Which term describes an attack in which a device pretends to be another to gain access to resources?

• A. Spoofing
• B. Spoofing (ARP)
• C. Spear-Phishing
• D. Spam

Answer: (A)

Spoofing is the term for an attack where a device pretends to be another to gain access to resources. When a system or network trusts an identity, impersonating that identity can allow the attacker to access resources, intercept traffic, or abuse privileges as if they were the legitimate device. This category covers various forms, including IP spoofing, ARP spoofing, and other falsified identifiers.

A common subtype is ARP spoofing, where fake ARP messages mislead a local network about which MAC address belongs to which IP, enabling the attacker to intercept or alter traffic. This is still spoofing at its core because the attacker is masquerading as another device.

Spear-phishing and spam revolve around deceiving people rather than machines. Spear-phishing targets individuals with crafted messages to elicit credentials or data, while spam is unsolicited bulk emailing. They don’t describe an attacker impersonating a device on the network to access resources, which is why spoofing is the best fit here.