Whale phishing, much like spear phishing is a targeted phishing attack. Now, it's not always possible to know what's fake. The first thing to know is that whaling and spear-phishing aren’t actually different practices – they both involve targeting a phishing attack to an individual recipient. If you’re reading this blog you probably already know a good bit about security. All rights reserved Cookie Policy Privacy and Legal Modern Slavery Statement. The difference between phishing, spear-phishing and whaling attacks is on the scale of personalization. Scammers design them to look like a critical business email or something from someone with authority, either externally or even internally, from the company itself. It targets high-ranking, high-value target (s) in a specific organization who have a high level of authority and access to critical company data. Their differences are highlighted below. While most people know about deceptive phishing attacks, they are unawar… The targeted nature of spear phishing attacks makes them difficult to detect. However, whaling campaigns specifically go after executives and high-level employees. The difference between whaling and spear phishing is that whaling exclusively targets high-ranking individuals within an organization, while spear phishing usually goes after a category of individuals with a lower profile. Like spear phishing, this type of attack includes research on the attacker’s part. The following example illustrates a spear phishing attack’s progression and potential consequences: Spear phishing, phishing and whaling attacks vary in their levels of sophistication and intended targets. "Whaling" is used when a high-ranking manager is taken into sight. A type of spear phishing, generally oriented for bigger professionals than low-level employees, like CEO’s or CTO’s of any organizations. In truth, the linked software was a keylogger that secretly recorded the CEOs passwords and forwarded those passwords to the con men. The attacker sends emails on issues of critical business importance, masquerading as an individual or organization with legitimate authority. What happens behind the scenes is that when you enter your information into the fake site (which can't log you in because it isn't real), the information you entered is sent to the attacker, and then you're redirected to the real website. Whaling emails are highly customized for specific persons. They believed it would download a special browser add-on to view the entire subpoena. Whaling targets CEO’s, CFO’s, and other high-level executives. While similar to phishing and whaling attacks, spear phishing is launched in a unique way and its targets differ from other social engineering assaults. Spear phishing is a social engineering attack in which a perpetrator, disguised as a trusted individual, tricks a target into clicking a link in a spoofed email, text message or instant message. It's different from ordinary phishing in that with whaling, the emails or web pages serving the scam take on a more severe or formal look and are usually targeting someone in particular. In spear phishing, the attack is targeted toward a specific company or even an individual. from users. This confidential information might include login credentials, credit & debit card details, and other sensitive data. It uses the same approach as regular spear phishing, in that the attacker purports to be an individual the recipient knows or trusts. Spear Phishing and Whaling both are different type of Email phishing attacks that attackers use to steal your confidential information. With spear phishing the data thieves will only have one target – whether it’s an individual, a business, or an organization. Whaling is a form of spear-phishing, a form of phishing which targets a particular individual to gain sensitive personal or business information. Phishing attacks come in three different varieties: deceptive, spear phishing and whaling. During 2019, 80% of organizations have experienced at least one successful cyber attack. Learn how Perception Point prevents phishing, spear-phishing, whaling, and any other impersonation attacks from getting to your employees’ mailboxes. «Spear Phishing»: personalized attacks Last but not least, phishing has become more specialized. As a result, the target unwittingly reveals sensitive information, installs malicious programs (malware) on their network or executes the first stage of an advanced persistent threat (APT), to name a few of the possible consequences. As a result, each of the 2000 compromised companies was hacked even further now that the attackers had the information they needed. Training materials can feature real-life examples of spear phishing, with questions designed to test employee knowledge. Spear-phishing and Whaling With 91% of all cybercrimes and cyber-attacks starting with a phishing email, a phishing attack is not a question of if – but when. 2FA helps secure login to sensitive applications by requiring users to have two things: something they know, such as a password and user name, and something they have, such as a smartphone or cryptographic token. When 2FA is used, even if a password is compromised using a technique