Whaling vs. Spear Phishing: Key Differences and Similarities

Spear phishing is defined as a subset of phishing attacks where the individual being attacked is uniquely positioned to fulfill the attacker’s end design. On the other hand, whaling is defined as a subset of spear phishing where the attacker targets senior employees, celebrities, public figures, and other high-level individuals to obtain access to information or funds. This article breaks down these two forms of targeted attacks, highlighting their differences, similarities, and prevention techniques. 

Table of Contents

• • What Is Whaling and Spear Phishing?
  • 5 Differences Between Whaling and Spear Phishing
  • 5 Similarities Between Whaling and Spear Phishing
  • Examples: Whaling vs. Spear Phishing
  • Preventing Phishing Attacks

What Is Whaling and Spear Phishing?

Spear phishing is a subset of phishing attacks where the individual being attacked is uniquely positioned to fulfill the attacker’s end design. On the other hand, whaling is a subset of spear phishing where the attacker targets senior employees, celebrities, public figures, and other high-level individuals to obtain access to information or funds. 

Phishing vs. Spear Phishing vs. Whaling

Phishing is among the most common cybersecurity threats in the world, and 2020 saw a dramatic rise in this type of attack. Two of the most pernicious forms of phishing that you must remember are whaling and spear phishing. Both are targeted forms of cybersecurity threats, where a hacker identifies a vulnerable person who can be induced to act (e.g., download a ransomware file or click on a malicious link). 

However, there are subtle differences between whaling and phishing that you must remember to protect your organization against targeted threats in 2021. HP predicts that there will be a spike in targeted cyberattacks in 2021, exploiting vulnerabilities that have emerged due to new ways of working and general anxiety. 

Phishing

Phishing is defined as a type of social engineering attack where a hacker or a malicious entity impersonates a trusted entity to try and extract information, money, or access privileges from an individual. 

You can have both consumer and business-facing phishing campaigns. For example, someone might impersonate Amazon, create a website with an Amazon-like domain name (i.e., spoofing), and get the user to make an expensive purchase. In an enterprise scenario, a hacker might pose as a long-term partner to the organization and try to get the procurement team to authorize a payment. 

Whaling and spear phishing are more targeted attacks than phishing. The attacker/hacker has explicit knowledge of who they are targeting, their background, and why they are most vulnerable. 

Also Read: What Is Whaling Phishing? Definition, Identification and Prevention

Spear phishing 

Spear phishing is defined as a subset of phishing attacks where the individual being attacked is uniquely positioned to fulfill the attacker’s end-design. 

In spear phishing, the attacker chooses an individual who is most likely to react to the threat/action point suggested. A spear phishing victim might be privy to intellectual property. They might control access to organizational funds. They might hold shareable access privileges. 

In short, the attacker knows the victim’s identity and exploits this knowledge to carry out a targeted and often personalized attack. Instead of casting the net wide and trying to get small amounts from each victim, spear phishing (as the name suggests) isolates individuals with specific privileges and targets them. 

Whaling

Whaling is defined as a subset of spear phishing where the attacker targets senior employees, celebrities, public figures, and other high-level individuals to obtain access to information or funds. 

In some cases, the attacker might impersonate C-level executives to get employees to part with sensitive information or funds. Whaling is similar to spear phishing in that it is targeted, but as the name suggests, it only reaches for the big fish. 

Whaling can be of two types –  either the attacker targets a company’s CEO, COO, SVP, and other high-level executives, or they impersonate a high-level executive to create a sense of urgency for an employee. A successful whaling attack can cause thousands, if not millions, of dollars in loss to a company as victims of whaling attacks are typically in privileged positions with very few checks or balances. 

If the victim’s judgment is compromised or if they are convinced of a fraudster’s identity somehow, it is extremely difficult to prevent the victim from sending funds or exposing confidential data on time. Even worse, senior leaders may not always consult with experts about suspicious online behavior, resulting in the attack going unnoticed. 

