What is Spear Phishing? – TechnoGsecurity.com

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What is Spear Phishing Attack?

Spear phishing is a phishing technique targeted toward a specific individual, organization, or business and is usually tailored to contain context relevant to the target.

Social engineering is the fundamental tool that bad actors use to carry out a successful attack.

This includes –

  • Offers that are too good to be true, 
  • A sense of urgency, and 
  • Relevant scenarios that may be tailored specifically to you.
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The intention behind spear phishing is nothing but to steal data for illegal purposes, bad actors or cyber criminals may also be intended to install malware on a targeted computer.

Cybercriminals have a wide array of playbooks to assist them in carrying out an attack. In part, this is why spear phishing is a widely used vector.

Blockchain bridge, Horizon, revealed that cybercriminals stole $100 million in the form of cryptocurrency. Security researchers speculate the breach resulted from a “private key compromise”, where hackers obtained the password needed to gain access to a crypto wallet.

To understand spear phishing better you need to understand the targeted attack first. Then you will be able to connect the dots. Let’s understand what a targeted attack is and how malicious actors use this intended to steal data for malicious purposes, cybercriminals may also intend to install malware on a targeted user’s computer.

What is Targeted Attack?

Targeted attacks are aimed toward a specific individual, organization, or business and are usually tailored to contain context relevant to the target.
Conducting any targeted attacks required a lot of research on their subject, cybercriminals collect their personal information, their interest areas, and whatnot. Based on the gathered information they craft an attack to trick their victim. Social engineering techniques are commonly used to execute the attack.

Social engineering techniques play a major role in order to have any malicious code installed on the victim’s computer. Phishing technique is quite popular to gain the confidence of the victim by sending them a Job offer letter over email, any big discount on online purchases, and many more.
As soon as the victim clicks on the attachment or a URL, the payload or a malicious code gets executed on their system. Cybercriminals then control the victim’s computer remotely and exfiltrate the data in a stealthy manner.
                         What is Social Engineering Attackswww.technogsecurity.com
                         What Is A Whaling Attack ?www.technogsecurity.com

How to Prevent Spear Phishing Attacks?

It is quite easy to prevent yourself from Spear Phishing or any other social engineering attacks, you only need to make a habit of looking at the emails or anything coming to you offering which is too good to be true, always look such things suspiciously and think twice before doing any action.


Refer below best practices or recommendations to prevent yourself from Spear Phishing Attacks.

  • Limit yourself from clicking on links or downloading attachments in emails, especially for the emails arrived from unknown sources.
  • Stop flaunting your personal life on social media platforms, hackers are good at researching on their targets to impersonate them.
  • Follow a thumb rule not to click/open an emails with attachments or URLs coming from unknown sources.
  • Recognize the fundamental techniques used in spear phishing emails, such as Job offer letters, Background verification, tax-related fraud, business email compromise scams, and other social engineering techniques.
  • Beware of unsolicited email and unexpected emails, especially those call for urgency. Always verify with the person involved through a second factor of communication, such as phone calls or in person conversation. No harm to vet the senders’ authenticity and /or the email domain.
  • Utilize a good internet security solution or antispam protection in order to block the threats that arrive via emails. 

Conclusion

Spear phishing is nothing but the special type of phishing attack, to prevent yourself from spear phishing you need to be more vigilant and perform all the necessary due diligence before performing any action. Please refer above preventive measures provided to safeguard yourself from Spear phishing. 
If you have any questions, feel free to ask us by posting your questions in the comment box below. We’ll make all our efforts to respond to your questions as soon as possible.

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