With regular phishing attacks, the success rate is low, but cybercriminals can send out tens or hundreds of thousands of malicious emails. With nearly 200,000 events, phishing tops the list of the FBI’s Internet Crime Report. Now imagine an attack vector with a much higher success rate. Spear phishing is happening, and it puts enterprises at great risk.
What Is Spear Phishing?
Spear phishing is a targeted type of phishing attack that relies on malicious emails, phone calls, or other communications to deceive victims. In conventional phishing, cybercriminals usually send a large volume of emails to many different organizations and users, hoping to “catch” a few people who fall for the scam. In contrast, spear phishing campaigns focus on just one user or a single organization.
This difference between regular phishing and spear phishing means that attacks are often highly personalized. Bad actors may spend weeks researching the target individual or organization. Spear phishing emails sound incredibly authentic, pretending to come from a bank the person really uses, family members, legitimate business suppliers, or real coworkers.
Spear Phishing Vs. Whaling
Whaling and spear phishing are remarkably similar. The main difference is that whaling focuses on high-value targets like CEOs, CFOs, other executives, and business owners. Individuals with admin access to network resources or data can also be attractive targets for whaling, such as network engineers.
How Does a Spear Phishing Attack Typically Work?
Understanding the phases of a spear phishing attack is important to avoid falling victim. Individuals in every industry can be at risk.
Target Identification
Cybercriminals start by selecting an organization to target. Then, they look for specific individuals who can help them achieve their objective, such as an employee in the accounts payable, HR, or IT department.
It’s common for spear phishing attacks to use information exposed by previous data breaches. For example, after compromising a supply chain vendor, the cybercriminals may steal customer lists that contain contact information from your organization, including names, email addresses, and phone numbers.
In-Depth Research
After choosing the target, bad actors investigate the person thoroughly. They check social media posts and details on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and other platforms.
Many users reveal a surprising amount of data about their activities, circle of friends, and work acquaintances. This trail may lead to other data, including the person’s city of residence, employment history, or general bank information.
Spear phishing research used to take weeks or months. Now, with the help of machine learning algorithms, bad actors can sift through data and identify key details in a few hours.
Messaging
After gathering information, the cybercriminals are ready to make their move. They carefully craft an email that sounds believable and persuasive. Often, hackers spoof or mask the email address to make it seem like the message comes from within the company or a local account.
Depending on the attack objective, bad actors may send multiple messages to make the pretexting scenario seem more realistic. Some cybercriminals use a hybrid approach that combines emails with texts, AI-generated voice messages, or video calls.
Action
The goals of spear phishing attacks are generally similar to other types of phishing. Attackers try to trick victims into:
- Downloading a compromised attachment
- Clicking on a link that goes to a malicious website
- Entering login credentials on a fake “official portal” that steals IDs, passwords, and 2FA cookies
- Revealing credit card numbers
- Transferring money to a bank account controlled by the criminals
- Making fraudulent purchases
The scenarios used in spear phishing usually appeal to strong emotions, like urgency or fear. The sender may “warn” victims or threaten negative actions, like canceling an order if the employee doesn’t send a copy of the invoice immediately.
What Are Some Examples of Spear Phishing?
Spear phishing scenarios often include requests or demands from people in a position of authority. Here are a few common examples:
- Urgent message from a superior: An “executive” sends several emails instructing a financial worker to make a business payment or deposit funds in a “supplier’s” bank account.
- Alerts from the IT department: Company employees receive an email with a “security patch” from the IT department head. The email provides step-by-step instructions for deploying the “update.”
- Customer accidents: A “customer” claims they overpaid, underpaid, or lost an invoice or purchase order. The contact either requests an immediate refund, credit, or a copy of the document.
- Regulator requests: A “regulatory agency” claims to be following up on a compliance failure and requests documentary proof of network security, software vendors, etc.
- Lucrative employment offers: A “competing business” reaches out to offer an employee a lucrative contract that aligns with their skills. The email links to an employment application or has an attachment with more information.
A recent example of spear phishing is the October 2024 Midnight Blizzard attack, which used a malicious configuration file to give hackers access to victims’ computers. The Russian-linked cybercriminals sent compromised emails to specific targets in government agencies, defense contractors, financial organizations, and academic institutions. The attackers used information from previous breaches to impersonate Microsoft employees.
How Can Your Organization Protect Against Spear Phishing Attacks?
Fighting against spear phishing requires a combination of preventative, offensive, and defensive measures, such as:
- Social media restrictions: Prohibit employees from oversharing in public about their job, responsibilities, or coworkers on LinkedIn.
- Email cybersecurity: Use advanced security for email servers, including sandboxing, secure gateways, and spam filters to prevent spoofing.
- Anti-phishing policies and training: Prioritize employee security awareness training and create strict policies for authorizing financial transactions and document sharing.
- High-quality firewalls and antimalware tools: Block incoming emails from suspicious senders and outgoing traffic to dangerous or untrusted websites.
- Network monitoring: Along with multifactor authentication, set up monitoring to catch strange behavior on employee accounts.
Strong cybersecurity also requires real-world testing, not just hypothetical policies. Periodically audit your security and conduct penetration testing to see how your workers really respond in spear phishing scenarios.
Don’t Ignore the Risk of Spear Phishing Attacks
Spear phishing attacks are more challenging to detect and prevent. Even victims often don’t recognize anything suspicious until it’s too late. Your organization can’t afford to take a reactive approach to cybersecurity anymore.
Advanced analytics can help you track cybersecurity implementation and employee compliance across your organization. Compyl centralizes risk metrics and corrective actions. Discover the power of data-driven cybersecurity risk management solutions today. Strengthen your network against spear phishing with proactive threat mitigation.
