Spear phishing presents a much greater threat than phishing in general as the targets are often high-level executives of large corporations. Many times, government-sponsored hackers and hacktivists are behind these attacks… Instead, have your employees visit the site in question…directly. Examples of Spear Phishing. These documents have a wide range of sensitive information that can be used for various forms of identity theft. In the online account, employees can check if the organization is handing out the same instructions contained in the email. That way, they can customise their communications and appear more authentic. The difference between phishing and spear phishing may be evident, but the difference between spear phishing and legitimate emails may not be. And if the URL doesn’t look reputable or contains errors, your employees should never click it. I’d encourage you to have your employees read what happened—and schedule a team discussion on how to better protect your business. Spear Phishing . So, strictly speaking, the Twitter attack was more a vishing (voice phishing) social engineering attack than a spear phishing attack, although that is what it has been called in the press. This attack is a perfect example of how a simple, deceitful email and web page can lead to a breach. Here’s how DMARC.org describes what this safeguard can do for email messages: “Receivers supply senders with information about their mail authentication infrastructure while senders tell receivers what to do when a message is received that does not authenticate.”. Epsilon … Once your employee discloses sensitive information or responds to a spear phishing email, an actual hacker may become involved. This month, our client was one of their victims. Spear-phishing targets a specific person or enterprise instead of a wide group. At the center of the discussion was a payment (to the vendor) that was worth tens of thousands of dollars. Spear phishing uses the same methods as the above scams, but it targets a specific individual. That means picking up the phone and calling the person who is requesting the payment. Copyright © 2020 Proactive IT. “Spear phishing is a much more customized attack that appears to be from someone you’re familiar with.” And it’s gaining momentum: Spear-phishing attacks increased 620 percent between February 2016 and February 2018, according to AppRiver research. The same Russian hacking group, ‘the Dukes,’ sent out emails from Gmail accounts and possibly a compromised email account from Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Science. In one spear phishing example we saw, a hacker pretended to be the CEO of a company. A type of phishing attack that focuses on a single user or department within an organization, addressed from someone within the company in a position of trust and requesting information such as login IDs and passwords.Spear phishing … Attackers will gather publicly available information on targets prior to launching a spear phishing attack and will use those personal details to impersonate targets’ friends, relatives, coworkers or other trusted contacts. For example, the letter “W” might be replaced with the Russian character “ш” How to Prevent a Spear Phishing Attack. Phishing emails can also be used to trick a user into clicking on a malicious attachment or link that is embedded into an email. That way, the attackers can customize their communications and appear more authentic. And a spear phishing attack was launched. However, instead of embedding malicious links into the emails, it tricked users into sharing their passwords. They saw the discussion that was taking place. Criminals are using breached accounts. Adversaries may send spearphishing emails with a malicious link in an attempt to gain access to victim systems. The more likely of the two is the hackers would sell this data on dark-web forums, allowing other cybercriminals to do as they please with this information. Think again! Spear phishing emails can address an individual specifically and can even contain information that makes it look real and valid, such as information that may only pertain to you or a specific audience. Phishing comes in many forms, from spear phishing, whaling and business-email compromise to clone phishing, vishing and snowshoeing. The … Spear-phishing attacks are becoming more dangerous than other phishing attack vectors. This time, the purpose is sending deceptive emails. For most people, spear phishing emails may sound simple and vague, but it has evolved to its whole new levels, and it cannot be traced and tracked without prior knowledge. Spear phishing targets specific individuals instead of a wide group of people. How Does Spear Phishing Work? The emails ‘urgently asked for the W-2s of all employees working under them.’ By impersonating the CEO of these companies, hackers experienced a ton of success as no one wants to disappoint or keep their CEO waiting on a request. Spear phishing, unlike phishing attacks, which target a large audience and are often distributed by botnets, targets very specific individuals, as I mentioned, within a financial department … It doesn’t matter if your employee received an email with Microsoft branding and logos that said, “Click here to visit your Microsoft Outlook account.” That doesn’t mean Microsoft sent the URL. Clicking on the link brought victims to a fake webmail domain where they entered their credentials which then gave the hackers the keys to their email. State-Sponsored Phishing Attacks. The hacker will attempt to use the sensitive information he stole to manipulate your employee into transferring money. Don’t allow expediency to enable a hacker to steal your hard-earned revenue. To make these kinds of emails appear true-to-life, hackers alter the “from” field. The attacker spoofs the original sender's email address. But instances of spear … Keep in mind that this doesn’t completely guarantee security. In contrast, more sophisticated phishers do their homework, then specifically target certain groups, organizations, or people. Amazon is so popular on a worldwide level that most cybercriminals don’t have to go to much effort to trick their users; the majority of phishing attempts are generic. What most people don’t know is the DNC email system was breached through spear phishing emails. You might think your company is immune to compromised data security. Any wire transfer your company completes should be based on human confirmation, not an email thread. Spear phishing attacks could also target you on multiple messaging platforms. Here’s a rundown of some of those attacks, what’s been happening and the cost to the companies that got attacked. 