The Key Differences Between Phishing and Spear Phishing

Phishing and spear phishing are two of the most common and dangerous cybersecurity threats facing businesses and individuals today. While they may seem similar on the surface, there are some critical differences between the two that are important to understand. In this blog post, we’ll dive into what phishing and spear phishing are, the key differences between them, and how businesses and individuals can defend against these attacks.

What is Phishing?

Phishing is a broad cyber attack where a hacker sends fraudulent messages, typically emails, to a large number of people in an attempt to trick them into revealing sensitive information like login credentials, financial information, or other confidential data. These messages often appear to come from a legitimate organisation, such as a bank, government agency, or well-known company.

The NCSC have written an article about Phishing and Business Email Compromise (BEC) because it’s currently the largest form of Cyber Attack. It highlights attacks on senior executives and budget holders, explain the fact that small organisations are at risk because they don’t invest in protection.

The goal of a phishing attack is to get the recipient to click on a malicious link or attachment, which can then install malware on their device or direct them to a fake website designed to steal their information. Using this technique, threat actors cast a wide net, sending out thousands or even millions of these messages, knowing that even a small percentage of recipients falling for the scam can be highly profitable.

What is Spear Phishing?

Spear phishing is a more targeted and personalised form of this Cyber Attack. Instead of sending generic messages to a broad audience, spear phishers conduct research on their intended victims and craft highly customised messages that appear to come from a trusted source, such as a colleague, business partner, or senior executive.

The goal of this type attack is the same as a standard phishing attack – to trick the recipient into revealing sensitive information or installing malware. However, the personalised nature of spear phishing messages makes them much more convincing and harder to detect.

The Key Differences

The main differences between phishing and spear phishing are:

1. Targeting: Phishing attacks are broad and indiscriminate, while spear phishing attacks are highly targeted and personalised.
2. Information gathering: Threat actors invest significant time and effort into researching their victims and crafting convincing messages, whereas phishers use a more generic, one-size-fits-all approach.
3. Sophistication: Spear phishing attacks are often more sophisticated and harder to detect than standard phishing attempts, as they leverage personal information and appear to come from trusted sources.
4. Success rate: Spear phishing attacks tend to have a higher success rate than phishing attacks, as the personalised nature of the messages makes them more convincing.

Spear Phishing Techniques Targeting UK Businesses

Spear phishers often use a variety of techniques to target UK businesses, including:

1. Invoices and payments: Attackers may impersonate a supplier or customer and request an invoice be paid to a different bank account.
2. Fake employee requests: Hackers may pose as a senior executive or IT support staff member and ask an employee to update their bank details or make an urgent wire transfer.
3. Phony legal threats: Spear phishers may send messages claiming to be from a law firm or government agency, threatening legal action unless a fee is paid.
4. Exploiting current events: Attackers may leverage timely news or events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, to create a sense of urgency and credibility.

How to Spot and Defend Against Phishing and Spear Phishing

To protect your UK business from phishing and spear phishing attacks, it’s important to educate your employees on the warning signs and implement robust security measures, such as:

1. Email security software: Deploy spam filters, antivirus, and anti-phishing solutions to detect and block malicious messages. See more here; Email Security
2. Phishing training: Regularly train your employees to recognise the hallmarks these types of Cyber Attacks, such as suspicious sender addresses, unusual requests, and malicious links or attachments. There’s training available for this as well, it’s great modular learning and can be tailored to different industries. See more here; Email Phishing Training
3. Verification protocols: Establish clear procedures for verifying changes to payment instructions or sensitive information, such as calling the supposed sender directly or enforcing a policy to initiate changes, such as the requester has to put a ticket in via work email, and then has to provide verbal confirmation when the change is being conducted in real time.
4. Multi-factor authentication: Require employees to use strong, unique passwords and enable two-factor authentication on all critical accounts. Rotate these passwords as well every 60-90 days and use Single Sign On where possible, with conditional access applied to accounts.
5. Incident response plan: Develop a plan for responding to and mitigating the impact of a successful phishing or spear phishing attack, including steps for reporting the incident and restoring systems and data.

By staying vigilant, educating your team, and implementing robust security measures, you can significantly reduce the risk of your UK business falling victim to these devastating cyber threats. Getting bit once could make or break a businesses reputation.