Spear phishing vs phishing: Understand the Risks

Find out how to protect your company in 2024 by studying the distinctions between spear phishing vs phishing. How is spear phishing different from phishing? Internet users are familiar with the notion of phishing and spear phishing. 

For years, scammers have found their way into inboxes, with some offering incredible earnings promises and others using deceptively phrased incentives. Business Email Compromise (BEC) is responsible for $50 billion in reported losses over the past nine years, according to the FBI. 

The most common method of attack for hacker groups in 2019, according to similar research, was spear phishing. Social engineering attacks on computers include techniques such as spear phishing vs phishing. Social engineering can trick victims into disclosing sensitive facts such as passwords, SSNs, and bank account information. 

Malware, including ransomware, may be spread through harmful links and downloads in both spear phishing and ordinary phishing campaigns. Nevertheless, firms face more immediate cyber danger from spear phishing attacks compared to normal phishing. What follows is an explanation of the main features of spear phishing vs phishing, which can help you avoid attacks and strengthen your email security.

What is spear phishing?

Modern forms of phishing include spear phishing emails, highlighting the differences in spear phishing vs phishing approaches. While traditional phishing aims to deceive large numbers of people, spear phishing focuses on a single victim or small group.

Scammers sometimes employ social engineering and fake emails in spear phishing, specifically targeting particular individuals within a company. They might pretend to be someone familiar to the target, such as a relative, coworker, or business contact.

Criminals frequently use social media to make their requests for personal information seem more legitimate, utilizing informal language, personal details, and the target’s name. They may also employ malware to steal personal data. Manipulating employees into divulging critical information or engaging in illegal activities, such as sending money to fake firms, is their main objective. 

This type of con artist typically employs two techniques:

Whaling attacks: Presidents, C-suite executives, and other high-ranking employees are the target of “whaling attacks,” in which the attackers try to steal sensitive information or authorize a big wire transfer without realizing it.

CEO fraud: CEO fraud occurs when an attacker poses as a top authority figure, such as the CEO or another high-ranking colleague, in order to commit targeted assaults against lower-level employees. Following is an attempt to force the reader to act.

Categories of spear phishing

The targets or impersonators of spear phishing attacks determine the kinds of these attacks. 

Corporate email compromise

Scammers use business email compromise (BEC) to try to steal sensitive information or money from businesses using spear phishing emails. 

Cybercriminals (or cybercrime gangs) send emails to workers of the target company in a BEC attack, posing as a boss, coworker, vendor, partner, client, or other friend of the receiver. The purpose of these emails is to deceive employees into paying fake bills, transferring money to fake accounts, or divulging vital information to someone who claims to require it.

Less frequently, BEC fraudsters may attempt to infect their victims with malware or ransomware by requesting that they open an attachment or click on a harmful link.

Taking it a step further, some BEC fraudsters will send the email from the sender’s real account once they have stolen or obtained their login credentials. Even the most meticulously impersonated or faked email account will not be able to make this fraud look more genuine.

Scammers use a kind of BEC attack known as CEO fraud to trick lower-level employees into sending money or disclosing sensitive information by making them believe they are communicating with a high-ranking boss. 

Whale phishing

A type of attack, Whale phishing, within the broader spear phishing vs phishing landscape, targets members of the board of directors, C-suite executives, and other high-profile individuals, such as politicians and celebrities.

Whale phishers target people like these because they know they have access to important information, a lot of money, or a reputation that needs safeguarding. Thus, it should come as no surprise that spear phishing attempts targeting whales usually require substantially more thorough investigation.

A spearphishing attack example

A complex spear phishing vs phishing attack breached the network of cloud-based communication behemoth Twilio in August 2022. Scammers claimed to be from Twilio’s IT department to send phishing SMS texts to workers. The emails directed workers to a fraudulent website, prompting them to re-enter their login credentials, alleging that their passwords had expired or their schedules had shifted. We enhanced the phishing scam by adding ‘Twilio,’ ‘Okta,’ and ‘SSO’ (short for single sign-on) to the URL of the bogus website to tempt employees to click on the malicious link.

