Internet users know the various scamming techniques like phishing which is most common among scammers for duping users. Scammers use the technique as a disguise to impersonate some service and access your system to steal personal data and money. But scammers are constantly improving their deceiving techniques as users get used to the old techniques. To catch users unaware, scammers use a more advanced version of whaling phishing. While the basic phishing model primarily targets individuals, the improved phishing version aims at more lucrative targets like businesses and organizations for more significant gains.
How is Whaling Phishing Different From Phishing?
To understand better what is whale phishing let us look deeper into the method used by scammers to create more polished and effective phishing. The method of targeting victims using whale phishing is more specific and centered around only a few targets. Unlike phishing attacks that affect thousands of people at a time, the improved method targets only one organization or business based on information gathered from within the organization.
Before organizing a whaling attack, scammers spend a lot of time investigating the target by putting up close surveillance round the clock to gather valuable information that helps to breach the security cordon. They might study company info online, organizational hierarchies, and the pattern of information flow to identify the system’s vulnerability. Based on the information gathered, they create a plan for attack.
The Attacks Revolve Around Impersonation
At its core, a whaling attack depends on the basic technique of impersonating some people in the organization to have easy access to sensitive data. The person targeted by scammers could belong to any level of the organization, for an ordinary worker to the CEO and others in between. To execute the attack effectively, scammers usually target lower-level employees who are likely to fulfill a request without raising any doubt. For example, the scammer might pose as a senior accounts official drawing an employee’s attention to an invoice for immediate payment. The email could contain a link to some external website that facilitates stealing the credentials or sending instructions to the employee to make payment to an account created by the scammers.
Scammers might have a wide range of goals to fulfill by using the phishing technique, and it is tough for victims to identify the threat before the damage happens.
Spear Phishing
Advanced phishing techniques revolve around attacking specific targets and the reason for naming them spear phishing. It is similar to a fisherman targeting a specific fish, usually a prized catch. Scammers use the technique to extract money from big corporate companies, and the attacks are tailor-made. Since the victim is usually a lucrative and big target, the term whale helps describe the catch’s worth. Knowing the motive behind the attack provides enough justification for terming it a whaling attack.
Whaling phishing is nothing new and has been in use for decades. Nowadays, scammers use many advanced techniques to dupe individuals and organizations but still phishing remains a potent weapon to prey upon unsuspected victims.
