Phishing, Spear-Phishing, and Whaling: Different Versions of the Same Tactic

Managed IT services professionals in Dallas have been helping businesses large and small to avoid “phishing”, where hackers “phish” for login credentials, proprietary information, or financial assets by posing as internal staff of the organization from which they’re trying to steal. Similarly, spear-phishing targets high-level representatives in a company, and “whaling” seeks to get access information or other key data from the biggest people in a given company.

Tactics to Protect Against Whaling

IT support specialists in Dallas advise that upper management should be acutely aware of “whaling”. Following are some things worth doing to help safeguard operations this direction:

Employee Education

Managed IT services experts in Dallas can help you carefully educate employees pertaining to existing threats. You’ll want to refresh them at intervals owing to how tech innovations shift. For whaling attacks, you want to be sure upper management personnel are properly informed.

Putting Effective Verification Processes in Play

Email verification processes help separate spurious messages from those that are legitimate, reducing the risk someone in management won’t realize they’re communicating with a hacker. A great way to do this in a simple, cost-effective way is to require specific formatting in messages, and techniques where verification from a phone call or other avenue is necessary to “green light” asset or info transfer.

Email Sandboxing, Quarantine, and External Flags

All emails should go through a digital “sandbox” where attachments and other possible phishing techniques are explored in a safe environment.

Phishing often uses social engineering, but there are hybrid attacks. External emails should be flagged and quarantined apart from regular messages to help highlight prospective whaling attacks.

Technagy Can Help You!

Our managed IT services team in Dallas can help you find security education solutions for employees, establish representative verification processes, and establish email protection solutions such as sandboxing, external flags, or email quarantine options. To learn more, get in touch get in touch with us.