Spear phishing campaigns use a three-step process to deliver malicious messages:
- First, a victim is identified — either an individual, or a specific small group, such as “salespeople at Company XYZ.”
- Next, the attackers gather details about their target, often based on publicly available info (e.g. ...
- Finally, the attackers use this personal information to tailor messages to the target or target group.
What is typical of a spear phishing attempt?
What is typical of a spear phishing attempt? Spear phishing is a phishing method that targets specific individuals or groups within an organization. A typical spear phishing attack includes an email and attachment. The email includes information specific to the target, including the target’s name and rank within the company.
What is the difference between phishing and spear phishing?
– While both phishing and spear phishing share similar techniques, they differ in objectives. Phishing is more like an exploratory attack that targets a wide range of people, while spear phishing is a more target-specific form of phishing.
What are 3 types of spear phishing emails?
What are 3 types of spear phishing emails?
- Email phishing. Most phishing attacks are sent by email.
- Whaling. Whaling attacks are even more targeted, taking aim at senior executives.
- Smishing and vishing.
- Angler phishing.
- Your employees are your last line of defence.
What is the meaning of spear phishing?
Spear phishing is the fraudulent practice of sending an email to a target whose information cybercriminals want to obtain. The sender of a spear phishing email is a trusted source, such as Amazon, Netflix, or even an antivirus provider.
What are examples of spear phishing?
Below are some of the most common examples of spear phishing threats you're likely to encounter:Fake websites. ... CEO Fraud. ... Malware. ... Smishing. ... Vishing. ... Educate employees. ... Use security awareness training. ... Monitor employee spear phishing awareness.More items...•
What is spear phishing in simple words?
Spear-phishing is a type of phishing attack that targets specific individuals or organizations typically through malicious emails. The goal of spear phishing is to steal sensitive information such as login credentials or infect the targets' device with malware.
What are 3 types of spear phishing emails?
What Are the Different Types of Phishing?Spear Phishing.Whaling.Vishing.Email Phishing.
Why is it called spear phishing?
Spear phishing is a phishing method that targets specific individuals or groups within an organization.
How does spear phishing happen?
How Does Spear Phishing Happen? Spear phishing happens when an innocent victim responds to a fraudulent email request demanding action. This action can include providing passwords, credit card details, clicking links to confirm shipping information, or transferring money.
What helps protect from spear phishing?
When it comes to what helps protect from spear phishing, security software is a lifesaver. Unprotected systems are at a big risk for viruses and malware, which is why it's ideal to have both antivirus and antimalware software installed.
What are the 4 types of phishing?
Types of Phishing AttacksSpear Phishing.Whaling.Smishing.Vishing.
What are the 2 most common types of phishing attacks?
The 5 most common types of phishing attackEmail phishing. Most phishing attacks are sent by email. ... Spear phishing. There are two other, more sophisticated, types of phishing involving email. ... Whaling. Whaling attacks are even more targeted, taking aim at senior executives. ... Smishing and vishing. ... Angler phishing.
What is spear phishing vs phishing?
Spear phishing is a targeted phishing attack. While phishing emails are sent en masse, spear phishing emails are sent to just one person or organization. Cybercriminals still want login credentials, but they aim for something much higher: trade secrets. These they can sell for a large sum of money.
What is spear phishing Wikipedia?
Spear phishing involves an attacker directly targeting a specific organization or person with tailored phishing communications. This is essentially the creation and sending of emails to a particular person to make the person think the email is legitimate.
What is the best definition of spear phishing Mcq?
Spear phishing is a malicious email spoofing attack that targets a specific organization or individual, seeking unauthorized access to sensitive information.
What is spear phishing quizlet?
Spear phishing. an email-spoofing attack that targets a specific organization or individual, seeking unauthorized access to sensitive information.
What is spear phishing vs. phishing?
Spear phishing and phishing are two distinct cyberattack methods. Spear phishing is a targeted technique that aims to steal information or place ma...
What are the characteristics of spear phishing?
Spear phishing is a highly targeted cyberattack method that is highly effective and difficult for businesses to prevent. The method requires signif...
What protects users from spear phishing?
Traditional security solutions arm businesses with protection against spear phishing, but attacks are increasingly becoming difficult to detect. Us...
What is spear phishing?
Industry definition for the term Spear Phishing. Spear phishing is a targeted email scam with the sole purpose of obtaining unauthorized access to sensitive data.
How to fight spear phishing scams?
To fight spear phishing scams, employees need to be aware of the threats, such as the possibility of bogus emails landing in their inbox. Besides education, technology that focuses on email security is necessary.
Why doesn't traditional security stop attacks?