4.2.3.1.1 Spear-phishing attack. This allows the hackers to carry out a large range of commands including the uploading and downloading of files, remote wiping of files and accessing details about the infected machine, its user, and the network it runs on. The less-likely option is the hackers could attempt to file your taxes before you, and collect on your tax refund. The crook will register a fake domain that … Spear-phishing targets a specific person or enterprise instead of a wide group. I don’t care if you’re a small business, a medium-sized firm, or a 1,000-employee corporation. (At Proactive IT, this is actually something we offer. If you’re located in Charlotte, we’d be happy to discuss how we can assist in employee education. Spear Phishing . The hackers choose to target customers, vendors who have been the victim of other data breaches. And even though our client had ironclad network security, the vendor’s breach gave the hacker access to our client’s sensitive information. This shows just how hard it is to identify and properly respond to targeted email threats. This technique targets C-suite posts like CEO, CFO, COO – or any other senior management positions – who are considered to be big players in the information chain of any organization, commonly known as “whales” in phishing terms. 30% of phishing emails get opened – hackers are able to send out thousands of emails at a time! Phishing campaigns are the #1 delivery method for distributing malware, There was a 250% surge in phishing campaigns between 2015 and 2016. Somehow, a hacker had gained access to an email account…perhaps by impersonating a reputable organization or person. In this second step, hackers still rely upon bots. Impersonating Outsiders. Usually, cybercriminals pretend to be an organization or individual that you know, and include a piece of content—a link, an email attachment, etc.—that they know you’ll want to interact with. Someone in the DNC received and opened one of the attachments which enabled the hacking group to do the following: The second attack began in the spring of 2016 and also used a spear phishing campaign. It’s difficult to detect a phishing scam, but it’s possible. Whaling. Here are some 2016 statistics on phishing attacks. An attacker becomes aware of a sensitive internal project at a target organization. Attackers often research their victims on social media and other sites. … The “CEO” might ask the employee to disclose some kind of sensitive information…perhaps under a legitimate guise. Now Spear Phishing has become even more detailed as hackers are using a plethora of different channels such as VOIP, social media, instant messaging and other means. Why would the hackers want the information from W-2s? Between March and December of 2016, 9 out of 10 phishing emails contained ransomware. Treat every email with caution. hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(604281, '31c97df3-9d9d-4edf-af54-ce33768c89e6', {}); © Copyright WatchPoint Data, All Rights Reserved   |   Terms. I’m not even immune from the threat. The hacker messaged our client through email and impersonated our client’s vendor. An attack costing $1.6 million could cripple almost any small or medium sized business! You are a global administrator or security administrator In Attack Simulator, two different types of spear phishing campaigns are available: 1. They exploit people who need to get stuff done. By doing this, hackers attempt to appear more trustworthy as a legitimate business entity thus making the target less suspicious. In this widespread form of spear-phishing, an … The emails were disguised as messages from several entities including the Center for New American Security (CNAS), Transparency International, the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), and the Eurasia Group. Email phishing. There is no shortcut to testing your defenses against a ransomware attack. They can gather the information they need to seem plausible by researching the … This attack is a perfect example of how a simple, deceitful email and web page can lead to a breach. An example of a Spear Phishing Attack that could occur is say you share online that you will be traveling to Atlanta soon, and you might get an email from a colleague (apparently), saying “Hey, while you’re in Atlanta you’ve got to eat at Ladybird, check out their menu.” For example, in these types of scenarios, the Cyber attacker will send out an E-Mail from the Red Cross asking … I mentioned this in another blog, but it bears repeating. The hacker had purchased a domain that was nearly identical to the vendor’s domain and had created an email address. These attackers often … If your employee can’t see this, it’s easy for a hacker to trick him into disclosing sensitive information…which then leads to the final step of the attack. Hackers employ bots to harvest publicly available information. “Weidenhammer has been victim of a spear phishing event that has resulted in the transfer of 100 … How to avoid a spear-phishing attack. If you’re a decision-maker, it’s your responsibility to create a standard operating procedure for sending money. For instance, a bot might collect data from your company website…or even your LinkedIn account. CEO Fraud Model. Spearphishing with a link is a specific variant of spearphishing. Examples of spear phishing Spear phishing attempts targeting businesses. And it’s unrecoverable. In the same way, you might consider putting your employees’ to the test when it comes to spear phishing. And it’s one reason we offer employee training on cybersecurity. Ransomware Decrypters | Where to Find the Antidote, © Copyright WatchPoint Data, All Rights Reserved   |, Small and Medium Enterprises Cybersecurity, Export emails to the attacker’s server via an encrypted connection, 85% of organizations suffered a phishing attack in 2016. For example, the FBI has warned of spear phishing scams where the emails appeared to be from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. I don’t think our client will get their money back. What makes this a Phishing message? On a business level, they could pretend to be a CEO of a company you work for and request to immediately transfer funds for a “new project.” Spear-phishing attacks … Spear phishing is a phishing attack that targets a specific individual or group of individuals. Similarities between the two addresses offer the impression of a secure link, making the recipient less aware that an attack is taking place. They pushed some key psychological buttons. Phishing Attack Examples. And there are several things you can do to prevent a spear phishing attack. From lost revenue to wasted time, you can imagine the damage our client has suffered from this spear phishing attack. There is no shortcut to testing your defenses against a ransomware attack. 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