Bill (a hacker) infects Erica's computer at ABC with a virus through a phishing email. After gaining access to Erica's computer, he realizes that she does not have the type of sensitive information he's looking for. However, she has a document containing contacts for services she might need (pizza delivery, plumbing, electricity etc). He edits this, and saves his contact phone number as "Mark- affordable IT services". Soon enough Erica calls Mark to complain about the virus on her computer, inviting him to fix it. What has Bill done in this scenario?

Social Engineering

Reverse Social Engineering

Piggybacking

Malware propagation

Explanation

Reverse Social Engineering is the correct answer. Bill (also Mark), damages Erica's system (causes the problem), and comes as the solution provider. From "fixing" Erica's computer, he could install stronger malware on the computer systems at ABC (for example, through shared drives), obtaining more sensitive information to launch more attacks. More generally, a reverse social engineering attack is a person-to-person attack in which an attacker convinces the target that he or she has a problem or might have a certain problem in the future and that he, the attacker, is ready to help solve the problem.