What’s the Difference Between Phishing and Spear Phishing?

In a word, personalization. Your typical phishing campaign, in keeping with the analogy, casts a wide net to try and catch as many victims as possible. By writing a very vague and generic email that appears to be from some large company or organization, the typical phishing attack can be leveraged against almost anyone with a reasonable chance of success - although this also makes them easier to spot if one knows what to look for.

Spear phishing, on the other hand, goes for quality over quantity. Instead of casting out a wide net to snare a large group, spear phishing requires a focused approach, as it targets a single, influential individual.

In order to do this effectively, a cybercriminal can’t just rely on a generic message. Instead, the hacker will do some digging, finding out everything they can about their target - where they work, who they work with, and what it is that they do. Once they’ve collected the information they need, the hacker will spoof an email - often referencing some project or mutual contact to prove their “legitimacy” - with a link to a downloadable file.

This link will take the recipient to what appears to be a login page for Google Drive or Dropbox, but is actually another part of the hacker’s trickery. Once the user enters their credentials, the scammer has them to use for themselves, completely undermining the user’s security and potentially causing a business crisis.

How Do Spear Phishers Fool People?

There are a variety of ways that hackers can make their messages more convincing, especially when they’re leveraging a spear phishing strategy. These methods combine some practical skills with a bit of psychology, supported by the research that these types of hackers do.

As a result, instead of the phishing message being vague and generic, it might reference actual events, people, and things relevant to the target. They will often be spoofed to appear to come from an authority figure, like a manager or the CEO, to encourage the recipient to do as the email says without really thinking about it or questioning it too much. Unlike many other phishing messages, spear phishing messages are typically well written, without spelling or grammar errors.

These cybercriminals can be especially devious and will even buy close-match domains to make their attacks that much more convincing.

Let’s say that you owned the domain example-dot-com. Someone trying to phish someone else by posing as you could purchase their own domain, example-dot-com. Looks the same, but by using a capital “i” instead of a lowercase “l”, the phisher can create a lookalike site that truly appears to be legitimate.

Who Do Spear Phishers Target?

This is one of the main reasons that spear phishing requires so much research - not only does the hacker have to identify who they are going to target; they have to also identify the best way to scam them. As a general rule, however, spear-phishing attackers will target those people in an organization who have access to the information that the phisher wants, but not enough clout to question a request from (what appears to be) up the chain of command. In other words, a business’ end users.

So, what can you do to prevent spear phishing from impacting your business? There are a few things:

• Check to make sure everything about an email is as it should be. Is the sender actually , or is it ? Are there any files included with the email? They could be a means of installing some kind of malware, so avoid clicking on them.
• Take any urgency in the message with a grain of salt. Many hackers will make their messages sound more urgent in the attempt to scare their targets into action. You should also keep an eye out for any changes in standard operating procedures as well… like if your company typically utilizes Google Drive to share files, but you’re being asked to download a file from Dropbox instead.
• Make every effort to confirm any messages you find suspect through another means. The few moments it takes to pick up the phone and ask the person who seems to have sent an email will be well worth it if it helps you avoid a data breach.

Threats like spear phishing are just the start of a business’ security concerns. For more assistance with your business’ IT and its security, subscribe to our blog, and give Patriot Tech Services Inc. a call at 877-874-4629.

First, let’s take a look at some of the basic principles of BYOD. Basically, instead of an employee being given a device by your business, they use their own personal devices for work purposes.

Why BYOD Has Become So Popular

On paper, BYOD seems like the perfect solution. Businesses that take advantage of BYOD practices can save up to $350 a year per employee and using portable devices for work purposes can save employees about an hour per workday, as well as improve productivity by up to 33 percent. Other benefits include, but are not limited to, the following:

Access to Better Technology

You might have a laundry list of technology solutions you want to implement, but at the end of the day, you’re at the mercy of your budget. You always run the risk of a new solution affecting your operations in a negative way. While this might have an effect on your decision making for business technology, your employees have a different mindset, replacing devices as they want. It’s more likely that your business’ employees will replace outdated technology, leading to happier and more productive employees overall.

