Spear phishing

The attacks called ‘spear phishing’ or ‘whaling’ use trickery and trust to convince users to click a link, which installs malicious code on their computer.  The attack used to steal the personal information of a specific target such as a senior government executive of a military officer.

After installing the malicious code, the attacker is able to collect valuable personal and professional data from the victim and at times allows them complete control of the affected computer.

This type of phishing has appeared as the damage caused by preexisting phishing attacks increased. The defining characteristic of spear phishing is that the attack is targeted on specific purpose.

Spear phishing poses a serious threat to corporations owing to the possibility of access to trade secrets and other classified information. Phisers constantly check the returns on various emails and modify their attacks, making it hard to create a set of rules that can be automatically applied to spot all spear phishing emails.

What all spear phishing attacks have in common is that they use some form of information about the potential victim in order to maximize the chances that he or she finds the ruse believable.

If a phisher collects personal information about a potential victim and tailors the attack to this information, then this constitutes a spear phishing attack.
Spear phishing