What is social engineering?

The correct answer is D. A type of attack that exploits human psychology to gain access to sensitive information. D is correct because social engineering exploits human psychology - think phishing emails, pretexting, or impersonation - to trick people into revealing passwords, credentials, or sensitive data. The attack vector is the person, not the technology. Why the distractors are…

Access Control

Question

Options

AA type of virus
BA type of malware that disguises itself as legitimate software
CA type of denial-of-service attack
DA type of attack that exploits human psychology to gain access to sensitive information

How the community answered

(49 responses)

A
8% (4)
B
2% (1)
C
4% (2)
D
86% (42)

Explanation

D is correct because social engineering exploits human psychology - think phishing emails, pretexting, or impersonation - to trick people into revealing passwords, credentials, or sensitive data. The attack vector is the person, not the technology.

Why the distractors are wrong:

A (virus): A virus is self-replicating malicious code that infects files - purely technical, no human manipulation involved.
B (malware disguised as legitimate software): That describes a Trojan horse, a specific malware category, not a psychological manipulation technique.
C (denial-of-service): A DoS attack floods systems to make them unavailable - again, a technical exploit with no human psychology component.

Memory tip: Think of "social" as the key word - social engineering attacks people socially (conversation, deception, trust-building), not systems directly. If an attack requires a human to be fooled, it's social engineering.

Topics

#Social Engineering#Human Psychology#Attack Vector#Access Control Bypass

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