Phishing attacks are some of the most common cyberattacks in existence. One of the reasons for their ubiquity is that these attacks are easy to perform — requiring the attacker to just craft and send a malicious message — but still have a reasonable probability of success.
Phishing’s popularity also means that various types of phishing attacks have been developed. One of the most significant distinctions is between phishing and spear phishing attacks, which differ in the number of potential targets and the level of personalization built into the attack.
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A phishing attack is a form of social engineering attack in which the attacker sends a malicious message to the intended recipient. This message may use trickery, coercion, or psychological manipulation to get the recipient to perform some action. Often, this includes clicking on a malicious link or opening an infected attachment; however, some attacks — like business email compromise (BEC) attacks — use no malicious content and solely attempt to get the user to perform an action — such as paying a fake invoice.
Phishing attacks come in a variety of different forms, including:
Phishing is one of the most common cyberattacks and is often used to gain initial access to enable other attacks. Anyone can be the target of a phishing attack in both their corporate and private lives.
Spear phishing is a particular type of phishing attack that targets a specific individual or group. These attacks are designed to have a higher success rate than more general phishing attacks since they are more personalized and draw on realistic details.
Spear phishing attacks use many of the same techniques as general phishing ones but are based on more research and planning. The attacker will investigate their intended target and select a pretext that the victim is likely to believe. These phishing messages may also be made more plausible using spoofed email addresses, dynamic URLs, and similar techniques.
 
Like other phishing attacks, spear phishing emails are designed to steal data or act as a first step in a cyberattack. The phishing email may carry invoices targeted to the individual or organization, suggest that a password change is needed for a corporate application, or carry malware customized to the organization’s environment and systems.
Phishing and spear phishing attacks both use the same general tools and techniques. Both use trickery or psychological manipulation to induce the recipient to perform some action. They can both use various media — email, SMS, etc. — as well.
The main difference between phishing and spear phishing is the level of personalization and research involved in the attack. General phishing emails are part of mass campaigns in which the pretext is designed to appeal to as many potential targets as possible. These emails have a low success rate but can make up for this in volume.
 
Spear phishing, on the other hand, uses a more targeted, personalized pretext. This increases the probability of success but has a smaller pool of potential targets. These attacks may be performed by more sophisticated attackers or be used by nation-states to advance their goals or target certain organizations.
Phishing and spear phishing attacks are common tactics for attackers attempting to gain access to an organization’s systems. With malware installed on a system or stolen credentials, an attacker can perform follow-on attacks.
Email security solutions can be a valuable tool for phishing prevention, scanning email contents and attachments for malicious functionality or links. To learn more about the state of email security tools, check out the Forrester Wave for Enterprise Email Security 2023.
Check Point Harmony Email and Office provides robust protection against phishing attacks across multiple different media, not just email. Learn more about Harmony Email and Office and how Check Point’s anti-phishing solutions can help to protect your organization.
 

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