Purchasing receives a phone call from a vendor asking for a payment over the phone. The phone number displayed on the caller ID matches the vendor’s number. When the purchasing agent asks to call the vendor back, they are given a different phone number with a different area code.
Which of the following attack types is this?
A. Hoax
B. Impersonation
C. Spear phishing
D. Whaling
Answer: B
Explanation:
In this question, the impersonator is impersonating a vendor and asking for payment. They have managed to ‘spoof’ their calling number so that their caller ID matches the vendor’s number. Impersonation is where a person, computer, software application or service pretends to be someone or something it’s not. Impersonation is commonly non-maliciously used in client/server applications. However, it can also be used as a security threat.