What a Spear Phishing Attempt Actually Looks Like
Most email attacks are broad and easy to spot - but spear phishing works differently. It's built around specific details about your business so it reads like it belongs in your inbox, and it's behind a majority of the data breaches organizations deal with today.
These messages are patient and well researched. They often mimic someone the recipient already trusts, like a vendor or a member of leadership, and they ask for something that feels routine.
Catching an impersonation attempt
At one company we work with, a message landed in a senior finance team member's inbox designed to look like it came from the CEO. It asked for a wire transfer of tens of thousands of dollars. The anti phishing filtering XTONA had put in place months earlier flagged it before it reached the inbox, and the request never got anywhere near being acted on.
A few months earlier, that same message would have looked routine enough to act on. The
difference wasn't luck. It was having the right filtering already in place.
If you're curious how this kind of protection actually works day to day, we're glad to walk
through it.