Good dudes.

[@Kassidar]

There are two types of employees, the ones who are scared of pissing of their boss, and the ones their boss is scared of pissing off. This guy's the 2nd

[@jankyjokester4741]

​@@PirateSoftwareI find it interesting you were doing software side along side with social engineering and policy. Usually these are different people talented in those skill sets. At least that is what it seems like from a few shorts.

[@burlingk]

@@PirateSoftware Like, you were hired to do a job, and you did it. Sounds like you did it well. Management wanted to screw it all up before you could finish the job. ^^; Good bosses know when to stay out of the way and provide cover fire.

[@carnagekenon]

You are a HERO for not getting those employees fired for company incompetence

[@jdot5974]

He's literally offering the best service possible by refusing to give the names. It was in the company's best interest to solve the entire problem rather than just taking the lazy and reactionary approach of firing their most experienced staff. If the guy just handed over the names he may as well have never been hired in the first place and it would have been a huge waste of everyone's time.

[@nawab256]

@@jdot5974 What was wrong with the questions being answered?

[@jdot5974]

@@nawab256 They were answering questions that would have compromised security

[@nawab256]

@@jdot5974 Ya after having my morning coffee I realized how stupid my question was. Thank you hahaha

[@jdot5974]

@@nawab256 Haha, all good

[@Johnnysboy3987]

This is the issue with driving tests, we only take 1 at the beiginning and never have to refresh ourselvs so we end up with idiots.

[@bravomike4734]

I mean technically the act of driving itself is the refreshment unless u haven't driven for 4 years.

[@adorableanimals4868]

@@bravomike4734 Driving tests are to make sure you follow the laws, though, as well as are competent.

[@dericofdorking]

I kinda agree with you because you definitely can develop bad habits out of laziness/complacency

[@loon1994]

Once a decade for a test would help families that have aging parents/grandparents who shouldn't be driving end their license. I've seen it more than once, and it's almost always a fight due to the current laws and no 3rd party assessments

[@LittleCart]

He just saved those employees from using their time and talents to work in better companies than Blizzard

[@Fiufsciak]

Now you make it sound like a punishment, lol

[@nurilnuril4372]

I hate this comment because it's right. The people leaving Blizzard & making their own studios, or working in better companies have done a lot better than the ones who stuck through the storm at Blizzard.

[@rigo.acosta]

Have you tried being unemployed as an adult and trying to find a job?

[@ajin5381]

@@rigo.acosta The people who left Blizzard mostly either got a better job, or made their own companies, so it worked out for them

[@whothehellarewe]

Management in a nutshell: "Something wrong with this work flow... Am I the problem? No... No, couldn't be... I'm without fault."

[@dashaw3255]

Insert principle skinner meme

[@hyronharrison8127]

I dont fucking understand the wave of incompetent leadership we see today. Like really stop pretending you're a good leader and LEARN TO BE ONE

[@XBSmoovin]

It's crazy this comment works whether you're at Mc Donald's or Blizzard HQ. People are people and they're full of shit.

[@Redmanticore]

you got 2 choices: either you get fired, or you blame others and they get fired. fixing costs resources so it is not an option.

[@666Tomato666]

oh, I see you've worked with upper manglement?

[@OPTactics]

The faith your boss has in you and your work is amazing

[@GDKF0238]

Guys clearly a great worker but the dad bit definitely helped lol

[@Zangamarth]

​@shoopoop21 Yeah, it's important to recognize that. He's clearly skilled and knowledgeable; working for the US government testing security for nuclear plants speaks volumes, but Blizzard absolutely couldn't twist his arm too much. Don't deny his skill, but don't overlook his advantages either

[@Baalaaxa]

@@shoopoop21 It doesn't automatically mean nepotism if his father is working at the same company. Maybe he's got some sway, but to a get a job, who you know will always be important advantage. It would only be nepotism and undue favoritism if he got hired because of his dad AND didn't got the proper qualifications and abilities.

[@nateh254]

@@GDKF0238dad unlocked the door for him. Thor kicked it open himself

[@Phosypha]

Least surprising part of this video is that the first instinct of the Blizzard exec was to fire their most loyal employees

[@xen1868]

I swear this guy is a genius, randomly blowing up and telling us all his secrets, a win win

[@jonmcninch]

"Sorry, bud, he's not going to give them to you" 😂

[@Martinit0]

What a boss

[@CramcrumBrewbringer]

Wrong, it’s actually: “He’s not going to give you the names, bud.” If you’re going to use quotes, do it right.

