Spear Phishing Examples: Protect Yourself

What is Spear Phishing?

Spear phishing is a very concentrated phishing attack that targets a particular individual or group of individuals. In these situations, a criminal, usually posing as a reliable person, tricks a victim into clicking on a fake link in an email, direct message, or text message. Then, without realizing it, the victim provides private data (such as login passwords). Additionally, the victim could install malicious software. Spear phishing examples often highlight how attackers employ social engineering tactics, using private data like the names of friends, places of residence, or employment details to deceive targets.

Despite the apparent simplicity of prevention, these fraudsters entice consumers by employing these tactics effectively. Spear phishing examples may also involve gathering details about places individuals often visit or things they recently purchased online. When creating an email security plan, extra consideration should be given to spear phishing because the attacks are so specific and focused.

How does spear phishing work?

Spear phishing is the practice of a cybercriminal sending a person an email, SMS, or phone call to trick them into divulging their personal information, login credentials, or money transfer. Spear phishing examples often involve attackers posing as the victim’s bank, friend, family member, boss, or a well-known online retailer to make them feel comfortable disclosing private information, making these scams highly successful.

Scammers frequently suggest or warn that there will be severe consequences, including the closure of an account, legal fines, or other financial penalties unless the victim takes swift action. Spear phishing examples also highlight how attackers exploit urgency and fear to manipulate their targets. Although many people believe that these scams are simple to identify, the truth is that anybody may become a victim of them unless they have received frequent instruction on identifying the tactics used by attackers.

Spear Phishing Definition: Targeted Cyberattack Explained

Spear Phishing Examples

Spear phishing attempts may be difficult to see, particularly if you haven’t been the victim of one. However, by understanding the typical spear phishing situations that we outline here, you will be more aware of such efforts in the future.

Cybercriminals use the following methods and instances:

Fake websites

A cybercriminal will carefully design a phishing email with a link to a fake version of a well-known website.

To fool the victim into entering their account credentials, the website mirrors the actual site’s layout. 

CEO Fraud

CEO fraud, also known as business email compromise (BEC), is a type of spear phishing in which the attacker poses as a senior executive to carry out a customized phishing attack. The attacker may target vendors, other executives, or a less experienced worker within the organization with these attacks.

CEO fraud, like other phishing attacks, employs social engineering tactics to get money, account access, or sensitive information from its victims.

This spear phishing attack strategy is effective because it requires the identity of a powerful individual. Imagine a humble employee receiving an email from their CEO requesting that they immediately rewire a vendor’s payment details. It’s possible that the employee rushed into the trap in an attempt to satisfy the CEO.

The email fraud that the Government of Puerto Rico encountered in early 2020 is a recent example of BEC. The government lost $2.6 million to the fraud when the con artist fooled them into switching the bank account used for remittance payments.

The goals of a CEO fraud attack may include gaining access to a company’s internal systems, infecting its network, or tricking staff members into sending money to the incorrect account, as is the case in Puerto Rico. 

Whaling

Whaling is the term for spear-phishing attacks in which attackers target famous people or senior executives. Politicians, celebrities, and C-level senior executives may fall under this category.

The technique is similar to previous spear phishing attempts. They rely on the fact that the CEO of a company is a human being, susceptible to social engineering scams just like any other employee. Senior executives should have preventative measures in place and exercise extra caution while checking their inboxes because they have better access to corporate data than regular employees.

A fraudster nearly caused Mattel to lose $3 million, a prime example of a successful whale attack. To get the finance director to submit a wire transfer to a Chinese bank account, the fraudster claimed to be the CEO. The suggestion appeared reasonable at the time because the newly hired CEO had been preparing for significant expansion in China. 

Clone Phishing

Hackers use clones—as their name suggests—to initiate clone phishing attacks. To deceive victims, hackers copy communications they have read from reliable sources and pose as a certain company. For this reason, using DMARC services to safeguard your company’s domain is crucial.

Clone phishing attempts typically replicate standard communications from the companies they are impersonating, including a sales offer, a notice, or an email requesting that you update your account details.

Frequently, this message will contain a malicious link that takes the recipient to a website that the attacker has cloned, typically a login page. Typically, the address of a cloned website is nearly identical to the original one.

A typo, a letter swap, a dash, or other minor variations characterize it. The user interface, emails, content, and logo of the fake website will match the real one. To obtain sensitive information, hackers will go to extreme lengths to trick fools into entering their social security numbers, login passwords, or other private information on the criminal website. 

Malware

An attacker will attempt to fool an employee into clicking on a malicious email attachment in these kinds of phishing attacks. Typically, an attacker executes this type of attack by posing as a delivery notification or invoice.

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Spear Phishing Prevention Tips

There are still strategies to guard against spear phishing, even if it is far more difficult to identify than bulk phishing attempts. 

The following advice can help you avoid spear phishing and safeguard your inbox:

Avoid opening unknown emails, links, and attachments.

While it may seem obvious, it’s simple to overlook the importance of exercising caution when browsing through your mailbox. Avoid opening any files or clicking on links in emails that appear suspicious.

To find out what to do next, make sure to consult your organization’s cybersecurity policy. You may always delete the email or transfer it to spam if you don’t have one. 

Enable two-factor authentication

Including two-factor authentication gives your accounts an additional degree of protection. After cracking your strong password, an attacker would need to prove they are an authorized user to access your account.

Educate your employees

Social engineering is frequently a key component of spear phishing attempts. To make sure that you and your staff can recognize suspicious activity, even in the event of a hyper-personalized attack, security awareness training is crucial.

Teach your staff about spear phishing, how to spot an attempt, and what to do if they get a questionable email in their inbox.

Phishing simulations, in addition to interactive training, make your staff more watchful when they check their inboxes. 

Use strong, unique passwords

Having a strong password is essential if you have ever used the internet. Unfortunately, it’s still shockingly popular to use weak passwords like “123456” or “password.”

These two precise phrases rank 1 and 5 on Nordpass’s list of the most used passwords, released in February 2020. Harvard advises combining capital and lowercase letters, adding symbols and numbers, and making the password longer than 10 characters to establish a strong one.

To ensure that your password remains uncrackable, consider making it a phrase or using a password generator.

Update software regularly

Software upgrades frequently include fixes for known vulnerabilities that attackers may easily exploit. Regrettably, people often assume that software updates can wait until you forget about them.

An example of a major attack report phrase that used a known security flaw is the 2017 WannaCry ransomware outbreak.

Interestingly, the Microsoft software update from earlier in 2017 fixed the exploited vulnerability. But because the impacted companies hadn’t upgraded their software, the ransomware was able to enter. 

Recap

You must train your staff on the strategies used by attackers if you want to make sure they are prepared to thwart spear phishing attempts. Phishing simulations are particularly effective, as they provide practical spear phishing examples that demonstrate how attackers execute their schemes. While written content can offer valuable insights, these simulations help end users gain hands-on experience in identifying and responding to such attacks. End users thus acquire the ability to recognize spear phishing examples and tactics when they come across them in the future.

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