200-201 · Question #266
What is a description of a social engineering attack?
The correct answer is D. email offering last-minute deals on various vacations around the world with a due date and a. A social engineering attack manipulates individuals through psychological tactics, such as urgency or enticing offers, to trick them into divulging sensitive data or performing harmful actions.
Question
What is a description of a social engineering attack?
Options
- Afake offer for free music download to trick the user into providing sensitive data
- Bpackage deliberately sent to the wrong receiver to advertise a new product
- Cmistakenly received valuable order destined for another person and hidden on purpose
- Demail offering last-minute deals on various vacations around the world with a due date and a
How the community answered
(41 responses)- A2% (1)
- C5% (2)
- D93% (38)
Why each option
A social engineering attack manipulates individuals through psychological tactics, such as urgency or enticing offers, to trick them into divulging sensitive data or performing harmful actions.
While a fake offer for free music download to trick a user into providing data is also a social engineering tactic (baiting/phishing), option D's description of an urgent, attractive email deal better illustrates the typical characteristics of a phishing attack.
This scenario describes a common phishing technique, which is a form of social engineering. It uses an enticing offer ('last-minute deals') and a sense of urgency ('due date') to pressure the recipient into clicking a malicious link or providing information, leveraging human psychology rather than technical exploits.
Concept tested: Social engineering attack definition
Source: https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/news/what-social-engineering
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