Spear Phishing is a type of email phishing attack where a personalized email is sent to a specific person or to the organization. The user is tricked to click on a malicious link which seems to be legitimate. When the user clicks on the link, and puts his/her details then attacker steals that sensitive information like login credentials, credit, and debit card details or any other sensitive information.
Whaling is again a type of email phishing attack where top officials like CEO, COO, CTO, etc. are targeted. The attacker sends a mail with a malicious link that looks to come from an authentic source.
The following are some of the important differences between Spear Phishing and Whaling.
Sr. No. | Key | Spear Phishing | Whaling |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Targets | Spear Phishing targets a specific group of people. | Whaling targets top officials of an organization. |
2 | Focus | Spear phishing focuses on stealing login credentials/ sensitive information. | Whaling focuses on fetching trade secrets which can affect a company's performance. |
3 | Designing | Spear Phishing emails are prepared for a group of people. | Whaling emails are highly customized for specific persons. |
4 | Target | Spear Phishing targets low profile individuals. | Whaling targets high profile individuals. |
5 | Prevention | To prevent spear phishing, we should educate people about such an attack | To prevent whaling attack, education, awareness helps and each URL should be checked before opening. |