What Is Quid Pro Quo?

Quid pro quo is a Latin phrase meaning something for something. In the world of cybersafety, a quid pro quo attack is similar to baiting in that it involves a hacker offering the user something in exchange for something from the user, such as login credentials. This exchange often involves the hacker posing as someone in an organization’s IT department and asking for the user’s login credentials so that a supposed problem can be fixed. Quid pro quo attacks require no special technical skills and usually involve the hacker randomly calling numbers until they find a user who will unwittingly go along with the scheme.