Spear Phishing Attack.

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Hello friends, good to have you back here. Welcome to my blog. Trust you're keeping well. Oh! lest I forget to ask, I hope you're getting value from my post? Please feel free to always share your thoughts in the comment section.

Today we would be looking at another Interesting topic I've titled "Spear Phishing Attack". It might sound new to many because we are use to just phishing attack but as usual I will do my best to simplify this lesson, making it very comprehensive even to a complete novice. So guys let's get into it right away.

Introduction

Phishing is one of the my most commonest cyber attack and it also prevalent in the crypto space. We have record upon record of folks who had fallen victim of phishing. You would agree and bear me witness that some folks had even try this attack on you once even on the steemit platform.

You get to receive some random messages and links from some unknown source or visitors who probably breezed in for a catch. Trust me, I mute these kinds of folks when I spot them around my terrain. Anyways the spear Phishing Attack is a more narrowed attack.

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Have you seen a spear before? I mean have you seen when it's actually used? It's used in such a way that it's aimed and targeted towards something specific and not generic...to the end that it hit whoever or whatever it was targeted at. Let's delve much deeper into it friends.

What is Spear Phishing Attack

Spear Phishing Attack is a targeted kind of attack carried out by malicious folks. When I mean target, I mean an attack specifically aimed at certain individuals or groups of people. It's designed in such a way that the scammers attempts to first win the trust of their victims by sending some phishing message with links which has some elements of familiarity in it, just so that their victims van feel relaxed and play along.

This is unlike the general phishing method where there is no target in particular, so they Just send random links and messages messages to random people. In the spear phishing attack, the victim is known prior to the launching of the attack, hence the word spear...

I know you would like to ask how these folks are targeted with some level of familiarity and fact. Well the answer is not far fetched. These malicious folks do their homework by researching into the lives and activities of their prospectives victims, gathering as much information as possible which they hope can subtly grant them passage into heart of their victims.

How it works

The scammer start this attack by first choosing his target and this is done by some preliminary research before the choice is finally made about who to launch the attack on. It therefore means the targeted individual is already known before the attack.

Afterwards, a thorough research is then made about the target(s). In this phase, the scammer digs into the activities of these people, get serious fact and details about these people, they could get from their social handles or friends online...they could go as far as tracking their transaction and the likes.

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The next phase is to then create the spear phishing mail or text messages which would be sent to these targeted folks, bear in mind that the email or text message would contain some of the factual information they have gathered about the individual, which make them disposed to the attack.

Finally, an unsuspecting victim fall for this because the fact are all obvious and true, making them have a level of trust and a sense of familiarity with whoever sent them the message...not knowing its a trap to get some sensitive information such as Keys and login details.

Safety Tips for safeguarding ourselves

• You could subscribe to the use of VPN to protect all your online activity so that it's not exposed to all tom, dick and harry...

• You could also avoid clicking links from email sent especially when you have iota of doubt about the source, rather go to the organization or project website to check things out yourself.

• Take time to learn how to identify legitimate URLs, some to the clowned websites we have today have URLs that looks synonymous to a real website.

• Avoid sharing too many personal information online because this is where they get the needed information to carry out the spear Phishing Attack.

• Subscribe to the use of smart password manager to help you manage your passwords and it usage

Bottom Line

I believe by now we know what an a spear Phishing Attack is, the bitter fact is that we might not be able to avoid it but then we can protect ourselves against it. I trust you've gotten so much from this piece. As my usual custom is, I would always encourage that you DYOR to be sure of every financial step you would want to take as I won't be liable for any form of loss encountered by you.

Feel free to share with me your thoughts in the comment section. Thanks for your time once again. Gracias!

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^{Disclaimer: This post is made as an education and not investment advice. Digital asset prices are subject to change. All forms of crypto investment have a high risk. I am not a financial advisor, before jumping to any conclusions in this matter please do your own research and consult a financial advisor.}

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Regards
@lhorgic♥️

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