As you can see, while spear phishing and whaling may sound similar on the surface, there are subtle differences distinguishing each type. 

Also Read: What Is Container Security? Definition, Components, Best Practices, and Software 

5 Differences Between Whaling and Spear Phishing

Whaling and spear phishing are different in the following five ways: 

1. The knowledge of the victim’s identity 

In both cases, attackers know about the victim’s identity, but whaling attack perpetrators have individualized and personalized knowledge of who they are targeting. They use this knowledge to make the threat more convincing and fool the victim into believing that they are a trustworthy entity. 

In a spear phishing attack, the perpetrator knows about just one or two aspects of the victim’s identity – it might be an employee in an organization of their interest or a loyal customer of a brand they are looking to exploit. 

In whaling, this knowledge goes much deeper and is used in a more pernicious manner. For example, someone posing as the CEO might actually look up pictures of a recent office party on social media and refer to its events, the clothes you wore, etc., to appear authentic. 

2. The objective of fraud

The reasons why a hacker would initiate a whaling campaign are also different from the drivers behind a spear phishing campaign. In the latter case, the perpetrator typically wants to get hold of assets available to the group of victims. This could be an information asset like intellectual property. Or it could be a set of user credentials. All the users on the group have privileged access and are therefore ideal targets for a hacker. 

Whaling, on the other hand, involves higher stakes. The victim (usually a C-level executive or a public figure) is persuaded to part with large sums of money. In some cases, the hacker might be after the victim’s credentials – but there is almost always a financial motive behind whaling attacks. A single successful attack can help hackers achieve their nefarious goals, compared to spear phishing which requires multiple victims to fall prey to the campaign. 

3. Privilege level and number of intended targets 

This is where whaling differs most significantly from spear phishing. While both are targeted attacks, whaling victims have an extremely high level of user privileges, including access to organizational funds, approval mechanisms, national secrets, intellectual property, consumer data, banking rights, and many others. 

The hacker zeroes in on a single potential victim and initiates a long-drawn-out social engineering campaign. Over several weeks or even months, they create a line of communication with the victim, win their trust through harmless messages, establish credibility by repeating actions without any adverse consequence, and then defraud the person. 

Spear phishing has multiple targets and a not-so-well thought-out campaign. Spear phishing victims do not enjoy a very high privilege level, although they can furnish some of the information or funds the perpetrator is after. 

Also Read: What Is Phishing? Definition, Types, and Prevention Best Practices

4. Use of business email compromise

Business email compromise (BEC), also known as man-in-the-email scams, use publicly available information on business user email IDs to defraud victims. Whaling campaigns (especially CEO-fraud, where the fraudster pretends to be a C-level executive from your company) use BEC as a common phishing technique. 

By studying publicly available data, it can be possible to figure out the exact syntax, character combination, and alphanumeric structure of your email ID and the correct domain name. The fraudster then creates their own email ID spoofing the real one, making it look so similar and credible that it avoids suspicion. 

Spear phishing relies less on BEC and more on malicious email attachments, fraudulent hyperlinks, spoofed user-login pages, etc. 

5. Consequences for those involved

The costs of a successful whaling attack are typically much higher than spear phishing. As users with lesser privileges are targeted by spear phishing, the payout for hackers is also less in magnitude. Spear phishing may lead you to revisit your data security and access privilege mechanisms. You may have to undertake large-scale cybersecurity refresher training for all the users who fell prey to the attack. You may even have to pay out a ransom in case there is a ransomware threat involved. 

Whaling involves all of these consequences, as well as reprimanding action for the victim. CEOs, COOs, and other senior executives have typically trained in cybersecurity best practices, and a successful whaling attack indicates gross negligence somewhere. Companies might reprimand the victim or even replace them following a whaling attack. 

Now that we have discussed the differences between whaling and spear phishing, let us consider five ways in which they resemble each other.

