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Whaling Phishing vs. Regular Phishing: What’s the Difference and Why it Matters?

Both individuals and organizations are at risk of phishing attacks. A new form of phishing has emerged in recent years: whaling phishing. This highly sophisticated and targeted attack targets senior executives and high-level officials, putting sensitive information and valuable assets at risk. 

According to IBM’s data from 2021, phishing attacks increased by 2 percent between 2019 and 2020, partly due to COVID-19. Similarly, CISCO found that 86% of firms had at least one employee fall for a phishing scam in their 2021 research.

The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) recorded 1,025,968 unique phishing attacks in Q1 of 2022. For APWG, this is the worst quarter ever recorded, as it is the first time the quarterly total has been over one million.

But what exactly is whaling phishing, and how does it differ from regular phishing? 

Understanding the key differences between these two types of phishing attacks is crucial in today’s digital age, where the consequences of a successful attack can be devastating. 

This article will explore the differences between whaling phishing and regular phishing and why it is essential to be aware of these threats to protect yourself and your organization.

Whaling Phishing Vs. Regular Phishing: An Overview

What is Regular Phishing?

Social engineering, or regular phishing, involves tricking individuals into revealing sensitive information, like login credentials or financial information. The attacker often impersonates a trustworthy entity, such as a bank or government agency, and sends an email or message requesting information or a link to a fake website. 

Regular phishing attacks are often sent to large groups of people hoping that a small percentage will fall for the trick.

Related Read: How Can You Protect Yourself From Social Engineering? 

What is Whaling Phishing?

On the other hand, whaling phishing is a highly targeted form of phishing specifically aimed at senior executives and high-level officials within an organization. The attacker carefully researches their target, gathering information about their role, responsibilities, and habits to tailor the attack for maximum impact. 

Whaling phishing emails are often well-written and appear from a trusted source, making it easier for the target to fall for the trick.

Related Read: Whaling Cyber Awareness in 2023 

The Differences Between Whaling Phishing and Regular Phishing

Here’s a clear difference between both phishing types:

Targeting: Who is the attack aimed at?

One of the primary differences between whaling phishing and regular phishing is the level of targeting. Regular phishing attacks are sent to a large group of people, hoping a small percentage will fall for the trick.

On the other hand, whaling phishing is a highly targeted form of phishing specifically aimed at senior executives and high-level officials within an organization. The attacker carefully researches their target, gathering information about their role, responsibilities, and habits to tailor the attack for maximum impact.

Sophistication: The level of effort put into the attack

Another difference between whaling phishing and regular phishing is the level of sophistication. Regular phishing attacks are often simple, with the attacker relying on the target’s trust to reveal sensitive information. 

On the other hand, whaling phishing attacks are typically more elaborate and well-crafted, with the attacker using official logos, language, and email addresses that appear to be from a trusted source.

Information Targeted: What is the attacker after?

The type of information targeted by the attacker also differs between whaling phishing and regular phishing. In regular phishing attacks, the attacker is often after login credentials or financial information. 

In contrast, in whaling phishing attacks, the attacker is after sensitive corporate information such as trade secrets, confidential documents, or access to financial accounts.

Consequence: The potential impact of a successful attack

The consequences of a successful phishing attack can be severe, regardless of whether it is a regular or whaling phishing attack. However, the consequences of a successful whaling phishing attack are often even more devastating. 

The attacker can harm an organization’s reputation and cause significant financial losses by gaining access to sensitive corporate information.

Mode of Attack: How is the attack delivered?

Both whaling phishing and regular phishing attacks are often delivered through email or messages. Still, whaling phishing attacks may also involve phone calls or other forms of communication with the target.

Tactics Used: The methods used to trick the target

The tactics used to trick the target in whaling phishing, and regular phishing attacks can also vary. In regular phishing attacks, the attacker may use scare tactics or impersonate a trustworthy entity to trick the target into revealing sensitive information. 

