Review the exhibit and identify the type of vulnerability or attack.

Question

Options

• Abotnet
• Bman-in-the-middle
• Cspear-phishing
• Dbuffer overflow

• A
  4% (1)
• C
  88% (22)
• D
  8% (2)

Explanation

Spear-phishing is correct because it describes a targeted social engineering attack where an attacker crafts a personalized, convincing message (email, message, etc.) aimed at a specific individual or organization - typically exhibited through realistic-looking communication that references personal details to gain trust and steal credentials or install malware.

• Botnet (A) is wrong - a botnet is a network of compromised machines controlled remotely for coordinated attacks (like DDoS), not a targeted deception tactic.
• Man-in-the-middle (B) is wrong - MITM involves intercepting communications between two parties in real time, not crafting a deceptive message to a target.
• Buffer overflow (D) is wrong - that's a memory exploitation technique where excess data overwrites adjacent memory, a code-level vulnerability rather than a social engineering attack.

Memory tip: Think "spear" = pointed at one person. Regular phishing casts a wide net; spear-phishing aims at a specific target with personalized details - if the exhibit shows a tailored, personal message to a named individual, it's spear-phishing.

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