Scammers gained access to Twilio’s corporate network by stealing login credentials from unknowing workers. The phishing scam was unique for two reasons: first, the high level of skill it exhibited; second, Twilio’s distinctive position as a business-to-business (B2B) provider to several other tech businesses contributed to the story’s prominence in the media. 

Other IT businesses involved in the phishing fraud included Authy, Twilio’s two-factor authentication service, and Signal, an encrypted messaging software that used Twilio for SMS service verification. Over 1,900 Signal accounts were among the 163 client organizations affected by the Twilio incident. It also demonstrated the increasing incidence of spear phishing attack, such as the one Twilio encountered.

What is phishing?

The difference between spear phishing and regular phishing efforts is that the latter uses a more targeted approach to crimes.

However, this does not lessen the threat that traditional phishing emails pose.

While email is the most popular medium for phishing scams, ‘vishing’ and ‘smishing’ refer to more specific methods of contacting unsuspecting victims. In the comparison of spear phishing vs phishing, phishing is a high-powered game: out of many thousands of attempts, at least one will likely be successful.

On the other hand, regular fraudsters, in contrast to spear phishing, employ impersonal but urgent language to trick readers into downloading a harmful file, clicking on a risky link, or revealing sensitive information like login passwords or credit card numbers.

The following are just a few of the numerous ways phishing can occur: 

“Vishing” refers to phishing attempts that use voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) or other web protocols that are downloaded onto a user’s device.

Smishing, short for “phishing via text message,” is a kind of online scam. Similar to PCs, phones can also install malware.

Similar to spear phishing, business email compromise (BEC) involves the use of compromised or fake email accounts to attract potential victims.

Phishing attacks that target wire transfers to fake accounts are known as wire transfer phishing. 

Difference between spear phishing vs phishing

Although there are many similarities between spear phishing vs phishing, the dangers they pose to your company are distinct, and the security precautions you should take to protect it are also different. Here’s a quick comparison between spear phishing vs phishing:

Attack technique

Spear Phishing: To better understand spear phishing, it’s helpful to picture an expert fisherman using a single line to target particular fish by carefully choosing the bait. The fisherman checks the lure’s effectiveness by researching the fish’s behavior, habitat, and preferences. This method is quite precise, making it more difficult for the fish to detect it as a trap and increasing the likelihood of a successful catch.

Phishing: As an alternative, conventional phishing involves releasing a huge net into the water, much like a big fishing trawler. Capturing a large number of fish is more important than worrying about their quality. The focus here is on quantity rather than quality.  

Personalization

Spear Phishing: In spear phishing, cybercriminals research their victim’s social circle, hobbies, and routines in extensive detail. They make the deception even more believable by crafting individualized communications that seem real and pertinent to the receiver.

Phishing: This degree of customization is absent from typical phishing emails. When these emails are distributed to large groups of individuals, they typically lack customization. Words like “Your account has been compromised” or “You’ve won a prize” are typical in these types of communications and are easily identifiable by knowledgeable users. 

Urgency

Spear phishing: The goal of these types of attacks is to gradually gain the recipient’s trust so that they become less wary and comfortable. In order to acquire the victim’s trust, the attacker may wait to ask for crucial information.

Phishing: Standard phishing emails often use the urgency strategy. For example, “Your account will be locked if you don’t respond within 24 hours.” or “Click here to update your password immediately.” provide the impression that quick action is necessary in the emails. This sense of urgency encourages victims to act swiftly and without hesitation.

Purpose

Spear Phishing: The aims of spear phishing are often more targeted and severe. Intruders may be aiming for sensitive corporate data, financial information, or even access to certain systems. Executives, CFOs, and anybody else with access to sensitive information are common targets.

