An incident response team at a critical infrastructure firm is investigating several concurrent security incidents involving social engineering vectors. Match each observed incident scenario to the attack vector that best describes the adversary's delivery method.
- An administrative staff member receives a customized email appearing to originate from the Chief Executive Officer requesting an immediate, out-of-band wire transfer to secure an urgent acquisition.Whaling (Executive Spear Phishing)
- A remote system engineer receives a phone call from an attacker impersonating enterprise IT helpdesk support, claiming an urgent credential re-verification is required to restore compromised network access.Vishing (Voice Phishing)
- Employees at a regional facility find promotional USB flash drives scattered across the employee parking lot, which install reverse-shell malware when inserted into workstation ports.Baiting
- Threat actors compromise a niche online forum popular among industrial control systems engineers, injecting malicious code into the site to serve drive-by exploits to visiting staff.Watering Hole Attack
Answer
The scenarios match their respective social engineering attack vectors as follows: the executive wire transfer scam matches Whaling; the phone call impersonating IT support matches Vishing; leaving malware-infected USB drives in the parking lot matches Baiting; and compromising a frequently visited industry forum matches a Watering Hole Attack.
Each attack scenario aligns with its specific technical vector definition: executive impersonation email is Whaling; fraudulent IT support telephone call is Vishing; infected physical media in a public area is Baiting; and compromised industry website targeting specific users is a Watering Hole Attack.
Step-by-Step Solution
Key Concept
Social Engineering Attack Vector Classification