[@chacedelaney7282]

​@ObiWanKenobi2124 right because it's completely different

[@udozocklein6023]

for a quote, yes. otherwise, no@@chacedelaney7282

[@delskif1425]

​@ObiWanKenobi2124 it's almost like paraphrasing isn't a thing. Wow!

[@alistairjclark2433]

Working in banking in the IT side we do mandatory training every 6 months, I have only ever known it this way. We all need refreshers as it's easy to forget that people are trying to hack you through simple conversations

[@axel_r_]

I was boss at a store where an employee did something wrong by mistake. My company boss asked me who it was. I did not provide the name. My boss got angry with me and demanded that I give the name. I still refused. I said it was my responsibility for the employees' mistake, and I would fix it and make sure it would not happen again. Honest mistakes happen, and we need to learn from them. We should not punish employees for not having knowledge or correct training. To be honest, the mistake was the company's lack of training but I still stepped into the ring of fire. My boss punished me instead. That was fine, I guess. I protect my employees as long as they do nothing wrong by purpose.

[@redelfshotthefood8213]

A lot of people don’t recognize that as a boss, you build loyalty in your workers. Throwing people under the bus is the opposite of building loyalty. So. Good for you.

[@roguetune03]

I tell my guys every meeting..."Process Armor". If you follow documented process closely and can CYA with a wiki link to the process followed, that is wearing the armor. If they failed to follow process its on them, if they failed because of the process its on the company to fix and anything less is total bs. Managers should be hand picked by merit of leadership talent/skill not attrition.

[@ithildiess8305]

People like you make life worth living. The only thing people talk about in my job is the negative things, nobody ever talks about the positive things or how good someone is at their job or give praise. It's so sad.

[@66Roses]

"First rule of leadership: everything is your fault." The difference between a boss and a leader.

[@axel_r_]

@@66RosesAmen

[@mauri9998]

With a voice like that I would instinctively answer any questions you asked me.

[@idon.t2156]

"yes"

[@XPGamingXPDK]

Back then he basically sounded like pewdiepie, he has shown a video how he sounded before he turned 30 and genuinely sounded like pewdiepie lol

[@xxXXuser69420XXxx]

bro just soaked fr

[@Krixwell]

​@@XPGamingXPDK And now he sounds distinctly like Markiplier... what a shift.

[@clueless4085]

😂

[@matt-hew69]

This man has the voice of a DJ and the hair of a goddess.

[@father_opan4358]

​@@kalabakonbitts1362Wait, you wasted your time watching a KZbin short? You don't say😅

[@kalabakonbitts1362]

@@father_opan4358 Yup, I did. It’s a gamble, you win some, you lose some. 👍

[@BattleOverride856]

Sounds like a young more tolerable Howard Stern to me

[@ethantownsend2543]

@@kalabakonbitts1362 just like me

[@masterofkurkuma3067]

@@kalabakonbitts1362 I think you wasted more time with being mad than watching the actual short my dude

[@alchemystudiosink1894]

Part of the problem also with attempting to do social engineering stuff on people who've been there for a while, is how often those people are told to ignore warning signs and such because they need to provide the customer service and the customer is always right.

[@ThePiachu]

Good on you for actually addressing the issue and not the symptom!

[@EthanisEatin]

a good man who takes his job seriously and thinks critically I’m taking notes

[@JoHn-if6wy]

Meh. There wasnt even a problem in the first place. This guy created the problem.

[@ACharmedEarthling]

While you're at it, maybe you should take some notes on how to use punctuation.

[@beckham3533]

@@JoHn-if6wyI’m not sure what you’re trying to say but he was literally hired by Blizzard, one of the biggest gaming companies to do a penetration test on their customer service. You don’t just wait until this becomes a problem, you take action now so you don’t worry about it in the future

[@showregular111]

​@@JoHn-if6wyare you acoustic?

[@bilbobaggins601]

​@@JoHn-if6wyi beg you, do not reproduce there are enough dumb peiple

[@mito._]

It's funny, because the director came to you with the exact same issue all of the 5+ year employees had. He expected you to comply without asking questions, and not only did you pass your own test - you laid out the math so that the director could understand the problem, without directly calling the director out for also failing the test.

[@keedoocap6219]

I don’t care I’m commenting on this to ruin it.

