Spear Phishing vs. Phishing: How to Differentiate and Defend

Cyber threats come in various forms, but few are as insidious as phishing. Worse, spear phishing, which involves a higher level of psychological manipulation, can be even more damaging.

Phishing and spear phishing are two prevalent threats that can have devastating consequences if not adequately understood and managed. While they may seem similar, these attacks differ significantly in their approach and impact.

Whether dealing with a traditional or spear phishing attempt, both types of attacks can lead to trouble, like financial loss or data breaches. Organizations strive to protect their business data and employees from these attacks through email security software programs. 

What is phishing?

Phishing campaigns are broad attempts to steal sensitive information, such as bank account details, credit card numbers, and account passwords. 

Phishers often disguise themselves as trustworthy sources, including legitimate institutions or known individuals. Their goal is to trick the reader into clicking their malicious link, providing bank account information, or engaging with whatever tactic they use to gather sensitive information. 

Phishers use different forms of communication to carry out their attacks, including:

• Email phishing: Email is one of the most common methods of conducting phishing attacks. Scammers typically mimic a legitimate email address and craft an email that appears trustworthy with logos, signatures, and other branding elements the brand uses. These emails contain links to malicious websites or instructions on how readers can provide their information for further assistance. To increase the chances of success, attackers also incorporate a general sense of urgency to encourage quick action. 

• Voice phishing or vishing: Some scammers use phone calls to convince individuals to reveal personal information like credit card numbers and passwords. For example, when seeking financial information, a scammer might pose as a representative from their bank of choice. Vishing attempts are executed through real-time conversations with humans and through robocall recordings.

• SMS phishing or smishing: Similar to vishing, this involves sending a legitimate-looking text with the name of an institution or trustworthy individual written directly in the text. Phishers often include website links encouraging readers to submit their information for further assistance. 

• Angler phishing: In a newer type of phishing, malicious pretenders trick social media users by acting as customer support representatives who can help disgruntled customers. An individual leaves a review or negative comment about a business on their social media profile or the brand’s account. Then, the phisher swoops in, pretending to be a legitimate brand contact, asking for personal information in the guise of providing help. 

Phishing attacks in the news

Phishing scams are an ongoing issue, and some have made headlines due to their massive scale. 

In 2019, Evaldas Rimasauskas and his co-conspirators orchestrated a scheme to send phishing emails to Facebook and Google employees, posing as employees of Quanta in Taiwan. They duped the tech giants into forking out over $100 million. 

More recently, in April 2024, Redditor mgahs detailed a scam call he received targeting T-Mobile customers. The Redditor received multiple phone calls about an iPhone order they did not place. Eventually, the scammer told the Redditor that they needed to reset the password on their T-Mobile account by following a series of prompts via text message.

In the recap of the phishing attempt, they shared the text messages they received that were almost identical to real T-Mobile ID verification texts:

Source: Reddit

What is spear phishing?

Spear phishing is an advanced and targeted phishing attempt directed at a specific victim or organization. Rather than sending a broad message that applies to the masses, spear phishing involves developing in-depth knowledge about an individual or their organization and using that information in the attack. 

This form of attack relies heavily on social engineering tactics like deception and manipulation to exploit human errors. It requires some psychological influence to nudge victims towards actions that benefit the attacker. 

In most cases, spear phishing attacks are personalized and thorough. They include the reader’s name and facts about them or their organization. Rather than leveraging a forced sense of urgency, spear phishers may use a more casual and conversational tone to earn the reader's trust before acting. 

Spear phishing in the news

In 2020, attackers targeted a number of Twitter (now X) staff in a spear phishing attempt in the hope of accessing celebrity accounts. They gained control of the accounts of Bill Gates, Joe Biden, and Kim Kardashian West, even accessing their direct messages. 

Four significant differences between spear phishing and phishing

At first glance, spotting the differences between phishing and spear phishing might feel challenging. Look at the following characteristics to differentiate.

1. Targeted audience

Traditional phishing attempts cast a wide net to capture as many victims as possible. While the audience can share some key characteristics (perhaps a phisher sends an email to every employee in the same organization), the goal is to obtain as many bites as possible. This prioritizes quantity over quality of information. 

