What is the term used for a phishing attack that is targeted towards a specific person?
Learn about spear-phishing attacks as well as how to identify and avoid falling victim to spear-phishing scams. Show
A definition of spear-phishingSpear-phishing is a targeted attempt to steal sensitive information such as account credentials or financial information from a specific victim, often for malicious reasons. This is achieved by acquiring personal details on the victim such as their friends, hometown, employer, locations they frequent, and what they have recently bought online. The attackers then disguise themselves as a trustworthy friend or entity to acquire sensitive information, typically through email or other online messaging. This is the most successful form of acquiring confidential information on the internet, accounting for 91% of attacks. Spear-phishing vs. PhishingSpear-phishing can easily be confused with phishing because they are both online attacks on users that aim to acquire confidential information. Phishing is a broader term for any attempt to trick victims into sharing sensitive information such as passwords, usernames, and credit card details for malicious reasons. The attackers often disguise themselves as a trustworthy entity and make contact with their target via email, social media, phone calls (often called “vishing” for voice-phishing), and even text messages (often called “smishing” for SMS-phishing). Unlike spear-phishing attacks, phishing attacks are not personalized to their victims, and are usually sent to masses of people at the same time. The goal of phishing attacks is to send a spoofed email (or other communication) that looks as if it is from an authentic organization to a large number of people, banking on the chances that someone will click on that link and provide their personal information or download malware. Spear-phishing attacks target a specific victim, and messages are modified to specifically address that victim, purportedly coming from an entity that they are familiar with and containing personal information. Spear-phishing requires more thought and time to achieve than phishing. Spear-phishing attackers try to obtain as much personal information about their victims as possible to make the emails that they send look legitimate and to increase their chance of fooling recipients. Because of the personal level of these emails, it is more difficult to identify spear-phishing attacks than to identify phishing attacks conducted at a wide scale. This is why spear-phishing attacks are becoming more prevalent. How does spear-phishing work?The act of spear-phishing may sound simple, but spear-phishing emails have improved within the past few years and are now extremely difficult to detect without prior knowledge on spear-phishing protection. Spear-phishing attackers target victims who put personal information on the internet. They might view individual profiles while scanning a social networking site. From a profile, they will be able to find a person’s email address, friends list, geographic location, and any posts about new gadgets that were recently purchased. With all of this information, the attacker would be able to act as a friend or a familiar entity and send a convincing but fraudulent message to their target. To increase success rates, these messages often contain urgent explanations on why they need sensitive information. Victims are asked to open a malicious attachment or click on a link that takes them to a spoofed website where they are asked to provide passwords, account numbers, PINs, and access codes. An attacker posing as a friend might ask for usernames and passwords for various websites, such as Facebook, so that they would be able to access posted photos. In reality, the attackers will use that password, or variations of it, to access different websites that have confidential information such as credit card details or Social Security Numbers. Once criminals have gathered enough sensitive information, they can access bank accounts or even create a new identity using their victim’s information. Spear-phishing can also trick people into downloading malware or malicious codes after people click on links or open attachments provided in messages. 6 tips to avoid a spear-phishing attack:
What is a targeted phishing attack called?Spear phishing definition
Spear phishing is a targeted email attack purporting to be from a trusted sender. In spear phishing attacks, attackers often use information gleaned from research to put the recipient at ease.
What is a phishing attack that targets only specific users?The first, spear phishing, describes malicious emails sent to a specific person.
What are the three types of phishing?Types of Phishing Attacks. Spear Phishing. A Spear Phishing attack occurs when a phishing attempt is crafted to trick a specific person rather than a group of people. ... . Whaling. Whaling is a sub-type of Spear Phishing and is typically even more targeted. ... . Smishing. ... . Vishing.. What is a phishing email targeted directly at you?“Spear phishing” is a type of phishing campaign that targets a specific person or group and often will include information known to be of interest to the target, such as current events or financial documents.
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