Spear Phishing

Customized spear phishing solutions for different employee groups

Phishing is the crooked attempt to acquire tender information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by tricking oneself as a reliable entity in an electronic communication. Although hackers often aimed to steal data for malicious intentions, cybercriminals may also intend to install malware on a targeted computer.

Spear Phishing attacks are targeted attacks that use specially crafted emails to deceive recipients into providing sensitive and confidential information to the attacker. These emails are typically sent from email addresses known to the recipients and are preceded by an information-gathering phase. The information collected during this phase is then used to design an effective email campaign to lure targets into parting with personal information while avoiding detection.

EthicalHat’s Spear Phishing Simulation service is designed to assess employees’ susceptibility to spear-phishing attacks. We get to know your business and work environment and customize our phishing simulation campaigns for different employee groups and individual employees where necessary.

Our Process

Information Gathering & Planning

Our team starts with understanding your business environment and security policies and designing an effective email campaign, with different social engineering and attack tactics used for different employee groups.

Implementing the Attack

We then implement the attack and send the emails and messages crafted during the planning stage to targeted employees. The campaign is designed to lure employees into either clicking on a link or opening a file or filling up a form without creating suspicion.

Observation & Documentation

After sending the emails, our security analysts track user activity and observe employees’ responses to the campaign. They gather data such as who and how many people opened the email, who clicked on a link or opened a file, and who entered confidential information into a form.

Analyzing Employee Response

The information collected during phase 3 is then analyzed. We assess employees’ susceptibility to phishing, their response after discovering that the email they received was not legitimate, and their overall attack preparedness.

Test Report Drafting

During the final stage of the exercise, we draft a comprehensive test report that includes our attack methodology, analysis of employees’ responses during and after the attack, and our recommendations for improving attack preparedness. We will also direct you to effective employee training modules that can be used to educate employees about specific security measures.

Training Session

As part of our Spear Phishing Simulation service, we also provide online training sessions for company employees to prepare them for phishing attacks. We equip them with free tools, information and other resources for malicious email and fraud detection. With proper guidance, they are able to evaluate the risks and perform safety measures.