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Difficulty: MediumSocial Engineering and Threat Types

An executive assistant in the finance department receives an urgent email claiming to be from the company's Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The email states that the CEO is in an emergency board meeting and requires an immediate wire transfer to secure an acquisition, directing the assistant to enter corporate banking credentials into a provided link. A technician inspects the email header and notices the sender's domain uses a subtle typosquatting variation of the legitimate company domain. Which of the following social engineering threat types best describes this attack?

  1. WhalingAnswer
  2. B
    Vishing
  3. C
    Tailgating
  4. D
    Watering hole attack

Answer

Whaling
Whaling is a specialized spear phishing attack directed at high-level corporate executives or leveraging top executive impersonation to deceive employees into performing financial transactions or disclosing confidential information.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the attack vector and target.
The attack uses a fraudulent email impersonating a high-level executive (CEO) to target financial credentials and initiate wire transfers.
Identifying the target profile and delivery mechanism distinguishes general phishing from specialized targeted attacks.
2
Evaluate the social engineering classification.
Targeted phishing campaigns focused on executive roles or leveraging executive authority for financial gain are classified as whaling.
Whaling specifically describes spear phishing directed at or mimicking top corporate executives.

Key Concept

Whaling and Spear Phishing Attack Vectors
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Topics

Social Engineering and Threat Types

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