[@deeepdish]

@@keedoocap6219cope

[@evangreenberg1666]

Work in finance customer service. This is pretty standard stuff but really important. Everyone has to do yearly trainings, especially on social engineering, especially in finance. He’s right not to give the names. Social engineering and all that is constantly evolving. People are always trying new stuff to get information. In reality it should be the whole CS department and people who create the trainings who’s jobs should be on the line

[@Brabent]

As someone who writes training and designs curricula for a living, THANK YOU! its so hard to explain this concept to people sometimes, managers tend to want an immediate "Solution" but what they need is something more permanent like you described here, wonderful approach

[@MrFanservice]

this video should be required to be shown at every company meeting that involves absolutely any sort of KPI conversation. the problem probably isnt your workers, its the way that you trained them/how you have them working

[@PirateSoftware]

Always!

[@GaianEntertainment]

That's definitely the problem where I work but instead of looking at the most commonly complained about issues, they try to offer a bigger bonus if our KPI metrics increase a certain amount by next quarter. Instead of trying to motivate, they need to stop demotivating people. Communication and training are at the core of 90% of work problems. The other 10% are things we can't do anything about (customer union strikes and supplier delays).

[@skachor]

KPIs are just HR's body armor against wrongful termination suits.

[@bonefetcherbrimley7740]

Good job helping those employees!@@PirateSoftware

[@akira8393]

I don't know what's going on

[@twentysecondcenturywoman]

I literally want 8,000,000,000 more people like this dude.

[@youtubeaccount1718]

too much segs for me🤨@@PaulsKZbin

[@PDJazzHands]

​@@PaulsKZbinhalf each and I'm satisfied

[@TheStickyKey]

​@@PaulsKZbinEwww a woman?!? 🤮

[@raisschultz420]

I'm in college rn learning to get into this exact career

[@ontopofbottom]

That'd be a sausage fest

[@kingsting12]

I am fortunate enough to have a boss who trusts me and encourages me to stand my ground. Makes all the difference in the world.

[@kylebrown7968]

This is actually super thought provoking. I work in management and this seems applicable in so many niches

[@davidl5452]

This man understood the assignment better than the manager.

[@ProtomanButCallMeBlues]

I think it was just a toxic manager

[@rockhaze]

Most managers don't have a clue what they are doing, they are just masters at delegating and doing it in a way that APPEARS they know what they are doing. Essentially useless charlatans.

[@mikeguariglia9989]

It’s much worse than that. This person was a director. So more than likely the managers manager manager towards the very top. They most likely reported directly to the VPs or their manager reported to the VPs.

[@professorhal8098]

Principle-agent problems w

[@Oneoneone111One]

Or maybe the director/manager is a made up character in story he’s using to make a point. This happens so often in these didactic stories people tell. You can watch it happen live in person daily.

[@QuilloManar]

Blizzard: "He's not giving me the names" Boss: "That sounds like a you problem."

[@lane8a]

If you win how do I win?

[@IveBeenWithBruma]

The boss of the person asking for names is most likely far higher up the chain. It only takes a little push to get good managers fired.

[@nox5555]

@@IveBeenWithBruma CS is the lowest of the low, they only can bitch to HR and thats always a risk because they are always one step away from getting replaced with Indians or bots.

[@experticus9901]

I respect that. I've seen similar issues over and over at different jobs. I went into detail the other day with my wife about it, it's a perpetual cycle when nobody takes a step back to see the real issues.

[@UniverseUndone7]

I worked ag Blizzard for 4 years. I ended up leaving (was planning on leaving anyway but was hoping that something would come around and change my mind) when I didn't get a role I wanted on the IA team called the Voice of the Player specialist. Long story short I had already been compiling data and providing it to the makeshift vop team for about 8 months on top of my normal role as a tier 3 Game Master/Account & Technical Specialist. I already knew how to do the job like the back of my hand. I knew the rules about doing the IA stuff and auditing. My interview both of my interviewers who were heads of the VOP team, marked one of their traits as being assertive and the other aggressive (both men, and I am a woman). When they said I wouldn't be moving on to the next round (they were the second round) their criticism towards me was that I was...get ready for it... "Too assertive". I shit you not. I ended up going to HR because I felt that that was a slight against because they obviously thought that trait was good because they called it out to me during our interview, for themselves. I got the feeling that they didn't like that in their female colleagues. HR basically did what they normally do and protects the company's ass and makes you feel like you're in the wrong. I knew then that I was walking away. It was basically the straw that broke the camel's back out of numerous amount of. What he mentioned in this video about the CS director (I'm actually pretty sure I know who he's talking about) that was common place amongst a lot of managers. It's power down dynamic where instead of looking at the problem and saying how can we make this better, they look at the problem and say let's just get rid of it and pretend it doesn't happen. Anyway I found out later on but another woman who applied for the position didn't get it because she was a lot like me. Assertive but fair. Hardworking, love digging into details and puzzles. Anyway I had to share that because his story in this short brought back that memory. That CS director's mentality just reminded me so much of those two managers I interviewed with. Albeit it for different circumstances in. I am thankful for a lot of the things I learned though. They gave me a step up and the ability to ask for more money... Money blizzard wasn't paying cause they're cheap AF. Literally on the year that Cataclysm launched, we had record sales... We had ridiculous ticket queues. And they laid off so many people in customer support. Had them escorted off the property in locked out. Was terrible day. So glad im done with them

