Whaling attacks involve impersonating high-level executives, and attackers spend much time making the communication look authentic. They leverage public information like birthdays, hometowns, and significant events to make their emails or calls seem more legitimate.
These types of hackers target these individuals because they have more access to internal data and have the authority to authorize significant financial transactions. To prevent whaling attacks, companies must promote a cybersecurity culture that encourages employees to trust but verify.
Educate Your Employees
Whaling attacks are unique in that hackers target senior-level employees, leveraging their position of authority within the organization. Hackers seek to steal assets, gain a foothold in the network for future attacks, and cause reputational damage. These goals are often achieved through unauthorized transfers of funds, malware installation on the executive’s device or computer, and stealing confidential company information such as business strategies, intellectual property, or personal employee data for blackmail purposes.
To succeed, whaling attack emails must convince recipients that the requests they receive are genuine and urgent. Unlike phishing campaigns that target a large audience of potential victims, whaling email attacks are highly personalized and designed to take advantage of the trust bestowed on high-ranking officials. To protect against this phishing attack, ensuring all staff have received enough training is essential.
Companies should consider creating a security culture that encourages the “trust but verify” ethos in addition to the standard phishing awareness training. Encourage all staff members, especially executives and senior management, to confirm requests via another channel first, in person or by phone, before acting. They can escape spear phishing, phishing, and other phishing-related attacks and whaling thanks to it.
Ensure Your Network Is Secure
Like phishing attacks, whaling attacks target specific individuals within an organization – often senior management or the CEO. Cybercriminals can access confidential information and monetary assets by impersonating these individuals.
Attackers can glean much personal information on high-level executives from the internet, public records, and other easily accessible sources. They then use this data to create a believable email that targets the victim and requests private or sensitive information. Whaling attacks are accompanied by a phone call from the attacker, which further adds to the attack’s legitimacy and urgency.
As a result, high-level employees tend to ignore red flags and are less likely to question the validity of an urgent request from someone they deem necessary. It is a large part of why whaling attacks are so successful.
How to prevent whaling attacks? You must ensure your network is safe to lessen the chance your business may fall victim to whaling assaults. Begin by implementing a robust security awareness program, ensuring that senior management and other key staff are routinely briefed on the threats and how to identify them. Please encourage them to look at the domain name of an email address, verify all requests over a separate channel or in person, and avoid opening unsolicited attachments. Also, please provide them with a 24/7 direct line to a security resource so they can contact an expert with any concerns.
Implement Multi-Factor Authentication
While phishing attacks target non-specific individuals, whaling attacks are targeted specifically at high-ranking members of an organization. Hackers aim to impersonate these employees to steal valuable information or access to funds. A successful whaling attack might harm the organization and its staff. Examples include financial loss, reputational damage, and disruption of business operations.
The main reason why hackers choose to target senior-level employees is because they have the most access to large sums of money and sensitive data. In addition, these individuals are typically known to their coworkers and are likely to trust requests from people they know. Whaling attacks also leverage specific details about the victim to create a more credible email. That is why it is critical for executives and other high-ranking individuals to always verify requests from unfamiliar senders through another means, like in-person or over the phone.
For example, a cybercriminal may use details about an employee’s birthday or hobbies to gain their trust. Then, they can spoof an email address to appear to be from someone they know. They might also add a fake sense of urgency to the request to increase the likelihood that the recipient will comply. Once the attacker has gained their target’s trust, they can harvest credentials from their compromised account or spoofed domain and use them for other purposes.
Create a Comprehensive Incident Response Plan
Whaling attacks are a form of spear-phishing, but instead of being focused on stealing small amounts of data, they’re designed to target a specific individual. As such, they can be much more difficult to detect and prevent. However, there are several steps that companies can take to prevent whaling attacks, including educating employees about phishing scams and encouraging senior management and executives to lead by example.
A whaling attack frequently aims to deceive a victim into giving private or business information by employing social engineering, email spoofing, and content spoofing techniques. Some attacks also include a customized malicious website created especially for the campaign. In addition, fostering an organizational email culture that emphasizes “trust but verify” can help prevent these types of attacks. Employees should always be encouraged to call the impersonated person directly and verify any requests they receive via email.
In addition, companies should also make it clear that they will report any whaling incidents to the authorities and their internal security teams. It offers a chance to assess and revise security procedures and may help prevent a repeat of the occurrence.
The consequences of a whaling attack can be devastating. In addition to financial loss (including unauthorized wire transfers), reputational damage, and lost customer loyalty, the attack can cause disruptions in company operations and compromise the personal safety of affected employees.