In whaling phishing attacks, the attacker may use more elaborate tactics, such as creating a fake website or providing a false sense of urgency to make the target act quickly.

Why Do Any Kinds of Phishing Matter?

Cybersecurity is a major concern for any business or organization, and it’s no different from phishing. There are a lot of reasons why phishing matters.

Phishing attacks are a threat for several reasons:

Financial Losses

Phishing emails can trick you into giving up confidential information that criminals can use to steal your identity or financial funds. Once they have access to these accounts, they can drain them or send money elsewhere without your knowledge. This is why it’s so important to protect yourself and your loved ones — if you don’t take action, they could become victims too!

Reputation Damage

Once cybercriminals have compromised an email account, they often use it as a platform for sending more phishing emails to steal information from other people. These emails might be sent under your name or someone else’s — which can damage your reputation with clients or colleagues who receive them! It’s important to get involved immediately and stop this from happening as soon as possible!

Related Read: What is Credential Phishing and how does DMARC prevent it? 

Data Breaches

Unauthorized access to sensitive information stored on your network or computer system is a data breach. A data breach can occur when someone hacks into your system or when a disgruntled employee decides to leak confidential information. If this happens, your organization could suffer severe financial losses and damage its reputation.

Related Read: What is a Data Leak? | Meaning, Examples and Prevention 

Loss of productivity

If you’re dealing with a phishing attack, your employees are likely being interrupted by constant requests for assistance from users who have received the phishing message.

Employees must stop what they’re doing, verify that the user hasn’t been compromised, and then begin remediation if necessary. This takes time away from productivity and can also stress your IT team as they try to deal with all the requests from users who have received these messages.

Legal Consequences for Phishing

If you get caught phishing, there could be serious legal consequences for both you and your company. Phishing can sometimes lead to identity theft or fraud charges being filed against you. If someone uses your information without permission after you’ve been tricked into giving it away through phishing scams, you could be liable for your actions.

How DMARC Prevents Phishing Emails Sent From Your Own Domain?

Your domain is not immune to phishing attacks, but with DMARC, you can prevent them from being sent from your own domain. Here’s what you need to know:

A DMARC policy set to p=reject can effectively combat a variety of cyberattacks, including direct-domain spoofing and email phishing. By verifying the origin of emails and blocking fake emails from being received and opened, DMARC can prevent phishing emails from being sent from your domain. However, the adoption and correct implementation of DMARC still needs to be improved among businesses.

A DMARC analyzer can assist organizations in enforcing DMARC correctly, ensuring improved email deliverability and reduced phishing attacks over time. 

With PowerDMARC, organizations can safely upgrade their DMARC policy from monitoring to p=reject without losing legitimate emails. This enables them to enjoy the benefits of email authentication and visual identification with BIMI by attaching their unique brand logo to specific outgoing emails that reach their clients.

Staying Ahead of the Game: Understanding Whaling Phishing and Regular Phishing Threats

Both whaling and regular phishing pose a significant threat to organizations and individuals. Understanding the differences between these two forms of phishing and taking proactive measures to prevent attacks is crucial to protecting sensitive information and maintaining the stability of businesses and personal finances. 

Stay vigilant and aware of the methods that attackers use to trick their targets, whether a targeted attack or a phishing scam. The difference between a successful and failed phishing attack could mean the difference between a secure future and a costly headache.

 

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Phishing vs Spoofing

Phishing vs Spoofing has always been a concerning topic. Phishing and Spoofing are two different types of cybercrime that can look very similar to the untrained eye. However, there are differences between them and how you should handle them as a consumer.

When someone attempts to use the identity of a valid user, it is called spoofing. Phishing, on the other hand, is a situation when a criminal uses deceptive social engineering techniques to steal a user’s private and sensitive data.

Have you ever been confused about both? You might want to know what the differences are between Phishing and Spoofing. Let’s have a look at both!

