What is Phishing, Spear Phishing and Whaling?
Why you should secure your communication, manage your online identity and protect your data.
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These attacks employ social engineering – targeting well-researched individuals with clever impersonations, gaining trust to access sensitive data. How do they work and what can you do?
Phishing is a broad term for cyberattacks where attackers will send out fake messages, often via email, en masse, in the hope a few unwary people will bite. Attackers will impersonate trusted sources, such as banks or well-known companies, to trick individuals into revealing personal information such as passwords, credit card numbers or other sensitive data.
Spear Phishing targets specific individuals with tailored fraudulent contacts. Appearing as an incomplete payment, login detail resets, messages from senior staff members, or even a hacked client or colleague, making them difficult to detect. Often, a sense of urgency is employed to further deceive individuals into sharing confidential information.
Whaling, also known as whale phishing, focuses on high-profile individuals within an organisation, such as Managing Directors, CEOs, CFOs, or other executives. Sensitive data, login credentials and significant financial transactions are the primary goals. Due to the high stakes and the level of detail involved, these attacks can be particularly damaging and hard to catch!
Both types of attacks rely heavily on social engineering techniques to manipulate victims into taking actions that benefit the attacker. Staying vigilant and educating employees about these threats are key steps in protecting against them.
Don’t assume!
Never rush!
Communicate clearly!
Double-check all the details and think twice before sharing sensitive information!
While you can take steps to improve your team’s awareness, guarantee good habits and manage your personal identity online. It’s not worth the risk to go it alone.
While it helps to install the right anti-virus and anti-spam software, use multi-factor authentication, and conduct regular phishing tests. There could be a few threats sitting in your mailbox right now!
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