Question

You receive a call on your work phone, and you're asked to participate in a phone survey. As part of the survey, the caller asks for birth date and address. What type of attack might this be?

a) Phishing
b) Spear phishing
c) Social engineering
d) Malware attack

Answer 1

The scenario where a caller asks for personal information such as birth date and address during a work phone call survey is considered a social engineering attack. It involves psychological manipulation to acquire sensitive data. Option c is correct.

Step-by-step explanation:

If you receive a call on your work phone, and the caller conducting a phone survey requests sensitive personal information such as your birth date and address, this scenario is indicative of a social engineering attack. Social engineering involves manipulating individuals into divulging confidential information that could be used for fraudulent purposes. Among the options presented, social engineering is the most fitting description because the attacker is employing psychological manipulation to entice the person on the call to reveal personal data that could potentially lead to identity theft or unauthorized access to systems.

While phishing and spear phishing involve similar tactics of deception via email to extract personal information, they do not necessarily apply in the context of a phone call. Malware attacks, on the other hand, typically involve malicious software and would not be associated with a survey call.