CERTIFIED-IN-CYBERSECURITY Question #111: Real Exam Question with Answer & Explanation

Question

A high-level executive of an organization receives a malicious email that tries to trick him. Which attack is the perpetrator using?

Options

• APhishing
• BSpear phishing
• CWhaling
• DDDOS

Explanation

When executives receive malicious emails that try to trick them, the attackers are likely attempting a whaling attack (see ISC2 Study Guide, chapter 4, module 2). Whaling is a type of spear phishing, and, in turn, spear phishing is a type of phishing. Whaling is a spear phishing attack targeted at a group of high-level executives, or at other influential individuals inside the organization. Spear phishing is a targeted attack in which the attacker uses email or other digital communication to trick a specific individual or group into divulging sensitive information. Phishing is an attack in which attackers send fake emails or text messages that seem to come from legitimate sources, so as to trick the recipient into revealing sensitive information or clicking on a malicious link. Finally, a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is a type of attack in which a large amount of malicious traffic is directed at a specific target (systems, not individuals), such as a website or server, in an attempt to overwhelm it, thus making it unavailable.

No community discussion yet for this question.