Traditional security often doesn't stop these attacks because they are so cleverly customized. As a result, they're becoming more difficult to detect. One employee mistake can have serious consequences for businesses, governments and even nonprofit organizations. With stolen data, fraudsters can reveal commercially sensitive information, manipulate stock prices or commit various acts of espionage. In addition, spear phishing attacks can deploy malware to hijack computers, organizing them into enormous networks called botnets that can be used for denial of service attacks.
What do cybercriminals do?
Cybercriminals do the same with the intention to resell confidential data to governments and private companies . These cybercriminals employ individually designed approaches and social engineering techniques to effectively personalize messages and websites.
What can a fraudster do with stolen data?
With stolen data, fraudsters can reveal commercially sensitive information, manipulate stock prices or commit various acts of espionage. In addition, spear phishing attacks can deploy malware to hijack computers, organizing them into enormous networks called botnets that can be used for denial of service attacks.
What is spear phishing?
Spear phishing is an ultra-targeted phishing method whereby cybercriminals — or spear phishers — pose as a trusted source to convince victims to divulge confidential data, personal information, or other sensitive details. The cybercriminal will then use this information for malicious purposes, including identity theft or data breaches.
How to protect against spear phishing?
It’s important to protect your data and a company’s data. Recognizing the characteristics of spear phishing can help: 1 Urgent requests 2 Strangely worded messages from a “trusted” source 3 Links or attachments you didn’t request 4 Asks for personal information
What does it mean when a spear phisher holds your device hostage?
Some spear phishers might pair up their advances with ransomware — meaning, they might hold your device or sensitive information hostage until a ransom is paid.
What does spear phishing email look like?
Though a spear phishing email looks generally like a regular email from a friend or business, there are several ways to mark it as something more sinister.
How is spear phishing different from phishing?
Spear phishing is different from phishing in that it’s a cyberattack toward a specific individual or organization, whereas phishing is a more generic, automated cyberattack that’s attempted in one sweep of a large group . You might think of phishing as casting a wide net over a school of fish, whereas spear phishing is using a spear ...
What are some examples of spear phishing?
Here are just a few spear phishing examples to consider. 1. CEO fraud scams. Not to be confused with whaling, which is a phishing attempt targeting a C-suite executive, CEO fraud scams can be considered a type of spear phishing in that cybercriminals pose as a C-suite executive to get an employee to fulfill an urgent request or divulge important ...
How does a spear phisher identify who has the piece of data?
The spear phisher identifies who has the piece of data by conducting research on an individual or organization, scoping out public profiles on social media or company websites.
What is spear phishing?
As mentioned above, spear phishing is a targeted form of phishing in which fraudulent emails target specific organizations in an effort to gain access to confidential information. Its tactics include impersonation, enticement and access-control bypass techniques like email filters and antivirus. The objective of spear phishing ...
Why is spear phishing the beginning of the attack?
In spear phishing, the successful theft of credentials or personal information is often only the beginning of the attack, because it's only used to gain access to the target network —a move that ultimately leads to a targeted attack.
Why is email important for spear phishing?
Because email is the most common entry point of targeted attacks, it is important to secure this area against likely spear phishing attacks.
What is targeted attack?
In a targeted attack, attackers have a certain level of expertise and have sufficient resources to execute their schemes over a long period of time. In cases where the breach indeed resulted from a targeted attack, it is important to know that attackers can adapt, adjust, and improve their attacks to counter their victim’s defenses.
Why are small businesses being targeted?
Similar to these recent data breach incidents, many small to mid-size businesses are being targeted along with larger enterprises, as attackers see them as a backdoor gateway into larger corporations . Also, due to the relatively smaller IT staff in small companies, it easier for attackers to target them as they're likely to have less security infrastructure in place.
Can phishing compromise sensitive data?
Any form of phishing can ultimately lead to the compromise of sensitive data . If neglected, a company could succumb to a targeted attack, which could result in data breaches, as seen in notable incidents like the ones that affected JP Morgan, Home Depot, and Target—all of which were attributed to spear phishing.
Did Anthem get hacked?
Earlier this year, health insurer Anthem Inc. reported that it suffered a massive breach in which 80 million members where affected. According to reports, attackers executed a sophisticated targeted attack to gain unauthorized access to Anthem’s IT system and obtain personal information records stored within. While some people may know a little about corporate data breaches, few know how it’s actually done, or the methods cybercriminals use to execute an attack.
What is spear phishing in social engineering?
Spear phishing is a social engineering attack in which a perpetrator, disguised as a truster individual, tricks a target into clicking a malicious link in a spoofed spear phishing email, instant message, or text message.
