The action of illegally installing malicious code which redirects a person to…

Concept

Cyber-fraud terms are distinguished by the mechanism that delivers or redirects the victim. Social-engineering attacks induce a person to act, whereas redirection attacks alter the path that maps an address to a destination.

The correct label therefore depends on whether the decisive mechanism is a deceptive message, mass unsolicited messaging, an SMS channel, or manipulation of name resolution or local redirection settings.

Application

Here, malicious code is installed so that the victim is redirected to a fraudulent website and bank details can be collected. The defining mechanism is manipulation of the redirection or name-resolution path, which is pharming.

Contrast

• Phishing uses a deceptive communication or page to persuade the victim to disclose information.

• Pharming changes host or DNS-related resolution so a legitimate-looking address can lead to an attacker-controlled destination.

• Spamming distributes unsolicited messages in bulk; credential theft and technical redirection are not inherent in the term.

• Smishing is phishing delivered specifically through SMS or text messages.

Cross-check

The stem specifies installed malicious code and automatic redirection, not an email lure, bulk messaging, or an SMS channel. This mechanism again identifies pharming.

Result: Pharming.