[@okdarius]

Man do I love coming across an actual informative and high quality short once in a while

[@admaanhason7410]

It happens too rarely 😢

[@okdarius]

@@admaanhason7410 fr :c

[@yellowbasementrecords651]

This isnt teaching you anthing useful. the people didnt follow the rules after 5 years bc they realized those rules were useless. i garuntee the rules that are necessary were followed

[@okdarius]

@@yellowbasementrecords651 So how come the more newly hired employees were much harder to convince? Surely that says something about better training being useful if anything

[@yellowbasementrecords651]

@@okdarius your paragraph doesnt make any sense

[@yeastov5470]

Also from my experience working tech support, the longer you work there, the more management keeps breathing down your neck expecting you to work faster and hit increasingly unrealistic service targets. So if breaking protocol shaves a few seconds off the call, then people will do it to get their manager off their back.

[@PirateSoftware]

Honestly one of the worst facts about CS departments and ones that lead to issues like this.

[@Bizarrrrrrroman]

I work in healthcare billing customer service, and this issue with unrealistic expectations for call metrics is giving me ulcers. To rank as an employee who doesn't get terminated, we've got to average 50 calls a day at no longer than 7 minutes total handle time with less than 2 minutes of wrap time. This is impossible to do if you're actually fielding inbound calls and attempting to resolve caller's issues, and the metrics are obviously based off of calls to voicemail or quickly pawning the patient off to call their insurance company. I come to resent callers who need actual help through no fault of their own, thinking with each earnest thanks I receive for providing quality assistance I've come closer to losing my job.

[@yeastov5470]

@@Bizarrrrrrroman it sucks doesn't it. Especially when during training my company kept banging on about how "this is a customer service job" but if you try to do a good job, you get punished. I hate how management cares far more about stats than anything else and it's so frustrating because it makes everything so much worse for everyone involved. And those metrics sound terrible. My workplace expected 10 minutes handle time but no wrap unless other departments needed to be notified of issues. Hope things get better for you though.

[@StarcraftOakley]

It's exactly what happens to the hotel industry. Management expects people to clean rooms as fast as possible, employees find ways to gloss over tasks to save time, saved time routine becomes new expected standard, employees has to cheat even more. And now every room is absolutely disgusting places to sleep in because they fire anyone who actually does their job.

[@HidForHG]

@@StarcraftOakley Almost as if cleaning is not MORE important than the idiot suits giving each other massive bonuses for shaving a few seconds here and there a year off time/pay. LIke in hospitals. Where a competent and skilled cleaning staff and do more than 10x their number in medical professionals, if they want to be called DR then get a doctorate, in preventing disease. Which just makes sense if thought about in ways OTHER than of petty tyrant ahole fragile ego medical professionals are gods and us peasants don't deserve to exist in their presence.

[@coolseaking3757]

Bro did the bosses job for him💀

[@Elrond_Hubbard_1]

Why does this boss of yours need to be sat down like a child and have it explained to them that doing the most immediate and destructive thing is not good?

[@DoctorOaks]

The guy wasn't his boss. The guy was in charge of the Customer Support department. It's not that unreasonable for the knee jerk reaction to a large group of your employees failing to do one of the most important aspects of their jobs to be "I should fire them for not doing their jobs properly" when they WERE trained to do it right. Like Thor rightfully points out in the short though, it's an issue of people needing training regularly to help make sure they don't get complacent. Security Guards do similar things to help prevent them from getting into a routine because a routine can be exploited.

[@davellii6309]

We need more people like you and your manager in companies!

[@NinjaSushi2]

He made it up.

