During a red team engagement, you call the target organization's help-desk, pretend to be a newly hired network technician, and request employee usernames and extensions so you can "update the VoIP system." Which social-engineering concept are you primarily exploiting to convince the staff to disclose the information?
The scenario relies on pretexting, a social-engineering technique in which an attacker invents a credible back-story (the "pretext") to create a sense of legitimacy and authority. By posing as an internal technician with an urgent technical reason, the attacker manipulates the victim into trusting the request and divulging sensitive data. Baiting depends on offering something enticing, phishing is typically delivered through fraudulent emails or messages, and tailgating involves physically following someone into a restricted area. None of those match the telephone ruse built on a fabricated identity and scenario.
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