[Spear Phishing: Explanation, Examples And Protection
Betty Neyhart
Spear phishing attacks are executed through the use of electronic or email communications. Targeted phishing may impact an individual, corporation, or business, depending upon the objectives and intentions of its perpetrators. Cybercriminals may launch spear-phishing attacks for the following reasons:
A staggering 95% of fraudulent activity which is conducted against enterprises with the sole objective of gaining sensitive data is conducted via spear phishing. In the last two years, email communications scams have caused companies to suffer financial losses of more than two billion dollars according to the FBI. This illustrates the colossal scale of spear phishing attacks that take place globally.
Spear phishing email attacks are more sophisticated in nature compared to phishing attacks because they are customized for specific victims. Cybercriminals hunt through the Internet to find their targets and record personal information about them, such as their email addresses, hobbies, and recent purchases by probing their social media accounts. Based on this data, they carefully draft spear-phishing emails, assuming the identity of someone the victim can trust.
The messages delivered to recipients create a sense of urgency and compel the victims to share their personal information, such as passwords and credentials. Spear phishing email examples include requests to click on links that direct recipients to websites where they are asked to provide their access codes, PINs and account passwords, or to download malware.
Are you wondering how to prevent spear phishing attacks to protect your users and their private information? Fortunately, there are a number of tried-and-tested measures that you can deploy to combat this menace and stop spear phishing attacks.
Besides traditional email security solutions such as anti-spam and antivirus filters, extra anti-phishing software should be implemented (spear-phishing emails usually contain no malware and are almost never spam, which is why they often easily bypass traditional security mechanisms).
There are several useful anti-phishing protection techniques that you can make use of. These include checking for domain spoofing, any instances of impersonation, and flagging questionable content in the email. From an enterprise perspective, there are several reputed organizations such as PhishLabs, IronScales, and PhishMe which are progressively working to protect corporations from becoming victims of these scams.
While viruses might be delivered via email, they can be spread across your network using gaps in security caused by outdated software. This is precisely why it is fundamental for individual users and organizations to update their security software regularly to build a wall against possible spear-phishing attacks.
Data encryption should be the foundation of your security strategy and is a must-have tool in your arsenal. Encrypting sensitive information essentially makes it impossible for cybercriminals to access data, shutting down or at least weakening their attempts to attack the system.
This data protection method only unlocks sensitive information upon the completion of an authentication process which has two or more steps. It is a means of applying additional security layers and locking confidential information with more than just a password.
DMARC stands for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance technology. The purpose of this mechanism is to evaluate incoming emails against a database with a complete record of the senders. If an email does not align with the information of the sender as recorded in the database, an automatic email is sent to notify the security admin.
In the event of a successful attack, you need to get users back to work quickly by getting them access to the latest versions of uninfected files. Having a cloud-based backup solution is critical to keeping users productive during a spear-phishing attack.
Spear phishing emails are becoming increasingly sophisticated. If you receive an email that seems to be from someone you know, but is suspicious of its intent and content, as a best practice, check to see if the person actually sent the message to you.
The abundance of personal information and data on the Internet has become a goldmine for cybercriminals to dupe unknowing victims. By staying vigilant and exercising tested tips to dodge spearfishing attacks, you can protect your users from falling into this trap.
This method is more sophisticated than display name spoofing but also easier to detect by SPF (Secure Policy Framework), DMARC (Domain Message Authentication Reporting), and DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Email). With domain spoofing, a spear phisher can specify the email address they want to spoof. When an email address is an exact replica of a trusted sender, users are unlikely to recognize that the email is spoofed.
A close cousin email address is nearly identical to a legitimate one, with only a slight modification. In the past, close cousin spoofing attempts were more obvious, such as mIcrosoft.com instead of microsoft.com. Today, attempts are more advanced and difficult to spot, such as us...@mycompanyltd.com instead of us...@mycompany.com. These subtle changes can be extremely difficult to spot for busy staff who quickly read and respond to emails, especially when they are urgent in nature. Moreover, DMARC and SPF are ineffective against close cousins because they only protect exact domains.
Spear phishing and phishing attacks both leverage impersonation to commit fraud. The difference between the two is that spear phishing emails impersonate people, while phishing emails impersonate brands. Unlike phishing, spear phishing targets a single individual, includes no links or attachments in the email, and typically features a request for a wire transfer, gift cards, or direct deposit change, rather than account credentials. Below are just two examples of a phishing vs spear phishing email:
A one-off, text-only spear phishing email might look unsophisticated on the surface, but there are social engineering techniques at work that reveal a sophisticated level of psychological manipulation. Below are some examples :
The absence of URLs and attachments makes spear phishing extremely difficult to detect. Traditional email security solutions use outdated methods to block threats, and most are ineffective in the fight against spear phishing. Optimal spear phishing protection requires advanced methods.
Vade for M365 blocks advanced attacks from the first email thanks to machine learning models that perform real-time behavioral analysis of the entire phishing email, including any URLs and attachments. Leveraging data from more than 1.4 billion inboxes, our AI-based threat detection stops threats before, during, and even after phishing attacks.
Spear phishing is a subset of phishing. It is a form of cyber attack where the hackers pinpoint a particular individual to target or sometimes a small group of people in an organisation. The spear phishers will research the individual from such sources as social media, the company website, or previous data breaches.
Once they have gained enough knowledge about the victim, they will send an email to deceive the recipient into sharing sensitive information or download an attachment that installs malware. The email will appear to be from a trusted and known person, and the request in the message will seem valid and convincing.
Typically phishing attacks use email or text messages where the message will appear to be from a trusted source, asking the recipient to click on a link or download an attachment. The hacker's goal is to install malware on the victim's machine or steal personal information for fraudulent gain.
If we use the 'fishing' analogy, regular phishing would be akin to casting a broad net off a boat and aiming to catch as many fish as possible, while spear phish would be to fish with a spear gun specifically targeting one fish.
In essence, a spear-phishing and whaling attack is the same. The only difference is that the targeted recipient is of higher importance, such as a senior executive, attorney, or even a politician or celebrity, hence the term whale phishing, a bigger fish being speared. Typically a whaling attack is used to steal sensitive information or money from a company. As senior management is likely to have access to financial information, company passwords, logins, and other sensitive data, it makes them an ideal target for these types of cyber-attacks.
Due to the high potential pay-off, a whaling attack tends to be even more elaborate than spear phishing. Preparing for a whaling attack can take months of preparation to ensure that it is as plausible as possible.
Before the attack is initiated, the cyber-criminals will gather as much information as possible about the victim. They will scour social media profiles such as Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as business directories and corporate databases. Whalers will also gain information regarding the target company, such as work colleagues' names and job titles.
Once all the personal data about the recipient has been gathered, a well-crafted and highly personalised email will be sent asking them to take urgent and immediate action on a specific business matter. An example would be an individual with the financial authority to send wire transfers might be asked to transfer a large sum of money by the CEO.
As reported by the FBI, over a two-year period, up to 7,000 businesses in the United States have fallen victim to whaling campaigns, which they call BEC (Business Email Compromise), resulting in losses of around $740M.
The next stage is researching the target victim. Many businesses provide a plethora of information about their enterprise's structure, hierarchy, and staff online. Combined with social media profiles such as Facebook and LinkedIn, offering up personal details, an experienced researcher can find a multitude of information to use for a spear-phishing attack.
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