like spear phishing, it’s of no use to an attacker without the physical device held by the real user. The easiest way to protect yourself from falling for a whaling scam is to be aware of what you click. "Whaling" is a specific form of phishing that targets high-profile business executives, managers, and the like. Yes, unfortunately, managers often fall for whaling email scams. These are more planned and sophisticated attacks. Whaling, like any phishing con game, involves a web page or email that masquerades as one that's legitimate and urgent. In this attack, the hacker attempts to manipulate the target. Instead of a link, the phishing scam might have you download a program to view a document or image. The goal might be high-value money transfers or trade secrets. Spear phishing mitigation. The whaling attempt might look like a link to a regular website with which you're familiar. The point is to swindle someone in upper management into divulging confidential company information. This list defines phishing, spear-phishing, clone phishing, and whaling. Trusted logos and links to known destinations are enough to trick many people into sharing their details. At the same time, a command and control agent is installed on the sysadmin’s machine, which can then be used as a backdoor into the enterprise’s network to execute the first stage of an APT. The key difference between whaling and spear-phishing is that whaling attacks target specific, high ranking victims within a company, whereas a spear-phishing attacks can be used to target any individual. Copyright © 2020 Imperva. Similar to Spear Phishing is Whaling. If there is spear phishing, did you know there is another term related to it called whaling? What is Phishing? Vishing is a form of phishing that uses the phone system or voice over IP (VoIP) technologies. Whaling is another malicious, naughty member of the Social Engineering family which also includes phishing, spear-phishing, baiting, pretexting, watering holes and tailgating. 4: Target: Spear Phishing targets low profile individuals. As in Spear Phishing, the attacker is familiar with the target. Sometimes, you get a new email from someone that you've never emailed before, and they might send you something that seems entirely legitimate. In the case of whaling, the masquerading web page/email will take a more serious executive-level form. Spear phishing is a more specific … and targeted phishing attack that targets companies. This is usually a C-level employee, like a Chief Executive or Chief Financial Officer. The attacker disguises as a trusted party and deceives the victim into opening an email or a text message. The targeted nature of spear phishing attacks makes them difficult to detect. Whale phishing is aimed at wealthy, powerful, or influential individuals. Whereas phishing scams target non-specific individuals and spear-phishing targets particular individuals, whaling doubles down on the latter by not only targeting those key individuals, but doing so in a way that the fraudulent communications they are sent appear to have come from someone specifically senior or influential at their organization. For example, an attacker may send an email to a CEO requesting payment, pretending to be a client of the company. However, if you're not careful, what happens next is the problem. In those cases, the phishing email/site looks pretty standard, whereas, in whaling, the page design addresses the manager/executive under attack explicitly. The end-game in all phishing attacks like whaling is to scare the recipient, to convince them that they need to take action to proceed, like to avoid legal fees, to prevent from getting fired, to stop the company from bankruptcy, etc. Spear phishing emails, on the other hand, are more challenging to detect because they appear to come from sources close to the target. Depending on how influential the individual is, this targeting could be considered whaling. A whaling attack is a spear phishing attack against a high-level executive. Whaling is a form of spear phishing aimed at “whales” at the top of the food chain. One example of such a policy is to instruct employees to always enter a false password when accessing a link provided by email. As a result, the attack deserves special attention when formulating your application security strategy. … What is Whaling? Scammers design them to look like a critical business email or something from someone with authority, either externally or even internally, from the company itself. See how Imperva Web Application Firewall can help you with spear phishing attacks. or Spear phishing and whaling. Whaling, like any phishing con game, involves a web page or email that masquerades as one that's legitimate and urgent. Phishing involves sending malicious emails from supposed trusted sources to as many people as possible, assuming a low response rate. Whaling focuses on fetching trade secrets which can affect a company's performance. Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day, How Whaling Is Different From Other Phishing Scams. An Imperva security specialist will contact you shortly. Phishing emails are impersonal, sent in bulk and often contain spelling errors or other mistakes that reveal their malicious intent. For example, a phishing email might purport to be from PayPal and ask a recipient to verify their account details by clicking on an enclosed link, which leads to the installation of malware on the victim’s computer. Spear-Phishing vs. Phishing vs. Whaling. However, the attacker now has your username and password to the website to which you thought you logged in. 1. In this Clip you'll learn about phishing, spear phishing and whaling. Whaling and spear phishing scams differ from ordinary phishing scams in that they target businesses using information specific to the business that has been obtained elsewhere. Scammers attacked about 20,000 corporate CEOs, and approximately 2000 of them fell for the whaling scam by clicking the link in the email. a targeted attempt to steal sensitive information such as account credentials or financial information from a specific victim Home > Learning Center > AppSec > Spear Phishing. … In this type of phishing attack, … the attacker takes time to get to know the company … by collecting publicly available information on the company. And as the imagery suggests, whaling is a type of spear phishing that targets highly valuable individuals and organisations. In contrast to bulk phishing, spear phishing attackers often gather and use personal information about their target to increase their probability of success. Flexible and predictable licensing to secure your data and applications on-premises and in the cloud. But for those of you who are just getting started in this field, or those who want to learn a little more about the types of phishing… The whaling email or website may come in the form of a false subpoena, a fake message from the FBI, or some sort of critical legal complaint. Spear phishing and whaling. This type of cyber attack is big business for the hackers. While whaling attacks target high-level individuals, spear phishing is aimed at low-profile targets. For example, theInternal Revenue Service (IRS)is currently warning people against falling for a new deceptive phishing attack during this tax season. They are common and sent to many different people at once. For perspective, regular non-whaling phishing is usually an attempt to get someone's login information to a social media site or bank. The program, whether real or not, has a malicious undertone to track everything you type or delete things from your computer. With that in mind, what is whaling? It probably asks for your login information just like you'd expect. If attackers want to hone in their target even more than a spear phishing attack, they launch a whaling campaign. Whaling attacks always personally address targeted individuals, often using their title, position and phone number, which are obtained using company websites, social media or the press. If they call, an automated recording prompts them to provide detailed information to verify their account such as credit card number, expiration date, birthdate, and so on.The biggest protection is education and up-to-date antivirus software. The scammer sends a personalised email to either a group of employees or a specific executive officer or senior manager. How Do I Protect Myself From Whaling Attacks? Spear Phishing: It is the type of phishing which targets specific person or organization. We kid you not! These emails try to gain identification information, such as social security numbers. The content will target an upper manager like the CEO or even just a supervisor that might have lots of pull in the company or who might have credentials to valuable accounts. Long-term action, precision and well-rehearsed attacks are organized. Gartner Magic Quadrant for WAF 2020 (Full Report), Imperva A Seven-Time Magic Quadrant Leader and Named Highest for Completeness of Vision for WAF, CrimeOps of the KashmirBlack Botnet - Part I, CrimeOps of the KashmirBlack Botnet - Part II, Advanced Bot Protection Handling More Traffic Than Ever, SQL (Structured query language) Injection, Reflected cross site scripting (XSS) attacks, Distinguish spear phishing vs. phishing and whaling attacks, Learn about spear phishing protection from Imperva, A spoofed email is sent to an enterprise’s sysadmin from someone claiming to represent, After clicking on the link, the sysadmin is redirected to a login page on. The Apple Phishing Scam: What It Is and How to Protect Yourself, Spoofing: What It Is And How To Protect Yourself Against It, Why We Fall for Texting Scams (and How to Stop), The Craigslist Text Scam: What It Is and How to Protect Yourself From It, The Amazon Text Scam: What It Is and How to Protect Yourself From It, Spear Phishing: What It Is and How to Protect Yourself. Could a Cyber Attack Knock Out Your Computer? No harm was done, right? In a nutshell, spear phishing and whaling attacks are very different in terms of their sophistication levels and the victims they target. You just entered your password incorrectly — that's the scam, though! Contact Us. Whaling. At the organizational level, enterprises can raise awareness and actively train employees, highlighting spear phishing attacks as an important threat. Imperva offers two solutions