Spoofing vs Phishing: An Overview

Cyber incursions are now frequently utilized to perpetrate white-collar crimes like identity theft, data leak, and credit card fraud, thanks to technological advances and widespread internet access. The most popular techniques for online criminals or fraudsters to damage, manipulate, or destroy a computer system or network and inflict financial loss are phishing and spoofing emails. 

Both spoofing and phishing pertain to electronically produced or faked papers. Hence they are somewhat interchangeable terms. Although spoofing methods are frequently used in phishing, Spoofing is not always regarded as phishing.

What is Phishing?

Phishing is an attempt by an unauthorized party to trick you into disclosing personal information. It usually happens when you receive an email that appears legitimate but contains links or attachments that direct you to a fraudulent website designed to steal your personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers. 

Around 25% of all data breaches involve phishing, and 85% of data breaches have a human component, according to Verizon’s 2021 DBIR.

Phishing emails may look like official messages from banks, online shopping sites, or other trusted companies asking you to update personal information — such as account usernames, passwords, or security questions. So it’s important to double-check any links contained within these emails before clicking on them.

What is Spoofing?

Spoofing is a method used by cybercriminals to pose as reputable or well-known sources. Attackers use fake email domains as legitimate sources. Spoofing can take many forms, including fake emails, calls, DNS spoofing, GPS spoofing, websites, and emails.

By doing this, the adversary can interact with the target and access their systems or devices with the ultimate purpose of stealing data, demanding money, or infecting the device with malware or other malicious software.

The spoofing attack aims to access sensitive information, such as your username and password, credit card number, or bank account details. Spoofing is also commonly used in phishing attacks. And almost 90% of cyber activities involve spoofing.

Phishing Vs Spoofing: Key Differences

Techniques

Spoofing and phishing are two types of attacks that can be used to extract sensitive information from users. Both use fraudulent email messages to trick users into divulging personal information or downloading malware, but they differ in how they operate.

  • Spoofing, also known as identity theft, involves sending out fake emails that appear to come from a legitimate source. The goal is to get the recipient to reveal personal information like passwords or credit card numbers. Phishing is one form of Spoofing; it involves sending out fake emails that request recipients to click on links or download attachments to provide more information about themselves.
  • Phishing typically involves using social engineering techniques and focusing on creating an emotional response from the victim by creating urgency or pity. Spoofing is more technical and often involves creating an identical-looking inbox for the victim so that it’s impossible for them to tell which email is real and which one isn’t.

Purpose

  • Spoofing is done to get a new identity: The idea behind it is to trick the victim into believing that they are communicating with someone they know and trust. This can be done through email, instant messaging, or social media, like Facebook.
  • Phishing is done to get confidential information: The goal is to trick you into giving up your personal information. It could be passwords and credit card details, making you believe that the message you received is from your bank or another trusted institution or service provider.

Ways to Prevent Spoofing

There are several ways to prevent spoofing attacks from happening in your organization, including:

Sender Policy Framework (SPF)

SPF is a method of combating email spoofing. It’s used to verify whether or not an email sender is authorized to send messages on behalf of a domain. If it’s not, the receiving server can reject the message immediately.

The SPF record contains a list of IP addresses authorized to send mail for a domain. The record is placed in the DNS zone file for each domain. You can use the free SPF checker tool by PowerDMARC. 

DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)

DKIM verifies that an email is legitimate and hasn’t been tampered with during transmission. It does this using digital signatures added to the message during transit, which the receiving server’s DNS records can verify.

Domain-Based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC)

DMARC allows you to set policies for how your organization handles fraudulent emails that claim to be from your company but aren’t coming from your organization’s servers. These policies include things like setting up complaint-handling procedures and instructions for how you want ISPs should handle suspected spoofed emails from your domain.