[@Yugi-op9uw]

​@@NinjaSushi2urgh cowabunga

[@Josh.1234]

​@@NinjaSushi2 completely made up.. some entry level guy refused multiple tiers of his manager chain and they just accepted it? Not firing him (btw they could have just redone this testing without him and gotten names again) Not to mention he's a moron and doesn't understand what's happening. people don't care later in their career because they become complacent and don't fear getting fired as much. First year people are on their toes, don't know what to expect and don't want to get fired.. 5 years your perspective changes and no matter how much training changes that. Telling people they will get fired for not following the correct process in dealing with sensitive data will though. He's the reason I have constant training.. thanks

[@mempissglizzies9206]

⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠@@Josh.1234he’s not entry level and if his boss backed him up then the manager can’t do anything to stop him. Also, even if veteran workers aren’t scared of getting fired, they’d still have the experience and skills to be better than someone who just started the job. If your veteran employees aren’t outperforming most of the new hires, there’s a problem. In the case, they found the issue and corrected it

[@Josh.1234]

@@mempissglizzies9206 if he's doing social penetration testing with hundreds of calls. He's the grunt Not sure if you understand how a business works but if a higher level manager wants you fired they can fire you.. doesn't matter what your boss says. As for veteran support reps, time doesn't mean they get better. They can get bitter and tired of dealing with crap and not care if they protect PII.. training and time doesn't make someone care more about it.

[@MisterMosfet]

Yup! As a photocopier tech a few years ago, the amount of IT staff that would just give me passwords and admin privs over the phone zero questions asked was terrifying.

[@mpclepto182]

I WISH someone would hack my photocopiers. Maybe then I'd finally have a legitimate reason to tell management to chuck them. But right now all I have is "they're a pain in my butt". Here's your admin creds to my Konica: 123456

[@richardpowell4281]

The man with the incredible sultry voice is back, DON'T ANSWER HIS QUESTIONS!

[@breakingthemasks]

God damn... Now that is the definition of integrity. Massive props for not only understanding the problem, but having the balls to protect the cs employees.

[@ThePhenomenalEX]

"You gonna give him the names?" "No." "He's not gonna give you the names." This had me chuckling.

[@sanctionedmeat8578]

Finally, this guy gets it. You can't just keep firing staff and expect a world class team to fall in your lap. You gotta build it up with training and leadership

[@Velomata]

Saved those people from being homeless. What a saint.

[@TheSleepSteward]

Complacency of procedure. It’s a massive area for human error. And it’s why technology isn’t to blame for a lot of issues. It’s human error. The tech is built extremely well but it only takes one person to bring it all down.

[@SpecialEDy]

I do the same thing as an Industrial Mechanic. I have built a relationship of honesty with the equipment operators: if they break something, if they have an accident, they come to me immediately and I handle it for them. If its something I need to inform management about, they just get an email from me that I saw or fixed something unsafe, and they need to train the department or fix the equipment so it doesnt happen again. Ive stood my ground and refused to give names, explained to them that punishing one person wont prevent it from being undafe and happening in the future, and it worked every time. People kept their jobs, and management made changes or retrained everyone.

[@mrorange8576]

Really good work of you there. If people know they are going to get fired for reporting mistakes it's just going to lead to things being swept under the rug and leading to actual serious risks. It's better for everyone when transparency is rewarded and not punished.

[@youtoobe556]

Kudos to you for being a pillar others can rely on and keeping your focus on the right objectives 🙌

[@farrquehussein2350]

W mans people gotta eat

[@HonestlyWhoCares]

Respect for protecting the employees. You know the boss was going to fire them purely of covering his own ass

[@herbertguate8934]

Yeah, he did the right thing. Fuck Blizzard

[@callmealex69]

Its like kevin mitnick said in his books, the weakest element is the human element

[@nateh254]

Thor, I’ve never seen any of your videos or even a stream, but KZbin started recommending your shorts awhile ago and I know it sounds cheesy, but you actually saved my life. The start of 2024 I was spiraling deep down into depression and addiction. My entire life felt like it was caving in and every aspect of my life was falling apart. Your KZbin shorts were the only piece of positive affirmation in my life. Even though I knew you didn’t know me or weren’t talking directly to me, it all still resonated and gave me hope. Now, I’m proud to say I’m one month sober

[@petermachillivrey3618]

Get this man famous this is the best short I've seen all day the world is so messed up seeing something as normal as this is great

[@PirateSoftware]

You rock, dude!

[@petermachillivrey3618]

@@PirateSoftware no you rock my man

[@dangdudedan8756]

absolutely petrifying to think of what would have happened if your boss was more like him and less like you.

[@nikitaw1982]

wouldn't get the results and they would replace the manager with some woke woman. then the company would be really fkd.

