John downloaded Alten Cleaner, a program that poses as a computer registry cleaner, on his computer. Once he installed the program on his computer, the program illegitimately gained access to John’s passwords and credit card information. In this scenario, it is evident that John was a victim of .

a. spoofing
b. phishing
c. baiting
d. pharming

a. spoofing

Explanation:

In this context, it is clear that John was a victim of spoofing. In information security, spoofing occurs when a person or program identifies itself as another by falsifying data, in order to gain an illegitimate advantage. In this example, the program identified itself as a computer registry cleaner in order to gain access to John's passwords and credit card information. Spoofing can apply to emails, phone calls, websites, IP address, Address Resolution Protocol (ARP), or Domain Name System (DNS) server.