A city help desk receives a phone call from someone claiming to be the CIO who urgently demands a password reset for a privileged account and refuses to use the ticket portal. Which threat vector best describes this attempt?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
That urgent "CIO on the phone" act is classic vishing — social engineering over voice, not email or a shady website. Help desk staff get pressed to skip the ticket portal and reset a privileged password on the spot. Treat the call channel itself as the attack surface.
Full Explanation
Vishing is voice-channel social engineering in which an attacker impersonates authority to extract credentials, resets, or other sensitive actions. SY0-701 objective 2.2 lists voice call vectors alongside phishing, smishing, and related human-targeted techniques. SMS-only smishing, watering-hole site compromise, and BEC payment fraud are different vectors even when the social theme is similar. Municipal help desks should enforce callback and identity-verification procedures before privileged resets.