Fraudsters impersonate executives from financial institutions and rely on persuasive talking to obtain sensitive information. Which technique is this?

Fraudsters impersonate executives from financial institutions and rely on persuasive talking to obtain sensitive information. Which technique is this?

• A. SMiShing
• B. Wardriving
• C. Pretexting
• D. Phishing

Answer: (C)

This is pretexting. The attacker fabricates a believable scenario and adopts a trusted role—impersonating executives from a financial institution—to persuade the target to reveal sensitive information. The technique relies on a crafted pretext and the authority of the impersonated figure to bypass security controls, using persuasive conversation to extract data. It’s a classic social engineering approach that plays on trust and legitimate processes. This differs from SMiShing, which uses text messages to lure victims, from phishing, which primarily uses deceptive emails, and from wardriving, which involves locating wireless networks by driving around and doesn’t involve impersonation or social manipulation.

This is pretexting. The attacker fabricates a believable scenario and adopts a trusted role—impersonating executives from a financial institution—to persuade the target to reveal sensitive information. The technique relies on a crafted pretext and the authority of the impersonated figure to bypass security controls, using persuasive conversation to extract data. It’s a classic social engineering approach that plays on trust and legitimate processes. This differs from SMiShing, which uses text messages to lure victims, from phishing, which primarily uses deceptive emails, and from wardriving, which involves locating wireless networks by driving around and doesn’t involve impersonation or social manipulation.