What term describes pretending to be a legitimate or authorized person to trick targets into revealing information?

What term describes pretending to be a legitimate or authorized person to trick targets into revealing information?

• A. Recon-ng
• B. Impersonation
• C. FOCA
• D. OSRFramework

Answer: (B)

In social engineering, impersonation is the tactic of adopting a credible, legitimate-sounding identity to manipulate someone into revealing sensitive information or granting access. By pretending to be a trusted person such as IT staff, a manager, or a vendor, the attacker exploits trust, authority, or urgency to bypass security controls. This fits the scenario described, where the attacker acts as a legitimate or authorized figure to coax secrets from targets. The other options aren’t about deceiving people into revealing data. Recon-ng, FOCA, and OSRFramework are OSINT/recon tools used to gather information about targets, not to impersonate someone to extract secrets.

In social engineering, impersonation is the tactic of adopting a credible, legitimate-sounding identity to manipulate someone into revealing sensitive information or granting access. By pretending to be a trusted person such as IT staff, a manager, or a vendor, the attacker exploits trust, authority, or urgency to bypass security controls. This fits the scenario described, where the attacker acts as a legitimate or authorized figure to coax secrets from targets.

The other options aren’t about deceiving people into revealing data. Recon-ng, FOCA, and OSRFramework are OSINT/recon tools used to gather information about targets, not to impersonate someone to extract secrets.