Phishing cyber attack type – UGC NET Question

Phishing is a social engineering technique where attackers pose as trustworthy entities to persuade users to disclose sensitive information. They often mimic legitimate banks, payment gateways or popular services in their messages and web pages. Victims who respond may unknowingly hand over credentials or financial data. Therefore the deceptive attacks described in the stem are known as phishing attacks.

Option A:
Option A is correct because cybersecurity literature defines phishing precisely as fraudulent attempts to obtain confidential information by disguising oneself as a reputable entity in electronic communication. The focus on passwords and bank details in the stem aligns with this definition.

Option B:
Option B, spoofing, involves forging technical details such as IP addresses or email headers and may be part of phishing, but it is not the user-facing tactic described. Spoofing alone does not necessarily aim directly at credential theft via persuasive messages.

Option C:
Option C, caching, is a performance optimisation process where data are temporarily stored for faster retrieval and has nothing to do with fraud.

Option D:
Option D, indexing, is related to organising information for efficient search and is not associated with malicious attempts to deceive users.