300-720 · Question #174
Which type of attack does Bounce Verification fight against?
The correct answer is B. backscatter. Backscatter occurs when spammers forge the 'Return-Path' or 'From' address in outgoing spam using a legitimate victim's email address. When those spam messages are rejected or bounce, the bounce messages are sent to the innocent victim rather than the actual spammer. Cisco's…
Question
Which type of attack does Bounce Verification fight against?
Options
- Aspear phishing
- Bbackscatter
- Cphishing
- Didentity
How the community answered
(23 responses)- B91% (21)
- C4% (1)
- D4% (1)
Explanation
Backscatter occurs when spammers forge the 'Return-Path' or 'From' address in outgoing spam using a legitimate victim's email address. When those spam messages are rejected or bounce, the bounce messages are sent to the innocent victim rather than the actual spammer. Cisco's Bounce Verification feature addresses this by cryptographically tagging all outgoing messages with a unique key. When a bounce message returns, the gateway checks for this tag; if the tag is absent or invalid, the bounce is flagged as backscatter and rejected. This prevents victims from being flooded with bounce messages they never caused. Spear phishing (A), phishing (C), and identity attacks (D) involve deception of recipients, not manipulation of bounce traffic.
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