Also Read: What Is a Spear Phishing Attack? Definition, Process, and Prevention Best Practices

5 Similarities Between Whaling and Spear Phishing

Whaling attacks are more high value in nature. The perpetrator is acutely aware of the victim’s identity. Whaling targets more high access privilege individuals than phishing. It leverages BEC and can result in a company’s leadership getting replaced. However, there are five ways in which whaling resembles spear phishing. Here is what these two types of phishing attacks have in common:

1. Targeted nature

Both whaling and spear phishing choose a victim/group of victims based on some common criteria – they might be employed in the same company, shop from the same online luxury retail store, or hold the same designation, which makes them privy to sensitive data. Whaling is even more targeted in that it selects a single user as the intended victim.

It is important to understand the mindset behind such attacks. The perpetrator isn’t just sending out fraudulent emails at random (using a third-party provided email list) but has a specific objective and attack flow in mind. Note that spear phishing and whaling perpetrators might rely on the dark web to purchase user contact information leaked or otherwise obtained via illegal means.

2. Channel of attack

Both whaling and spear phishing typically use emails and sometimes rely on voice contact channels (i.e., vishing). Vishing can make the attack seem more legitimate and urgent, as the user might feel that a telephonic conversation authenticates whatever has been conveyed via email. 

However, email remains the most popular channel for whaling and spear phishing campaigns. That’s because nearly every business in the world uses corporate email with its own domain name, making it easy to spoof. Users also subconsciously lookout for visual cues indicating an email’s authenticity, like the positioning of an embedded logo or the font used. Hackers recreate these subliminal authentication signals after careful research to make fraudulent emails appear legitimate.

3. Exploitation of human psychology

Both whaling and spear phishing tap into and exploit a similar set of psychological impulses – the urge to address an urgent situation, our desire to gain from discounts/sweepstakes/time-bound or exclusive benefits, and our eagerness to avoid adverse consequences. The perpetrators use social engineering techniques to convince users of the threat (or opportunity, as the case might be), and incite an action, such as downloading a malicious file or transferring funds, seemingly to avoid missing a procurement deadline but actually sending the amount directly to an untraceable account.

Also Read: Spear Phishing vs. Phishing: Key Differences and Similarities

That’s why one of the most effective defense measures against both spear phishing and whaling is a culture of skepticism at your company. A culture of skepticism discourages employees – every employee, even C-level leaders – from accepting anything at face value. It urges users to prioritize protocol and process structure over a sense of urgency.

4. Sophisticated spoofing techniques

Both whaling and spear phishing rely on sophisticated spoofing techniques, from copying a trusted party’s domain name to setting up entire websites and landing pages and even setting up an entire contact center to convince users of the fraudster’s legitimacy. 

For example, there might be an 1800 support number mentioned in the email if you want to report any suspicious activity. Calling the number actually routes you to the hacker’s spoofed contact center organization, not a legitimate support entity. BEC is one type of spoofing, where a hacker poses as a member of your organization by successfully spoofing your business email. 

5. Need for security awareness training

Security awareness training is essential for combating both spear phishing and whaling risks. While email filters can handle less targeted types of phishing attacks, these are more sophisticated tactics, which aren’t always picked up by filters and spam scanners. Incorrect grammar syntax is one of the most common indicators of the Nigerian prince style of phishing attacks, which is less targeted and can be easily detected using email filters/scanners. 

But, in the case of whaling and spear phishing, you need to educate users about email security best practices and build a culture of skepticism. For example, a simple step like entering fake passwords in a hyperlinked website can reveal suspicious activity, as spoofed websites typically cannot distinguish between a real and fake password. Security awareness training educates users about email security red flags, best practices like not forwarding or clicking on emails, and how to report possibly suspicious email behavior. 

These five differences and similarities encapsulate what spear phishing and whaling are all about and how you can go about protecting your organization from both attack variants. Let us now illustrate the two using a real-world example. 

