He Phishing or Identity Supplant It is one of the most used forms of cybercrime, as attests to the folder of spam In anyone’s mail, but some variants are more dangerous than others. He Spear Phishing (Phishing ‘Lanza’ or selective phishing), unlike the massive phishing with which emails are sent to large amounts of random recipients, it is a form of attack directed against specific individuals or specific groups within an organization and is based on social engineering.
This type of attack can be done through emails, text messages, chat applications or phone calls and is characterized by customization. Cybercounts carry out an investigation into your goals To be able to create messages that are credible. Very specific information is used, such as your name and put in your company or details of personal and professional life obtained from public sources as social networks. This social engineering tactic significantly increases the possibilities of the attack working and makes it the most harmful phishing type.
Spear Phishing campaigns can pretend get large sums of money through fraudulent payments or transfers, or search Financial data. Other objectives include ransomware or other malware through malicious attachments, the theft of credentials login for subsequent attacks, or Sensitive information subtraction such as customer data, employees, intellectual property or commercial secrets.
A report by the Barracuda Networks cybersecurity explains that it analyzed 50 billion emails and found that, Although Spear Phishing represented less than 0.1 % of the mails, they were behind 66 % of the successful gaps. While a gap caused by Phishing costs average 4.76 million dollars, Spear Phishing attacks can amount to 100 million. The growing availability of artificial intelligence, especially generative AI toolsis facilitating Spear Phishers the execution of more sophisticated and effective attacks, allowing phishing messages to be in minutes instead of hours and generate convincing false documents.
Spear Phishing types
Within Spear Phishing, several classes can be found:
Whaling or Whale Phishing: It is specifically addressed to high profile and value victims, as members of directive boards, high -level executives, celebrities or politicians. They seek to obtain large sums of money or access to highly confidential information.
Committed Business Mail Account (BEC): They are Spear Phishing scams that specifically seek to steal organizations. Successful BEC attacks are among the most expensive cyber -wing. Two common forms:
- CEO fraud: The scammer impersonates a high level executive and orders employees who are below transfer funds to a fraudulent account or make purchases to a false supplier.
- Committed Email Account (EAC): The scammer obtains access to the mail account of a lower level employee (such as finance or sales) and uses it to send fraudulent invoices, order payments or request confidential data.
How to detect a Spear Phishing scam
Since Spear Phishing attacks are so personalized, they can be difficult to detect. However, there are warning signs to which attention should be paid:
- Email seeks to create a sense of urgency or panic.
- Language is designed to trigger emotions such as fear, guilt, gratitude or greed.
- The email address seems incorrect (by the domain or an unusual name format).
- Spelling and grammar errors.
- Request sensitive information or personal details.
- Suspicious links that do not coincide with the destination direction as the cursor passes.
- Unplayed attachments, especially with unusual file names.
- Use of pretexts, inventing a realistic history or situation to deceive the victim, such as requesting an immediate password change.
How to protect from Spear Phishing
Stop Spear Phishing requires the combination of user common sense and cybersecurity tools. IBM, in its warnings about Spear Phishing, recommends several strategies:
Safety awareness training: Teach employees to recognize suspicious emails, avoid sharing too much on social networks and following internal policies such as verifying unusual payment requests for a second channel.
Identity and Access Management (IAM): Tools such as roles -based access control and multifactor authentication (MFA) can prevent attackers from accessing accounts, even if they get a password.
Cybersecurity controls:
- Email security tools, such as spam filters and safe catwalks, can help detect Spear Phishing emails.
- Antivirus software can neutralize malware infections.
- Segura and Firewalls web catwalks can block malicious websites.
- System and software patches close technical vulnerabilities.
- Device protection tools can prevent attackers from seizing them or proposing malware.
- Business security solutions help detect and respond to malicious network activity.
Verify applications: If you doubt the source of an email, verify with the person or the organization involved through a different media, such as a phone call.
Avoid clicking links: Instead of clicking links in an email, sail independently to the organization’s website and look for the necessary page.
Privacy Management in Social Networks: Be aware of the information you share online and adjust the privacy settings to the highest possible level.