What is spear phishing in homehome security?
HomeHome SecurityResource CenterDefinitions. Spear phishing is an email or electronic communications scam targeted towards a specific individual, organization or business. Although often intended to steal data for malicious purposes, cybercriminals may also intend to install malware on a targeted user’s computer.
What is spear phishing and why is it so dangerous?
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 the difference between phishing and social engineering?
While phishing schemes typically rely on email, attachments and webpages to capture private data, social engineering might use these, the phone or any number of different methods. Social engineering involves psychologically manipulating people into divulging information or taking inappropriate actions.
What's the best defense against social engineering attacks like spear phishing?
But the best defense against social engineering attacks like spear phishing is human intelligence, and that requires training that keeps users on their toes. "A phishing simulation makes a big difference," he says. "It's one thing to go to a PowerPoint and show you a phishing email.
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.
How does an email work?
This is how it works: An email arrives, apparently from a trustworthy source, but instead it leads the unknowing recipient to a bogus website full of malware. These emails often use clever tactics to get victims' attention.
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.
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.
Can you add videos to your watch history?
Videos you watch may be added to the TV's watch history and influence TV recommendations. To avoid this, cancel and sign in to YouTube on your computer.
How Does Spear Phishing Work?
Spear-phishing techniques have improved in sophistication in recent years, making them extremely difficult to detect. Attackers typically target victims on social networking sites who have put their personal information online. A social media profile can easily provide an attacker with key information such as their name, email address, where they live, their friends’ names, and their social posts. These details give an attacker vital details to pose as a person’s friend, colleague, or family member and compose a convincing message that entices the recipient to interact with it .
What is the difference between spear phishing and phishing?
The key difference between these two attack methods is spear-phishing attackers go after a specific individual, whereas phishing takes a blanket approach targeting multiple victims. Spear-phishing attackers methodically target a victim to use them as a way into an organization or for stealing information, while a phishing actor does not bother who their target is. They just want to steal as much information as possible or cause damage.
Why is spear phishing more successful than phishing?
That is because spear-phishing attackers attempt to obtain vast amounts of personal information about their victims.
What is phishing email?
Phishing is a broad term for attacks sent to multiple people in a bid to ensnare as many victims as possible. Phishing attacks involve a spoofed email that purports to be from a genuine sender or organization.
Why do hackers use spear phishing?
Hackers use spear-phishing attacks in an attempt to steal sensitive data, such as account details or financial information, from their targets. An attack requires significant research, which often involves acquiring personal information about the victim.
How to remediate spear phishing?
The remediation process in the event of a successful spear-phishing attack can be a huge task. Security teams need to verify a suspicious email, then identify who was targeted or who clicked on malicious links, and figure out why they were targeted. This can be a lengthy process, which requires going through proxy logs, generating a list of IP addresses that visited the malicious link, and analyzing data to identify affected users.
What is a whaling attack?
A whaling attack usually targets people with direct access to financial or payroll information or are responsible for making payments. The attacker does the same type of research they would do for a spear-phishing attack to compose a message that appears to be from a trusted colleague.
What is an example of Whaling?
A whaling example from 2016 involves the high profile social media networking company Snap, known for its popular Snapchat app. Digital Guardian offered this summary of the attack.
What is Social Engineering?
Social engineering involves psychologically manipulating people into divulging information or taking inappropriate actions. Very often victims have no idea they have done something wrong until the fraud is later exposed. Like spear phishing, social engineering attacks are highly targeted on a small number of potential victims.
What are some examples of Social Engineering Attacks?
A USA Today article outlines a social engineering attack technique used in 2016 in a recent article.
What happened to Snapchat in 2016?
In early 2016, the social media app Snapchat fell victim to a whaling attack when a high-ranking employee was emailed by a cybercriminal impersonating the CEO and was fooled into revealing employee payroll information. A 2015 attack targeted Mattel, the world-famous manufacturer of Barbie and other toys.
What is a phishing attack?
Phishing attacks generally involve a malicious attachment or a malicious link to a compromised website. Ars Technica reported on several phishing-initiated ransomware attacks in 2016 against hospitals.
What is spear phishing?
By contrast, spear phishing is about small numbers of contacts that deliver a high conversion rate. Spear phishers obtain private information by researching the background of individuals and companies on social media, corporate websites and other publicly available information. Cyber criminals use that targeted information to convince the victim to perform a task or share information.
What are the techniques used to compromise credentials?
But, most of them start with a simple email. Phishing, spear phishing, whaling and social engineering are typically used as points of entry to initiate an attack or as points of escalation to more easily access valuable information or execute more damaging actions.
What is a social engineering attack?
In a social engineering attack, an attacker uses human interaction (social skills) to obtain or compromise information about an organization or its computer systems. An attacker may seem unassuming and respectable, possibly claiming to be a new employee, repair person, or researcher and even offering credentials to support that identity. However, by asking questions, he or she may be able to piece together enough information to infiltrate an organization's network. If an attacker is not able to gather enough information from one source, he or she may contact another source within the same organization and rely on the information from the first source to add to his or her credibility.
What is a phishing attack?
Phishing is a form of social engineering. Phishing attacks use email or malicious websites to solicit personal information by posing as a trustworthy organization. For example, an attacker may send email seemingly from a reputable credit card company or financial institution that requests account information, often suggesting that there is a problem. When users respond with the requested information, attackers can use it to gain access to the accounts.
How do you avoid being a victim?
If an unknown individual claims to be from a legitimate organization, try to verify his or her identity directly with the company.
What do you do if you think you are a victim?
If you believe you might have revealed sensitive information about your organization, report it to the appropriate people within the organization, including network administrators . They can be alert for any suspicious or unusual activity.
What should companies do to prevent phishing?
Companies should recommend phishing simulation exercises, user training, and providing an existing mechanism for users to report suspicious emails to the IT security team, in addition to standard controls such as spam filters, malware detection, and antivirus.
What is spear phishing?
Spear-phishing is an email trick focused on a particular individual, association, or business. Albeit frequently planned to take information for malignant purposes, cybercriminals may likewise mean introducing malware on a targeted client’s PC. If you’re looking for a way to communicate with an organization or get something to run on the inside, ...
Is spear phishing a spam email?
Since they are so specific, spe ar-phi shing emails are difficult to identify. They appear to be regular business emails with regular business talk, making it difficult for spam detection systems to identify them as spam.