[@aarohgokhale8832]

And I know, I may end up failing too. But I know, you were just like me with someone disappointed in you.

[@gregoryc6656]

I've become so numb I can't feel you there

[@adora_was_taken]

yeah, then blizzard would've ended up with mismanagement issues

[@buntew9414]

The thought of it is enough to freeze you like a statue? Lmao

[@marklindjr.2017]

This really is like the survivorship bias of airplanes. In WWII planes were being shot up and falling out of the sky. The engineers realized they needed to fix the armor plating, so they watched the planes as they came back. When they did, they noticed a lot of bullet holes in the wing tips, stabilator, and around/in the cock pit. So they re-armored these planes. But they wisely didn’t focus on those areas because it had proven that the planes that returned, didn’t have holes there, while the planes that crashed most likely did, so they increased armor around the engines, tail, and mid portions of the wings and the aircraft survivability greatly improved.

[@elliottbritt3937]

These are what my notes from high school class looked like, and without the audio it means nothing

[@ArgoTaiku]

I wish more companies follow this, THIS should be the example we all follow. This exact approach.

[@boopjackrex7598]

Pretty much every construction company I’ve worked for and construction site safety/management company I’ve worked alongside has had this mindset, though it’s probably because they wouldn’t legally be allowed to function in Canada if they didn’t

[@jimmyrussl7112]

Believe me when I say, you do not want more companies like blizzard

[@Mario_Lugo]

​@jimmyrussl7112 Maybe the cs at blizzard is better than the rest of the company?

[@AshAshAshAshAshAshAshAshAshAsh]

"attack the problem, not the solution" is something I’ve always said. Goes in most situations. Edit: maybe it’s symptom and I’ve been saying it wrong as some have pointed out

[@Koppu1doragon]

They were attacking the victims of the problem, they were not the solution.

[@AshAshAshAshAshAshAshAshAshAsh]

@@Koppu1doragon the solution here was continuing on with the training that you have. The problem was lack of training.

[@n8style]

isn't it "attack the problem not the symptom"

[@skachor]

Attack the problem not the symptom?

[@Koppu1doragon]

@@AshAshAshAshAshAshAshAshAshAsh... so who was attacking the solution?

[@m4vr1ck]

Thor is a real one for not snitching and coming with a solution to help his people out mad respect

[@TonyBombardo]

The boss was literally just wanting the names so he could buy all the people who failed the test an ice cream as consolation for slipping up and this dude ruined the whole thing. Smh

[@Allicrocogator]

Of course! And I'm the second coming of Christ, but no one believes me. Smh

[@TonyBombardo]

@@Allicrocogator nah that doesn't sound right

[@Insanity_Potato]

@@Allicrocogator it's true, i was the ice cream!

[@akizeta]

@@TonyBombardo Every ice cream a sacrament.

[@alvaro.sacris1930]

Hahahahaha

[@themanthatsavedjosukehigas6714]

People like you are the reason the world keeps turning. much respect

[@dorianleakey]

Are they? What exactly was the issue here?

[@themanthatsavedjosukehigas6714]

@@dorianleakey read it again maybe

[@renex_g3915]

​@@dorianleakeyprobably the issue was that people got too comfortable with other people asking questions, when they need to be more secretive about everything around work. For example, the GTA VI leak happened because someone just got tricked in something like this

[@bertbergers9171]

@@renex_g3915and how does a random leak on a random as computergame make the world stop turning? I worry about a world where in jobs that control jobs that control people actually doing something for other actual people, are considered more important then the actual people doing stuff.

[@joelglanton6531]

Imagine actually thinking this when plumbers, linemen, oil workers, truckers, etc. exist

[@thewoodpeckers655]

That director sounds pretty decent considering he listened once he understood the issue

[@dustinclark6525]

I'm a Process / Quality / Industrial Engineer with over 12 years of on the job experience. I can literally say that 75% of the problems I have ever been tasked to "improve" have been due to lack of training. Train your people folks, repeatedly, make it part of your heartbeat as a company. Human nature says we will go with the grain. So if YOUR standards as a company slip, why should your EMPLOYEES be tasked to be the tip of the spear? Take a step back and look at things objectively, truly. It makes THE difference. Seek first to understand, then be understood!

[@DaltonHBrown]

Really glad your boss stood by you and didn't let the higher ups force you to give up those names.

[@IveBeenWithBruma]

Remember as long as you aren't part of the board of directors you are very easy to release from the company. Almost all board members care about profit first before making the employees lives better. This guy's boss was most likely fired for not complying.