Ways to Prevent Phishing

Phishing attacks can be very convincing. They often come from official-looking email addresses, contain familiar logos and images, and even sound like the real thing. To avoid falling for these tactics:

  • Don’t open attachments or click on links in emails if you don’t know who sent them.
  • Look for spelling, grammar, and formatting errors in emails that claim to be from reputable companies.
  • Check your credit card statements regularly to ensure nothing looks out of place. If you see something suspicious, contact your bank immediately.
  • Don’t use public Wi-Fi at cafes or hotels because hackers can access your data while sitting next to you on the same network.

Final Words

Put succinctly, and phishing is where you attempt to gather sensitive information from a target by impersonating a trustworthy agent. Spoofing is when you intentionally try to deceive the message’s recipient into thinking it came from someone or somewhere else. As you can see, there’s a distinct difference between the terms, but both can cause severe harm to your personal information and credibility.

The best way to prevent yourself is to talk to experts at PowerDMARC and use their solutions to ensure that you’re on the safe side.

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What are the Common Indicators of a Phishing Attempt?

You know that phishing attacks are a serious threat to you and your organization and you want to know if one is targeting you or your company. Examining the common indicators of a phishing attempt helps you spot them before they could strike.

What is Phishing?

Phishing emails are fake emails that pretend to be from a trusted source (like from a company you know) but are actually sent by bad actors. The goal of these messages is to steal personal data, which can then be used for identity theft or other frauds like card skimming from stolen credit card details. The scammers behind these kinds of scams are always looking for ways to get your personal information so they can pull off other scams later on.

Phishing can also operate as a service, commonly known as Phishing-as-a-Service (PhaaS), making it easily accessible to the common people with no prior technical expertise. 

View the latest statistics on phishing.

Top 10 Common Indicators of a Phishing Attempt

One of the most important things you can do as a business owner is to protect your data. If someone gains unauthorized access to your systems they could steal or alter sensitive information, such as credit card data and personal records. It’s increasingly common for legitimate business owners to be targeted by phishing attacks. On top of leveraging anti-phishing solutions, by understanding the signs of a phishing attempt, you can spot the scams early and prevent them from being successful. Here’s what to look out for when protecting your company from phishing attacks.

Now let’s get down to the most common indicators of a phishing attempt:

1. Grammar and Spelling Errors

A common indicator of a phishing attempt is the presence of grammar and spelling errors in the email content. The reason for this is that most emails originating from an untrusted source are not written by professionals. This means that there are no spell check features on their servers, and no proper proofreading or editing process.

In contrast to this, professional businesses are careful about spelling in their outbound email communications. Plus, they have hired professional copywriters to craft their email marketing messages.

Some common grammar and spelling errors in phishing emails are:

➜ Missing quotation marks (‘), periods (.), commas (,) and colons (:)

➜ Incorrect capitalization of words or phrases (e.g., “i am Bob”)

➜ Informal contractions like “u” instead of “you”

2. Unfamiliar Tone

The unfamiliar tone of an email is one indication that a phishing attempt is underway. It’s important to note that there are several ways to detect this, so it’s important to be aware of the different types of unfamiliar tones.

One way to spot an unfamiliar tone is by noticing that the email feels like it’s been created by someone who doesn’t know you very well. For example, the tone of the email may feel off from what you’re used to receiving from your company or other contacts.

Another way is by noticing that the email doesn’t seem to be related to anything going on in your life. For example, if you’re not expecting a bill to come in the mail but suddenly get an email that looks like it’s from your bank, this is a red flag.

3. Receiving Email at an Unusual Time

If you receive an email at a time that is unusual for you to be receiving emails from the sender, this is another indicator.

For example, if you’re used to receiving work-related emails during normal business hours but suddenly get an email from your boss after 11 p.m., this may be a sign that your inbox has become the victim of a phishing attempt. Or if someone sends you an email in the middle of the night on a Saturday or Sunday, that’s probably not normal.

