A type of phishing attack that focuses on a single
user or department within an organization, addressed from someone within the
company in a position of trust and requesting information such as
login IDs and passwords. Spear phishing scams will often appear to be from a company's own human
resources or technical support divisions and may ask employees to update their
username and passwords. Once hackers get this data they can gain entry
into secured networks. Another type of spear phishing attack will ask users to click on a
link, which deploys spyware that can thieve data.
Also see the
All
About Phishing page in the
"Did You Know?
section of Webopedia for more information, including examples, of phishing.
Spear Phishing Pokes at Enterprise Users An e-mail security company says the incidence of very specific phishing attacks, so-called "spear phishing," is on the rise.
Spear phishing reaches epidemic proportions The global plague of highly targeted "spear phishing" is reaching epidemic proportions with new research claiming that some firms are even resorting to launching fake attacks against their own employees to test network security levels.
