Spear phishing is a significant threat to organizations in the cybersecurity landscape. According to Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report (ISRT), 65% of threat actors use spear phishing emails to carry out attacks. Deloitte estimates that 91% of successful cyberattacks begin with a phishing email. These figures highlight the importance of organizations taking preventative measures to protect themselves against spear phishing attacks, such as training employees to identify and avoid phishing emails.
What is Spear Phishing?
Spear phishing is a cyber-attack where an attacker sends fraudulent and convincing messages or emails to targeted individuals to deceive them into disclosing confidential information, like passwords or financial data. This attack aims to gain unauthorized access to the victim's computer system or network to steal data or cause harm.
Types of Spear Phishing
Attackers use several types of spear phishing attacks to target individuals or organizations. Some of the most common types of spear phishing include:
- Whaling: It targets high-profile
individuals such as executives or senior management.
- Clone
Phishing: The attacker replicates a legitimate email or website to trick
individuals into revealing sensitive information.
- Business
Email Compromise (BEC): An attacker impersonates an employee or
vendor to request payments or sensitive information from other employees
or customers.
- Social
Media Phishing: The attacker uses social media platforms to
impersonate a legitimate entity and trick individuals into revealing
sensitive information.
- Credential
Harvesting: Cyber attacker impersonates a legitimate website or service to
trick individuals into entering their login credentials.
- Malware-Based
Spear Phishing: Intruder sends an email with a malware-laden
attachment or link that, when clicked, installs malware on the victim's
computer.
- Angler
Phishing: The attacker creates a fake customer service account on social
media and lures victims to send their personal information directly.
- Vishing: The
attacker uses voice communication (such as a phone call) to impersonate a
legitimate organization and trick victims into revealing sensitive
information.
How to Prevent Spear Phishing?
Here
are some key ways to prevent spear phishing attacks:
Final Thoughts
InfosecTrain's CEH v12 Training course provides comprehensive training on preventing cybercrimes like spear phishing. It covers social engineering techniques, identifying theft attempts, assessing human-level vulnerabilities, and proposing social engineering countermeasures. The course includes hands-on lab exercises to teach you how to detect a phishing attack and perform security audits. The C|EH course is designed to help you master the foundations of ethical hacking and prepare you to tackle real-world threats.