4. Sense of Urgency

Another sign that an email is malicious is if it threatens you or makes you feel like you have to act quickly. This could be a warning about your account being suspended, for example, or pressure to respond within 24 hours or risk compromising your security. If the message makes you feel like something bad will happen if you don’t respond quickly, this may be a phishing attempt. For instance, a message saying that your account will be suspended if you don’t confirm your details could be a sign that it’s malicious.

5. Suspicious Attachments

A common indicator of a phishing attempt is a suspicious attachment. The bad guys often use phishing emails to send these attachments because they know many people are curious enough to open them and click on whatever links or buttons they contain.

These attachments may be a Word document or zip file, for example. But if you open the attachment and it’s malicious, it could infect your computer with malware that steals your login credentials. If you get an email with a suspicious attachment, don’t click on it!

*Although it’s best to scan attachments for viruses before opening them, some email providers— like Gmail and Yahoo —have incorporated advanced checking filters that will automatically show the attachment in question as ‘Blocked Attachments’ if found suspicious.

6. The Recipient Never Started the Discussion

Phishing attempts are often initiated by scammers or hackers who send emails to random people and hope that someone falls for them. If you didn’t initiate the conversation, then the email may be a phishing attempt.

To entice the recipient, many cold emails state that he or she has won a prize, qualifies for one if they reply right away, and will not be eligible at all if they do not respond. So in cases where the recipient is not a current or former customer, there is an increased probability that the email will be spam.

7. Abnormalities in Email Addresses, Hyperlinks, and Domain Names

Phishing emails are often sent from an address that is not consistent with the domain name or website of the organization that is being impersonated. For example, if you receive a message purporting to be from Microsoft but it was sent from an email address that ends in @gmail.com or @yahoo.com, then this should raise red flags for you.

It is also a good idea to check that the originating email addresses match previous correspondence. If there are hyperlinks in the email, hover over each one to see what URL it will take you to. If an email is supposedly from Amazon, but the hyperlink directs you to a different website entirely (like freeamazongifts.ca), that’s probably evidence of fraud.

8. Email Coded Entirely as a Hyperlink

Email coding is a new practice among fraudsters and scammers. They know that people have got smart, and they will not click on a link given in the email. Therefore these fraudsters code the entire email as a hyperlink in <HTML> format. When an email is coded entirely as a hyperlink, the whole email becomes clickable. This means when a user clicks anywhere inside the email message it takes them to the imposter page.

9. Unrealistic Demand or Request

Phishing scams typically begin with an email or other communication that asks you to take action. The request might be a reasonable one, such as asking you to confirm or update your personal information. However, some phishing attempts are designed to make you do something that seems unreasonable or unlikely—such as paying a bill through a new payment method or providing your login credentials to a third party for verification.

10. Emails with Brief Description

Not all phishing emails are long and detailed, but some short ones can fool you into thinking they’re legit. These kinds of short emails are usually brief and to the point—they often begin with “here’s your requested information” and then immediately attach malware files. For instance, scam artists will create spoofed emails from Peter of XYZ company that appear to be from a trusted vendor or supplier. These messages may include vague requests for information bundled with an attachment titled ‘additional information’ in hopes of luring the victim into clicking on it and compromising their computer’s security.

Combat Phishing with PowerDMARC’s Zero Trust Security Model

When it comes to email security, a lot of companies fall behind. They are forced to rely on the default settings of their email provider which leave their email vulnerable to phishing attacks. Thus, ending up with hacked inboxes and lost customers.

We at PowerDMARC combat phishing by implementing a zero trust security model via a combination of DMARC, SPF, and DKIM protocols–which help a business verify who an email’s sender is before allowing it through their servers.

We prevent the sending of emails from compromised domains by sending invalid DKIM Signature or DMARC authentication failure reports back to those sending servers. By validating the email sender’s domains we simplify your life as you won’t have to come across phishing emails anymore.

We hope the article made you aware of the common indicators of a phishing attempt! Sign up for our free DMARC analyzer today and see how we protect your email from malicious attacks.

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