Peter, a malicious hacker, obtains e-mail addresses by harvesting them from postings, blogs, DNS listings, and Web pages. He then sends a large number of unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE) messages…

Question

Options

• AE-mail spam
• BE-mail storm
• CE-mail bombing
• DE-mail spoofing

• A
  95% (20)
• C
  5% (1)

Explanation

Option A is correct because Peter is collecting email addresses from public sources and sending mass unsolicited commercial email - the textbook definition of email spam (also called UCE: Unsolicited Commercial Email). The key indicators are the harvesting of addresses and the bulk, unsolicited nature of the messages.

Why the distractors are wrong:

• B. Email storm - refers to a flood of replies (e.g., reply-all chains) that overwhelm a mail server; it's usually accidental, not deliberate targeting.
• C. Email bombing - involves sending a massive volume of emails to a single target to overwhelm their inbox or crash their service; it's a DoS attack, not mass marketing.
• D. Email spoofing - involves forging the sender's address to make an email appear to come from a trusted source; Peter isn't impersonating anyone here.

Memory tip: Think of the words literally - spam = junk mail to many, bombing = attack on one, storm = chaos from replies, spoofing = faking identity. Peter's crime is broad (many recipients) and commercial, which points squarely to spam.

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