Spear Phishing Definition | What Is Spear Phishing?

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Spear Phishing Definition

Spear phishing is a cyber-attack that tricks a victim into revealing confidential information. Anyone can be a target of a spearphishing attack. Criminals may target government employees or private companies. Spear phishing attacks pretend to come from a colleague or friend of the victim. These attacks can even mimic email templates from well-known companies like FexEx, Facebook, or Amazon. 
 
The goal of a phishing attack is to get the victim to click a link or download a file. If the victim clicks a link and is lured into typing in login info on a fake web page, they have just given their credentials over to the attacker. If the victim downloads a file, then malware is installed on the computer and at that point, the victim has given over all activities and information located on that computer.
 
A good number of spear-phishing attacks are government-sponsored. Sometimes, attacks come from cybercriminals who sell the information to governments or corporations. A successful spear-phishing attack on a company or government can lead to a hefty ransom. Big companies such as Google and Facebook have lost money to these attacks. About three years ago, BBC reported that both companies were swindled of a sum of about $100 million each by a single hacker.

How is Spear Phishing different from Phishing?

Although phishing and spear-phishing are similar in their goals, they are different in method. A phishing attack is a one-off attempt targeted at a large group of people. It’s done with off-the-shelf applications designed for that purpose. These attacks don’t take much skill to carry out. The idea of a regular phishing attack is to steal credentials on a mass scale. Criminals who do this typically have the goal of reselling credentials on the dark web or depleting people’s bank accounts.
 
Spear phishing attacks are much more sophisticated. They are usually targeted at specific employees, companies, or organizations. Unlike generic phishing emails, spear-phishing emails look like they come from a legit contact that the target recognizes. This could be a project manager or a team lead. Targets are planned and well researched. A spearphishing attack will usually leverage publicly available information to mimic the targets persona. 
 
For example, an attacker may research the victim and find out that they have a child. Then they may use that information to create a strategy of how to use that information against them. For instance, they may send out a fake company announcement asking if they would like free daycare for their children provided by the company. This is just one example of how a spearphishing attack uses publicly known data (usually through social media) against you.
 
After obtaining the victim’s credentials, the attacker can steal more personal or financial info. This includes bank info, social security numbers, and credit card numbers. Spear phishing requires more research on their victims to penetrate their defenses successfully.A spear-phishing attack is usually the beginning of a much larger attack on a company. 
Spear phishing

How does a Spear Phishing attack work?

Before cybercriminals carry out spear-phishing attacks, they research their targets. During this process, they find their targets’ emails, job titles, and colleagues. Some of this information is on the website of the company the target works at. They find more info by going through the target’s LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook. 
 
After gathering info, the cybercriminal moves on to crafting their message. They create a message that looks like it’s coming from a familiar contact of the target, such as a team lead, or a manager. There are several ways the cybercriminal could send the message to the target. Emails are used because of their frequent use in corporate environments. 
 
Spear-phishing attacks should be easy to identify because of the email address in use. The attacker can’t have the same address as the one owned by the person the attacker is posing as. To fool the target, the attacker spoofs the email address of one of the target’s contact. This is done by making the email address look as similar to the original as possible. They could replace an “o” with a “0” or lowercase “l” with an uppercase “I”, and so on. This, coupled with the fact that the content of the email looks legitimate, makes it difficult to identify a spear-phishing attack.
 
The email sent usually contains a file attachment or a link to an external website that the target could download or click. The website or file attachment would contain malware. The malware executes once it downloads onto the target’s device. The malware establishes communication with the cybercriminal’s device. Once this begins it can log keystrokes, harvest data, and do what the programmer commands.

Who needs to worry about Spear Phishing attacks?

Everyone needs to be on the lookout for spear phishing attacks. Some categories of people are more likely to be attacked than others. People who have high-level jobs in industries such as healthcare, finance, education, or the government have a greater risk. A successful spear phishing attack on any of these industries could lead to:

  • A data breach
  • Large ransom payments
  • National Security threats
  • Loss of reputation
  • Legal repercussions

 

You can’t avoid getting phishing emails. Even if you use an email filter, some spearphishing attacks will come through.

The best way you can handle this is by training employees on how to spot spoofed emails.

 

How can you prevent Spear Phishing attacks?

There are several steps you can take to prevent spear phishing attacks. Below is a list of preventive and protective measures against spear-phishing attacks:
 
  • Avoid putting up too much information about yourself on social media. This is one of the first stops of a cybercriminal to fish for information about you.
  • Make sure the hosting service you use has email security and anti-spam protection. This serves as the first line of defense against a cybercriminal.
  • Do not click on links or file attachments until you are sure of the source of the email.
  • Be wary of unsolicited emails or emails with urgent requests. Try to verify such a request through another means of communication. Give the suspected person a phone call, text, or talk face to face.
 
Organizations need to educate their employees on spear-phishing tactics. This helps employees know what to do when they encounter a spear-phishing email. This is education can be achieved with a Spear Phishing Simulation.
 
One way you can teach your employees how to avoid spear-phishing attacks is through phishing simulations.

What are Phishing Simulations?

A spear-phishing simulation is an excellent tool for getting employees up to speed on the spear-phishing tactics of cybercriminals. It is a series of interactive exercises designed to teach its users how to identify spear-phishing emails to avoid or report them. Employees who are exposed to spear-phishing simulations have a much better chance of spotting a spear-phishing attack and reacting appropriately.

How does a spear phishing simulation work?

  1. Inform employees that they will be receiving a “fake” phishing email.
  2. Send them an article that describes how to spot phishing emails beforehand to make sure that they are informed before they are tested.
  3. Send the “fake” phishing email at a random time during the month that you announce the phishing training.
  4. Measure the stats of how many employees fell for the phishing attempt vs the amount that didn’t or who reported the phishing attempt.
  5. Continue training by sending tips on phishing awareness and testing your coworkers once per month.

 

>>>You can learn more about finding the right phishing simulator HERE.<<<

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How To Do A Free Phishing Test For Your Organization

Why would I want to simulate a Phishing attack?

If your organization is hit with spearphishing attacks, the statistics on successful attacks will be sobering to you.

The average success rate of a spearphishing attack is a 50% click rate for phishing emails. 

This is the type of liability that your company doesn’t want.

When you bring awareness to phishing in your workplace, you’re not just protecting employees or the company from credit card fraud, or identity theft.

A phishing simulation can help you prevent data breaches that cost your company millions in lawsuits and millions in customer trust.

>>If you want to check out a ton of phishing stats, please go ahead and check out our Ultimate Guide to Understanding Phishing in 2021 HERE.<<<

If you want to start a free trial of GoPhish Phishing Framework certified by Hailbytes, you can contact us here for more info or start your free trial on AWS today.

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