Which tactic would an attacker MOST likely use when company engineers participate in a public Internet forum?

A watering-hole attack is a tactic that involves an attacker compromising a specific website that is frequented by a particular group of individuals—in this case, company engineers in a public Internet forum. The goal of this type of attack is to infect the visitors of that website with malware or to gather sensitive information.

By targeting a site known to be popular among engineers, the attacker can leverage this familiarity to increase the chances of successful exploitation. Once the targeted engineers visit the compromised forum, they may unknowingly download malware or provide sensitive data without realizing the threat.

The context of the forum participation makes this tactic particularly effective since it involves social engineering—from exploiting shared interests to the trust that users have in commonly visited sites. Consequently, this makes watering-hole attacks suitable for targeting specific groups based on their online behaviors and interactions.