Also Read: Top 10 Anti-Phishing Software in 2021

Examples: Whaling vs. Spear Phishing

As mentioned, whaling applies social engineering techniques to convince CXOs to part with information or funds. 

Let’s consider the attack on FACC, a global aerospace and defense company, which had to replace its CEO after an embarrassing whaling attack. FACC manufactures parts for industry giants such as Boeing and Airbus, so, expectedly, its then-CEO Walter Stephan held a significant level of access privileges. As a result of negligence (FACC did not reveal the exact details of the duties Stephan had violated, although it admitted in a statement that he had done so), the company was defrauded of a massive €50 million. 

The attack had several negative consequences. To begin with, the company’s share price plummeted dramatically. FACC was forced to close the fiscal year with an operating loss of €23.4 million compared to €4.5 million in the preceding fiscal. Walter Stephan was also removed by the supervisory board, with an interim CEO taking his place. Interestingly, the company’s share prices increased by 5% after Stephan’s departure was announced – this illustrates how deeply a whaling attack can damage your company’s reputation and market value. 

As an example of spear phishing, let us consider a spate of fraudulent emails that employees at COVID-19 vaccine/therapeutics companies have been bombarded with since last year. The perpetrators spoofed the Office 365 login page, which makes sense as most organizations use Office 365 applications to collaborate. 

When a user clicked on the email hyperlink, they would be redirected to a login page identical to Microsoft’s actual page but was hosted on a spear phishing domain. Logging into the account would cause employees to reveal vital and sensitive healthcare information about COVID-19 vaccination and treatments. The perpetrators were careful to target employees from Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, and several other companies known for their pandemic containment efforts, as detected by cybersecurity company, SlashNext. 

These two examples illustrate how whaling and spear phishing may differ from each other, but why they are both pernicious in their own way. 

Also Read: Top 10 Cloud Security Challenges That 2021 Needs to Address

Preventing Phishing Attacks

Multiple reports confirm that phishing attacks – especially targeted forms of phishing like spear phishing and whaling – pose a massive threat in 2021 and beyond. This is because: 

• • They are relatively low-cost: The hacker only has to invest in the domain and spoofing efforts without any complex programming.
  • They can go undetected: Email filters and scanners can only pick up on signs of fraud within the email’s content and not what appears in a hyperlink or an embedded file on a hyperlinked website. 
  • They can go unreported: As there is always a degree of user guilt involved, self-reporting of successful attacks can be delayed. 

HP’s recent report on cybersecurity predictions for 2021 suggested that cyberattacks will become significantly more targeted in the next few quarters. There are new fears that hackers can exploit, including anxieties around COVID-19 vaccination, political instability, and job security/financial concerns. ProofPoint’s 2021 State of the Phish report suggests a similar trend. 66% of organizations faced targeted phishing attempts in 2020, with over 10% witnessing 26-50 attacks across the year.

Companies must take stringent measures to curtail such risks, keeping in mind the following tips: 

• • Configure your emails so that users cannot click and open hyperlinks directly 
  • Use multi-factor authentication, including physical authentication through keys 
  • Make it a practice to enter the wrong password the first time around, as a fake website will accept it as a real password, immediately alerting you to fraud
  • Adopt least privilege practices, with the expiration of approval rights, IP access, etc., at regular intervals 
  • Teach users about suspicious behavior, such as official-sounding emails from a colleague’s/manager’s personal ID or urgent requests sent during vacations
  • Simulate phishing attacks to isolate the most vulnerable user groups 

Finally, teach users to recognize the different forms of phishing techniques like spear phishing and whaling. The drivers of these attacks are different, they lead to different consequences, and they exploit the hacker’s knowledge of the user’s identity in different ways. By understanding these differences and staying vigilant, you can curb phishing risks and immediately flag any potentially fraudulent event. 

What measures are you taking to curb whaling and spear phishing attacks? Comment below or let us know on LinkedInOpens a new window , Twitter, or FacebookOpens a new window . We would love to hear from you!