Have you ever heard of what’s called a phishing attack? These are scams that are designed to trick users into handing over sensitive credentials by appearing to be someone else. However, some types of phishing scams are much more dangerous than others, with some hackers feeling ambitious enough to pull in “a big catch.” These types of attacks are called “whaling,” or the imitation of executive authority in order to get what they desire.
Whaling attacks are typically designed to imitate the behaviors of upper management, namely CEOs, of all kinds of businesses. In some cases, they may even seem to come directly from the CIO of a company. Since they’re designed to mimic authority, which many office workers tend to comply with in order to avoid conflict with upper management, whaling attacks are often successful. Plus, nobody expects the bosses to get hacked. While the emails frequently resemble corporate messages or requests, they are also known to resemble documents sent from the FBI or other government agencies.
In other words, whaling attacks, much like other types of threats, will use the end user’s fear to make one of two things happen as quickly as possible: 1) The hacker succeeds and the user sends them sensitive credentials or fraudulent wire transfer, or 2) The worker realizes that the message is fake and deletes the email. If the worker isn’t educated on security best practices, the former is the more likely.
Whaling attacks, just like phishing tactics, rely on the end user not being well-versed in how to identify and combat threats. Therefore, the best way to protect your business is by educating your team about these threats. Emphasize that they should take a moment to think about what they’re doing before reacting to a strange message. Is it an odd request? Does it seem out of character? Advise that they take a deep breath and focus; it can help them avoid plenty of pain and frustration in the long run.
With any phishing attack, whaling or not, you should look for any irregularities that might give away the real purpose of the message. Does it come from a legitimate sender? Does the email address appear to be from a real domain? Be sure to look it over carefully and make sure that there’s nothing strange happening. Are there numbers replacing letters, or vice versa? Look for repetition or urgency. Hackers like to try and get users to make a decision as quickly as possible.
In situations like this, a little preparation can go a long way. If you play your cards right, you can prevent phishing scams and whaling attacks from even hitting your inbox. With a spam blocking solution, you can rest easy knowing that dangerous or time-wasting messages will stay out of your inbox. To learn more, contact us at (215) 853-2266.