In contrast, spear phishing attacks are more precise, calculated, and well-researched. They’re much more intentional (and often more compelling) than a traditional attack. The phisher does some upfront work to increase their chances of gaining access to the information they want rather than playing a numbers game. 

2. Details in the message

With a wide audience in mind, attackers use broad, generalized messaging with no personalization in traditional phishing attempts. The attack may not include the potential victim’s name. The content here is vague, generic, and perhaps inapplicable. 

On the other hand, spear phishers use tailored and relevant content. They send personalized, detailed messages with information about the target they are trying to reach. Their messages might include the recipient’s name, organization, title, location, or other life details. Cybercriminals learn about their target’s work, habits, interests, and friendships and use that information to deceive them.

3. Purpose of the attack

Regular phishing attacks are designed to gather sensitive information from many individuals, such as login credentials, credit card numbers, security codes, social security numbers, or even bank account details. They use this information to commit further crimes or sell it for financial gain. In these instances, phishers don’t necessarily account for the quality of the information they obtain and whether or not it will benefit them with their plans. 

Unlike a traditional phishing attack with broad goals, spear phishers know what they seek. Generally, they are after specific data or access to a system housing valuable data. When targeting an individual, they might want to obtain direct access to the person’s bank account to transfer funds out of it immediately. When targeting specific individuals within organizations, they usually look for financial information, proprietary company information, and other protected information that executives and financial team members can access. 

4. Follow-up attempts

While not impossible, traditional phishing attempts don’t always involve a follow-up. The attacker may gather the information they want after the first message, decide to reach out to a new audience, or cease their phishing campaign altogether. 

Spear phishing attacks are more likely to follow up or reach out using multiple touchpoints. They may initiate a conversation as the first step in building trust, followed by increasing the frequency of communication through engaging dialogue to increase the likelihood of their success. 

Protecting against spear phishing and phishing

Although we can’t prevent attackers from making attempts, there are some methods of defense you can use to protect yourself. The following best practices will help you stay vigilant and aware of damaging phishing and spear phishing attacks.

Know the red flags

Understanding the common characteristics of phishing attacks is the first step in spotting and preventing them. While scammers are constantly evolving their practices to unlock new ways to gain what they want, always pay attention to these warning signs in messages:

• Messages with impersonal greetings like “Dear Customer,” 
• Unprompted requests for money via wire transfers, PayPal, Zelle, Venmo, WhatsApp, or any other money-transferring platform 
• Unwarranted requests, such as a message from your boss asking for login credential information with no prior context 
• An excessive amount of grammatical and punctuation errors 
• A heightened level of urgency
• Any links (even if they appear to be legitimate or valid) 

Double-check the sender’s email addresses and look up phone numbers to ensure they are legitimate. When in doubt, don’t hesitate to ask for identity verification or contact a company for more information if you believe someone may be personating their team members. 

Stay educated with security awareness training

Organizations, universities, and other institutions regularly rely on security awareness training to educate employees and students on warning signs and dangers. Ongoing education incorporating new tactics and strategies as they emerge can be a strong line of defense. 

Training should cover: 

• How phishing and spear phishing attacks work 
• Common phishing indicators, such as suspicious email addresses and questionable website links
• How to verify the authenticity of emails, phone calls, and other communications 
• Popular social engineering techniques used in phishing attacks 
• Ways to report suspected phishing or spear phishing attempts to the security or IT team 

Use an email security tool

Email security software can be a helpful line of defense, filtering out phishing messages before they reach your inbox. These programs can:

• Block spam or junk emails and filter them accordingly 
• Spot malicious links, spoofed email addresses, and harmful attachments 
• Verify incoming emails using email authentication protocols 

Don't bite!

While phishing attacks cast a wide net, targeting individuals with generic scams, spear phishers operate with precision, focusing on specific individuals or organizations with tailored, sophisticated tactics. Education on how these attacks work and look, regular security awareness training, and using email software tools are some of the best lines of defense. 

Social engineering is malicious and manipulative. Learn how to spot the phases of a social engineering attack so you don’t fall for them. 

Edited by Monishka Agrawal