Spear phishing is an electronic communications scam that targets specific individuals, organizations, or companies.
Although this is primarily intended to steal data for criminal purposes, cybercriminals may also plan to install malware on the attacked computer.
And that is how it works:
An email arrives that appears to come from a trusted source. However, it actually redirects the user to a fake website full of malware. With these emails, scammers are often very clever in order to get their victims' attention. For example, the FBI has warned of spear phishing scams in which emails purported to come from the National Center for Missing and Abused Children.
Hackers and hacktivists paid by governments are often behind these attacks. Cybercriminals use similar scams, offering sensitive data to governments and private companies to buy back. They use customized methods and social engineering techniques to tailor messages and websites to each victim. This is how it happens that even high-level goals, e.g. B. senior employees of companies, open emails that are considered trustworthy. Such an oversight then allows cybercriminals to obtain the information they need to attack the corporate network.
Recommended protective measures
Traditional security measures are often unable to prevent this type of attack because the attacks are so cleverly tailored to the targets. It follows that they are very difficult to detect. An employee's mistake can have serious consequences for companies, governments and even nonprofit organizations. With stolen data, fraudsters could e.g. B. make confidential business data public, manipulate stock market prices or carry out various types of espionage. Additionally, in spear phishing attacks, they can install malware to take over computers, making them part of a so-called botnet that can be used for distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
To prevent spear phishing attempts, employees must identify the threats, e.g. B. know fake emails. In addition to education and training, specialized technology is required to improve email security.
Source: Kaspersky labs
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