The Goal Of Spear Phishing Attacks
The goal of a spear-phishing attack is to deliver a high conversion rate through a limited number of contacts. The purpose of spear phishing is to obtain private information about individuals and businesses via social networking sites, company websites, and other public sources of information.
Spear phishing examples
Scammers have used spear-phishing schemes to defraud people and businesses worldwide. Besides stealing company secrets, they can also cause individual emotional distress.
Phishing vs spear phishing
It is primarily the approach used that separates phishing and spear phishing. Spear phishing is a form of phishing that is targeted and tailored.
What helps protect from spear phishing
Regardless of your position within the organization, you might find yourself targeted by spear-phishing scammers trying to penetrate the system. The following are some steps you can take to protect yourself from spear-phishing attacks.
What is Spear Phishing?
Spear phishing is a special form of cyber attack with extremely malicious intent that is derived from traditional phishing attacks. In a conventional phishing attack, the target persons fall randomly into the attacker’s grid. In a spear phishing attack, the victim is spied on in a targeted manner over weeks or months. During this period, habits and preferences are learned. This is used to create a personal dossier. Based on this carefully collected data, tailor-made email or phishing attacks are implemented. These are always personal.
Why is spear phishing so effective?
This means spear phishing e-mails are much more effective at establishing trust. Above all, the good faith of the recipient is exploited because they are made to believe they are safe – for example due to apparently known sender addresses or the reputation of the company named in the email.
What is the next phase of spear phishing?
In the next phase, an individual or several employees receive emails in which they are requested, for example, to confirm certain information. This stage also includes an blurring of the line towards CEO fraud, as the e-mails are usually falsified with sender addresses from authorities.
Why do employees have to disclose personal information to spear phishing?
In any case, employees who freely disclose personal data increase the risk of being affected by a spear phishing attack. Because those in the company who handle their data carelessly are ideal targets, spear phishers specific look for employees with such vulnerabilities.
How does GPS help cyber criminals?
Even tracking movement patterns is no longer a major challenge for cyber criminals. With GPS, many users of so-called tracking services even help an attacker find out exactly where that user is and when and how long they are staying.
Why should e-mail notifications be ignored?
In order to protect yourself against spear phishing, e-mail notifications that request the disclosure of sensitive data should be ignored.
Why are fake emails considered a threat?
These attacks represent a serious danger because they leverage in-depth knowledge about the personality of the targeted victim. Unlike conventional phishing email attacks, people who usually treat fake emails with a healthy degree of skepticism are actually targeted.
Why are organizations concerned about spear phishing attacks?
Organizations have rightfully become concerned about spear phishing attacks, because the threat is real and no one is immune. We believe heightened vigilance has made spear phishing success harder for social engineers. Our customers are becoming more aware as they learn to detect and report all kinds of phishing emails. Security awareness training and behavior change are currently the most effective ways to mitigate the threat of spear-phishing attacks.
Why do hackers like spear phishing?
Hackers like spear phishing because it is an effective way to bypass the sophisticated technical perimeters that protect systems and networks against exploits and malware. All it takes is one person to click one wrong thing, one time.
How to tell if an email is from someone?
If it is from someone you have been sending emails with before, see if the style and tone are familiar. If the email has a signature, check that the signatures match . When the email asks you to visit a link, open an attachment, disclose information, or take an action, contact the sender via a different channel and ask if the email is really from them.
Can you detect spear phishing emails?
Detecting spear-phishing emails is a lot like detecting regular phishing emails. The same basic principles apply to both types of attacks, although spear phishing might use more sophisticated methods to spoof the sender, hide the actual domain in a link, or obscure the payload in an attachment.
What is Phishing?
Phishing is a social engineering cyberattack method that uses email or other online communication means ― most often email ― to fool victims into clicking on malicious links. This action results in giving up sensitive information, and/or providing gateways for attackers to plant malicious software.
What Is Spear Phishing?
So, what sets spear-phishing apart? The major difference between the two is the target.
How to Avoid Spear Phishing
Like most cyber security threats, the most important thing you can do to avoid spear phishing breaches is to teach your staff how to spot and avoid phishing attempts.
Antiphishing Software
Knowledge is power when preventing spear-phishing attacks. When your staff is your weakest link, it’s important to regularly train your personnel. Make sure you include this training when putting together your digital security plan.
Who Are the Most Likely Targets of Spear Phishing
While it’s important that your entire organization is educated on the dangers of spear phishing and the methods to prevent such attacks, there are certain roles that are far more likely to be targeted, such as:
Education and Protection Are the Keys
The threats mounting out there may seem insurmountable but, rest assured, that they’re all built on the same ideas. Hackers want the biggest payoff for the smallest amount of effort and exposure.
