What Is Spear Phishing?

Spear phishing is a form of cyber attack targeted at a particular person or small set of individuals. In these scams, bad actors research their chosen targets and attempt to convince them to surrender sensitive data or financial information. Spear phishing attacks may also aim to infect user devices with malware, allowing attackers to steal the data they need to carry out further attacks on an organization.

Spear phishing scams succeed in part because the perpetrators research their targets so as to pose as trustworthy sources. With the rise of technologies like machine learning, which can help attackers create more compelling messages, spear phishing is an increasingly dangerous threat. Phishing can be conducted across any of the many communication apps emplo