What Is Spear Phishing And How Does It Work

  Spear phishing is an intended direct attack which uses fraudulent emails to target particular organizations or persons. Cybercriminals who do this want to get pertinent information. They will use several ways to get by your anti-malware software. They can do this by impersonation, enticement and access bypass control. Cybercriminals who do this will try to fool you to open an attachment or click on a malicious embedded link. Spear phishing works because it seems to be believable. These criminal hackers want to gain access to your personal data. If you do not recognize a spear phishing attack, the hacker this can be become disastrous because these hackers can gain direct or indirect entry into your computer and steal your computer system passwords, data ( bank accounts ) and other important personal credentials.

   These hackers know a little information about you or any organization. The email  does not address the person in a formal manner. It will probably address you as. “ Hi Teddy. “ it will make you think that you know the person or he knows a mutual friend of yours. You may be caught unaware and provide this scrupulous hacker a bit of information. With companies the email may be asking for immediate action. You may act right away and that is really dangerous. These hackers will scan social networking sites and this is one way they can find information about companies and individuals. You may have bought something from a retail store on the internet.  They can use this information against you by pretending to be a friend. Some of them will ask you for your pass word to your social media sites like Twitter or Instagram.  If you tell them your password they will use it and try it on the retail website that you bought your product. If they are successful then your bill can go sky high.  When he gets the right information, he can also pretend to be somebody from the retailer shop. He will ask you to verify your credit card or reset your password. This can be very harmful.

   Spear phishing is a prelude to a targeted attack and this attack can jeopardize sensitive data. The company will experience data breaches. Companies can lose a lot of cash this way. Smaller companies are mostly targeted because they have fewer IT staff. Employees must be trained to identify doubtful emails, words that are misspelled and unusual words. For protection companies and individuals can use  known email inspector softwares that will help identify and block spear phishing emails at the start of it’s attack.