[@cookieschocchips5551]

@@IveBeenWithBruma from what I can tell, he's a third party contractor, so "this guys boss was most likely fired" is false. And it's not about making employees lives better, it's about security, so the board of directors probably saw the report at the end of it and went "oh, we should contract these guys again"

[@deansmash7844]

​@@cookieschocchips5551Third party contractor? Then they get blacklisted and a lot of companies share these "lists" with each other

[@raerohan4241]

​@@deansmash7844 Blacklisted for having their client's best interest in mind...?

[@nightchicken3517]

"You got the names. Yeah. Are you going to give them to him. No. He's not going to give you the names, bud. "

[@taxatogaming]

That part was so funny

[@SkyJUSTIN6]

A true boss

[@DeathnoteBB]

He asked him a question he’s not supposed to answer 😂

[@diddydarn1872]

Love seeing your shorts ! you're awesome

[@lexWest612]

You have the most informative and entertaining content on this platform. Thank you, good sir.

[@penguinmonk7661]

This is SUCH a good short

[@DeXyfero]

me social engineering the youtube algorithm to promote this short:

[@marksbluerpd]

When I went to college, I thought about signing up for a game design program. The first class I took was terrible and useless. I learned more about game design and social engineering in these shorts than I did in 6 months worth of game design classes. Big ups to this guy

[@Chillen101]

You are a saint. I can’t say how much I respect you man. You seriously saved every one of those peoples jobs, maybe even lives. I know that sounds extreme, but above all else it shows your moral code.

[@Raikos100]

"I won't say their names, they are all ppl that works here for more than 5 years" Boss: "Understandable, everyone that is over 5 years is going to be fired, thank you" 😂😂😂

[@GaianEntertainment]

It reminds me of the anonymous surveys we used to do that include multiple identifying questions right at the start. Job title, building location, years at company, and possibly even supervisor. For an anonymous survey... lol

[@kevin7649]

​@@GaianEntertainmentI always answer those in ways that cannot identify me, and if I can't I refuse. Job title "worker" supervisor "supervisor", department "sales, tech, customer service". Keep the feedback valid but identifying information vague

[@AClockworkWizard]

​@@kevin7649it's very likely that your survey is already uniquely addressed to you if you got it from a corporate email.

[@Templarfreak]

not only did you save the jobs of many employees that did not deserve to be so wrongfully terminated, but you also helped fix one angle of a *VERY* serious problem within the company that has been going on for *years* now, the EXTREMELY incompetent management, and to top that off you took the egos of said management down a peg by proving that they were wrong, excellent work

[@Smurf5738]

That's the difference between pruning dying branches versus treating the root of the problem.

[@juliansinghbassi5320]

"He's not giving you the names bud"

[@ogonbio8145]

As an urban explorer social engineering is my best tool. One time I got caught in a machine room at the top floor of a high rise building by some subcontracted antenna worker. I told him “I’ve never seen you up here before what are you working on?” In a stern tone (I was also 17 at this time lol) and he got all flustered and proceeded to explain that he was servicing something on the roof, I proceeded to say I was helping my dad out with building maintenance and i wanted to see what he was up to, so I turned the knob to the roof and it was locked, so I told the worker he had to open it because they never gave me a key to the roof, so he fucking unlocked the roof door and showed me what he was working on, I said yeah ok cool, took some photos of the skyline and then left.

[@jcmagic1027]

This is my first time leaving a message for you, but i have seen a lot of shorts of yours, and over time, i started listening instead of brushing stuff off stuff. i shouldn't, and I am finally feeling like i am growing. Thanks for teaching a lot, and I wish you the best

[@blockchainprofessor.x]

From my experiences working in cybersecurity when the pandemic hit and all of us went remote, so many teams don't need managers. Middle management pretty much got replaced as soon as the director realized he should use Salesforce for reports rather than shuffle around an Excel file

[@gurukimci]

Such a cool story! Shows you know what is valuable for a company, and that people in managing positions do not always think like that themselves.

[@CHIIIEEEEEEEEFFFFSSS]

Some people seem confused about what he's saying here... Social engineering is when you slowly gather info about somebody so you can impersonate them. A common method is to call and impersonate someone while asking general questions that don't need authentication - then they try to get information about that person so that someday they can impersonate them enough to full authenticate and take over their account. So a good example would be "can you tell me which email address I have on file?" or "which address do I have on my account?"

