An employee at a local authority receives an urgent phone call from an individual claiming to be a senior database administrator. The caller insists that the employee must immediately verify their login credentials over the phone to prevent a critical system crash.
Explain why this scenario is classified as a social engineering attack, defining the fundamental mechanism on which social engineering relies.
Practise AQA GCSE Computer Science Cyber security threats with exam-style questions for GCSE Computer Science. 23 questions covering Social engineering and Malicious code (malware), matched to the AQA GCSE Computer Science (8525) specification and written in Paper 1 and Paper 2 style. Every question includes a full worked solution and mark scheme, so you can see where marks are awarded rather than just whether you got the answer right.