Reduced Financial Toll on Businesses

Your technology acquisitions will largely be driven by the budget behind them. For example, you might want to replace your workstations, but if the budget doesn’t allow for this, then it just simply can’t happen. Rather than hope your budget accommodates these changes, you can instead give your employees the option of using their personal devices, freeing your business from the responsibility of acquiring said technology. The expenses of BYOD are basically limited to securing access to information and implementing it.

Employee Satisfaction

You might find that your organization’s technology simply isn’t pleasant to work with. Forcing productivity is rarely effective, and aging workstations certainly aren’t going to make the process any easier when they have just bought a shiny new laptop. If you force employees to work using technology that doesn’t work properly for no good reason, they will naturally push back. You avoid this situation entirely by giving them permission to use their own devices.

The Potential Issues with BYOD

Distractions

Compared to the amount of productivity applications on the app stores, there are plenty of ways to get distracted by BYOD. While you can whitelist and blacklist applications on your company-owned devices, you don’t have too much control over devices your employees utilize.

Loss of Control

Losing control of devices is a recurring issue for businesses, especially with BYOD on the playing field. Policies can be put in place, but they require the employee’s consent, which they are probably not going to give. What happens if an employee leaves with company data on their device? What if they are careless with the way they access this information? All of this needs to be considered.

Compliance Shortcomings

How will your BYOD implementation interact with other parts of your organization, namely compliance? Requirements put in place by laws like HIPAA and Dodd-Frank mean that IT administrators need to be particularly aware of how data is being distributed to BYOD devices.

How Do You Leverage BYOD Securely?

The best way to make sure BYOD is being managed properly is to work with a managed service provider with professional IT technicians on staff who can help you navigate these muddy waters. To learn more, reach out to us at 877-874-4629.

I want you to think back to how your business operated just a few short years ago. How similar was it to the way you currently do things?

Hopefully, not very.

Consider this: in 2013, mobile technology was just starting to become more commonly used for computing than the PC. In 2016, “unified communications” was still a buzzword, and collaborative solutions were experiencing widespread adoption. Today, just a few short years later, these are some of the basic solutions that all organizations should be leveraging.

Many businesses can easily fall into the trap of believing that their past success guarantees more of the same in the future. This comes with a few operational and behavioral warning signs. For example:

• Are any potential changes or growth opportunities avoided or rebuffed through the use of highly selective facts?
• Do conversations amongst your team skirt around topics like new markets, possible competition, or other developing business opportunities?
• Are failures used to postpone new attempts instead of as learning moments?
• Do meetings frequently end in a holding pattern?

These factors all signal that a business has slipped into patterns that are comfortable, rather than habits that are operationally sound. “Okay” becomes the standard, as do shortcuts and cut corners. The question is, do you want your business to be “okay”, or do you want it to be a success?

Fortunately, once you’ve identified it, there are many ways to mitigate complacency. Ask yourself a few more questions about your business, its policies, and its culture:

• Is there any way that your processes could be made more efficient?
• Is your service offering a good fit for your current audience? What needs will they have in the near future?
• Are there any technologies that could soon cause a disruption in your market, or could be used as an invaluable tool?
• How engaged are your employees?

Many of these questions will require a big-picture perspective of both your business and your industry. Macro-views like these can be challenging, especially when one is accustomed to the micro-perspective into a single business. Answering these questions on your own will prove to be challenging as well, and then you still have to resolve any issues that they unearth.

Patriot Tech Services Inc. has plenty of experience with managing the technology that businesses rely on to be successful and efficient. While up-to-date technology isn’t the only thing necessary to avoid becoming complacent in business, it is a good start, and one that we can help with. Reach out to us at 877-874-4629 to learn more.