Which of the following is the act of obtaining a password or other…
2022
Which of the following is the act of obtaining a password or other confidential information from a person within an organization by using unauthorized means such as feigning an emergency situation?
Answer: A. Social engineering — ConceptSocial engineering is a security attack that exploits human trust, urgency, fear, or helpfulness instead of attacking a technical control directly. The…
- A.
Social engineering
- B.
Trojan horse
- C.
Password crack
- D.
Stepping-stone attack
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: A
Concept
Social engineering is a security attack that exploits human trust, urgency, fear, or helpfulness instead of attacking a technical control directly. The attacker manipulates a person into revealing protected information or taking a security-sensitive action.
Application
Feigning an emergency to persuade an employee to disclose a password targets the employee's judgment and trust. This is the defining mechanism of social engineering.
Contrast
A Trojan horse is malicious software presented as legitimate software; it operates when the program is installed or executed.
Password cracking uses computational or analytical techniques to recover a password from guesses, hashes, or captured authentication data.
A stepping-stone attack relays activity through an intermediate compromised host to obscure the attacker's origin.
Therefore, the described act is social engineering.