In security, what term describes an attacker deliberately trying to fool the system?

• A. Deception
• B. A false acceptance
• C. A false rejection
• D. All of the above

Answer: (A)

Deception best describes an attacker deliberately trying to fool the system. It covers the act of tricking security controls through methods like social engineering, spoofing, or presenting fake credentials to bypass protections. The terms “false acceptance” and “false rejection” refer to specific outcomes in an authentication system—whether an impostor is accepted or a legitimate user is denied—rather than the attacker’s deliberate tactic. So the attacker’s intentional effort to mislead the system is deception.