Phishing: When it comes to phishing, the goals are more generalized and typically involve gathering various types of information from a large audience. Criminals may be on the lookout for sensitive information, such as login passwords, financial details, or personal details, that they may use for financial gain or launch more attacks.

Prevention

Spear Phishing: Conventional security measures may have a harder time detecting spear phishing due to its targeted nature. Advanced threat detection systems, staff training, and stringent verification procedures for sensitive requests are all necessary for increasingly complex defensive methods.

Phishing: Most spam filters and elementary email security programs can detect standard phishing attempts. Even with these safeguards in place, it is crucial to educate and inform users so that they can recognize and avoid phishing attacks. 

Identifying phishing attacks

You need to be aware to effectively deal with possible attacks. You can easily recognize phishing emails because they often originate from unknown senders, make unexpected requests, and contain impossible material. To detect cyber security risks, you must constantly follow these steps: 

Ensure that the email is valid. Does it include any typos or strange language?

Is there anything unusual about the way you say or end a formal salutation?

Familiarity: The sender claims to know you, and they use a term you might be familiar with. Is this a sign of familiarity?

Time pressure: Do you feel rushed to respond to the email because it demands immediate action?

Look at the link: Does the link’s URL correspond to the one it claims to go to? 

Resource: Pinterest

Several red flags should be considered when deciding if an email appears to be spear phishing or not. “How to spot a phishing email” is a blog article that goes into further detail on this topic. 

Tips to Avoid Spear Phishing and Phishing Scams

A single malicious action may infect a computer and put a whole enterprise at risk. You can defeat even the most intrusive attacks with the right knowledge and resources. To protect yourself from spear phishing vs phishing attempts of any type, here are some straightforward things you can do right now.

1: Secure your data

• If an attacker steals your device or data, data encryption will stop them from accessing or using it.

2. make use of MFA.

• In the event that someone gains illegal access to your account, multi-factor authentication is a beneficial measure to take. Before accessing your data, an attacker must get authorization for each authentication channel. They will fail badly in the vast majority of instances.

3. Verify your email address. 

• By following this best practice, you can prevent the main method of credential theft. Setting DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), Sender Policy Framework (SPF), or DMARC are just a few of the ways you may authenticate your email. 

4. Don’t ever open an attachment from an unknown sender. 

• Locking yourself out of your device, stealing sensitive data, and deleting vital files are all possible outcomes of just one malicious link or attachment. It is crucial that you carefully review any emails that seem unusual or suspicious for these reasons.
• You should always verify the sender’s identity before opening an attachment in an email, even if you know who sent it. 

5. Make sure software is always up-to-date.

• Setting all programs and operating systems to automatically download will protect users from malware and phishing attempts.

6. Make use of robust passwords and change them frequently.

• In less than six hours, hackers can decipher 90% of all passwords. The vast majority of individuals put their personal and professional data in danger by using the same old passwords everywhere they go.
• Password managers and other strong password practices can help users avoid cybercrime.

7. Keep yourself updated and adhere to industry standards.

• Anyone can become a target of phishing attacks if they receive the right incentives. Regular security training and briefings can help sharpen cybersecurity knowledge. Staying updated with the latest recommendations is crucial, as phishing techniques are constantly evolving.

Conclusion

Both spear phishing and phishing are forms of social engineering that hackers employ to get people to give up personal information or download malicious software. In the comparison of spear phishing vs phishing, traditional phishing attempts target everyone, while spear phishing targets specific persons or organizations. Since spear phishing frequently requires considerable research and tailoring to boost its legitimacy, this focused approach makes it more effective—and deadly.

To protect themselves from cyber threats, individuals and organizations need to understand the distinctions in spear phishing vs phishing attacks. One way to lessen the impact of these assaults is to put stringent security measures in place, including email filters, staff training, and multi-factor authentication.

Read more blogs:

What is spear phishing attack? A detailed guide

What is spear phishing in cyber security?