ITPEC FE Subject A October 2024 Question 27

A link that redirects to a fake banking site — phishing lures the victim with a message that impersonates a trusted organization.

A phishing email pretends to come from a bank, shop or service and leads the reader to a counterfeit website that looks genuine. The victim then types in user IDs, passwords or card numbers, which go straight to the attacker. The attack works by deceiving the user into disclosing the information themselves.

Answer (d)

Why not others:

• •(a) — unrelated advertising is spam or adware; it does not try to trick the user into handing over information
• •(b) — intercepting and altering a message in transit is a man-in-the-middle (tampering) attack on the channel, not a lure sent to the victim
• •(c) — a link that silently installs a data-collecting program is a drive-by download of spyware; it compromises the device with malware rather than tricking the user into disclosing anything

Key rule: Phishing = impersonation plus a fake site so the victim discloses information; automatic malware installation is a drive-by download, and altering messages in transit is man-in-the-middle.

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