[@catwhowalksbyhimself]

It also used in email and other methods, but same idea. It is., in fact, the most common way that hacking is done. People think that hacking is computer wizzes using archane code to take over computers, which it can be, but it's usually stuff like this.

[@whydoyoucare5]

@@catwhowalksbyhimself Facts, some of the biggest "hacks" in recent times has happend by just getting information from the right people and no actual backdooring/coding going on

[@Tveohed]

This Helps the Video make Sense, as i was at first like. "Customer support isn't suppose to be answering questions/Helping customers?" I mean depending on the company they don't anyway. But with context of what questions he probably was asking, helps out

[@seaborgium919]

OH. THANK YOU. I was so confused.

[@beanstalk7426]

@@seaborgium919ya for real i just stumbled upon this and did not understand what the questions were

[@Khrumbzz]

Huge respect for that. Rather than just ratting out all the employees thus them all losing a job. You didn’t really have to help at all but you did

[@jedricbarlow3940]

Now not getting a shingle question answered makes a lot more sense. That’s the customer service I know and love.

[@OrangeJuicePapi]

hahahaha. That’s where i was confused. must of been asking for social insurance numbers or something

[@theothergameygamer]

His task was penetration testing over the phone or chat - getting customer support personnel to reveal information that would give a hacker some hints towards figuring out their login info and such

[@jedricbarlow3940]

@@theothergameygamer it’s a joke. I used to work CS for a mortgage company.

[@OrangeJuicePapi]

@@theothergameygamer good clarification. Thank you sir

[@nightbot.2817]

Haha i work for Mercedes CS. Helping people with their cars and doing security checks under 4 minutes is just impossible. Costumer support jobs suck

[@pauljordantalbot4100]

This is why not being a narc is actually GOOD for business, as well as ya know, not making you a narc. Just be cool, smart, and solid like this fine fellow

[@pissclub]

I think he showcased why you shouldn't be a narc

[@rocklemillion8041]

Depends on what you would be narcing on. As an incumbent engineer in a family of engineers if I see someone being negligent I will get them fired depending on if they have been trained or not. If they are a senior engineer that is unacceptable. If they are a new engineer the mistake needs to be caught by the senior engineer training them. In that line of work negligence is literally life or death. In this case the stakes and solution were minimal and easy to fix. In mine it should never happen. If it does and something goes wrong due to negligence that is deaths and millions of dollars in lawsuits.

[@declanandrewbell]

it's not even about 'narcing' it's about things actually being run properly, in a way that means subversive bitch moves like that aren't a part of the work environment

[@javier-qs2hd]

@@pissclubre read his comment

[@stargateMimhi]

Heroes narc on Blizzard, scum company.

[@egonnes]

Hero mode Thor #legendary. Beautiful work man.. and the ones who worked there for years, probably didnt even know that you stood up for them. ❤

[@Szafirprince]

"I want the names" The most epic response would be "You are aware that if I made this list your name would be on it?"

[@revnren]

i really like that you also gave an example of why sometimes employees can't answer some questions

[@Zanador]

Google "social engineering". He was asking questions designed to get personal or confidential information that the employees aren't supposed to be giving out. It's a method of hacking, similar to phishing.

[@mikemorgan2211]

Whats the password on your KZbin account?

[@alexwikky5604]

@@mikemorgan2211meviusskyblue201

[@cam5816]

I missed the part where he said they weren’t supposed to answer his questions earlier so I seriously thought this was one of the funniest most well thought out jokes ever when he revealed the result at the end lmfao

[@WoundedG0053]

We have some major training issues where I’m at. It’s with onboarding though. The seasoned people have been trained continuously. So they’re up to speed. The new people are hitting the floor clueless. They expect the older employees to help get them up to speed through feedback, but it’s not working and hasn’t been for years now which has caused a rift between the seasoned and new employees. New employees feel like they can’t win and old employees feel like they’re having to carry their weight and clean up after them constantly.

[@GarionDAdkins]

This was the very first clip I ever saw from Thor. Good stuff.

[@Eddgarur]

I would have never understood this without the helpful illustrations.

[@voidroad]

"hello , is this blizzard customer support?" "yes" " aaand you failed" 🗿

[@nubs2594]

Not sure if this is a meme or not, but is more like gathering there personally information. Anything they need to get passwords or access to things they shouldn't

[@nutella_wewerehere]

that’s not at all what he meant. see above reply

[@coyphish5683]

I just started a new job with a similar idea, i live on the virtue that complacency breeds a lack of detail. Im glad to see that im not just paranoid.