that can help secure against phishing attempts, including spear phishing: +1 (866) 926-4678 3: Designing: Spear Phishing emails are prepared for a group of people. The difference between whaling and spear phishing is that whaling exclusively targets high-ranking individuals within an organization, while spear phishing usually goes after a category of individuals with a lower profile. In a regular phishing scam, the web page/email might be a faked warning from your bank or PayPal. This form of Phishing is used to target upper level corporate management in an attempt to obtain restricted internal information. Even law firms have fallen victim to such attempted “spear phishing” and “whaling” attacks. This usually comes in the form of a password to a sensitive account, which the attacker can then access to gain more data. However, if you look at the URL in your web browser and make sure to look around the site, even briefly, for things that look a little off, you can significantly decrease your chances of being attacked in this way. Phishing, spear phishing, business email compromise, whaling – a definition As we mention in our Cybersecurity Glossary , phishing refers to “ a malicious technique used by cybercriminals to gather sensitive information (credit card data, usernames and passwords, etc.) Since whaling occurs over emails and websites, you can avoid all malicious links by understanding what's real and what isn't. When you try to submit your information into the login fields, a notification appears stating that the information was incorrect and that you should try again. Share. Whaling. You try your password again, and it works out just fine. Most people are used to seeing deceptivephishing emails. “Whales” are usually high-ranking victims within a well-known, lucrative company. Whaling attacks may take weeks or months to prepare, and as a result the emails used in the attacks can be very convincing. Whaling is like spearphishing, but with a greater purpose — specifically targeting individuals of high rank or status. It's that simple. Whaling uses deceptive email messages targeting high-level decision makers within an organization, such as CEOs, CFOs, and other executives. Take the 2008 FBI subpoena whaling scam as an example. Employees who are aware of spear phishing are less likely to fall victim to an attack. Spear phishing focuses on stealing login credentials/ sensitive information. Spear Phishing And Whaling. Phishing is the least personalized, whaling is the most, and spear-phishing lies between. A prudent password management policy should take steps to prevent employees from using corporate access passwords on fake external websites. However, several risk prevention measures can help, including two-factor authentication (2FA), password management policies and educational campaigns. “Imperva prevented 10,000 attacks in the first 4 hours of Black Friday weekend with no latency to our online customers.”. Cyber-criminals send personalized emails to particular individuals or groups of people with something in common, such as employees working in the same department. Paul Gil, a former Lifewire writer who is also known for his dynamic internet and database courses and has been active in technology fields for over two decades. Phishing attempts directed at specific individuals or companies is known as spear phishing. Phishing: What It Is and How to Protect Yourself Against It, The Netflix Scam: What It Is and How to Protect Yourself From It, AT&T Scams: What They Are and How to Protect Yourself From Them, How to Report a Phishing Email in Outlook.com, The Cash App Scam: What It Is and How to Protect Yourself, Twitter Scams: How to Identify Them And Protect Yourself, The Walmart Text Scam: What It Is and How to Protect Yourself From It. Such individuals have access to highly valuable information, including trade secrets and passwords to administrative company accounts. At this point, you have no idea that the page was fake and that someone just stole your password. A legitimate website won’t accept a false password, but a phishing site will. Whaling is a type of spear phishing. Whaling is a form of spear phishing that specifically goes after high-level-executive target victims. The faked page might frighten the target with claims that their account has been charged or attacked, and that they must enter their ID and password to confirm the charge or to verify their identity. Example of a phishing email – click to enlarge. Do Executives and Managers Really Fall for These Whaling Emails? The problem is that not everyone notices these subtle hints. Spear-Phishing and Whaling Make Scams More Targeted Not only are these threats not going away, they are getting more sophisticated with the introduction of spear-phishing, which introduces social engineering to the mix to specifically target companies or even employees, making phishing attempts even more difficult to spot. The user may receive an email, a phone message, or even a text encouraging them to call a phone number due to some discrepancy. In this video, you will know what spear phishing is, and its difference from phishing and whaling. 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