What is vishing?

What is vishing?

• A. A malware program.
• B. A phishing tactic via email.
• C. Phishing attacks that use voice calls over telephone or VoIP systems.
• D. A firewall feature.

Answer: (C)

Vishing is a form of social engineering where attackers use voice channels—phone calls or VoIP—to impersonate a trusted entity and coax you into revealing sensitive information or performing actions. They might pretend to be your bank, IT support, or a government agency, create a sense of urgency, and request passwords, PINs, credit card numbers, or one-time codes. They can even spoof caller ID to seem legitimate and use techniques like pretexts or scare tactics to lower your defenses. The defining feature is the voice-based delivery and manipulation, not the delivery method or the result. This is different from malware programs, which are software that run on your device, and from email-based phishing, which arrives as messages in your inbox. It’s also not a firewall feature, which is protection you implement to block unauthorized access. The essence of vishing lies in deception over a phone line to obtain sensitive information.

Vishing is a form of social engineering where attackers use voice channels—phone calls or VoIP—to impersonate a trusted entity and coax you into revealing sensitive information or performing actions. They might pretend to be your bank, IT support, or a government agency, create a sense of urgency, and request passwords, PINs, credit card numbers, or one-time codes. They can even spoof caller ID to seem legitimate and use techniques like pretexts or scare tactics to lower your defenses. The defining feature is the voice-based delivery and manipulation, not the delivery method or the result.

This is different from malware programs, which are software that run on your device, and from email-based phishing, which arrives as messages in your inbox. It’s also not a firewall feature, which is protection you implement to block unauthorized access. The essence of vishing lies in deception over a phone line to obtain sensitive information.