A type of
phishing attack that focuses on a single
user or department within an organization, addressed from someone within the
company in a position of trust and requesting information such as
login IDs and
passwords. Spear phishing scams will often appear to be from a company's own human
resources or technical support divisions and may ask employees to update their
username and passwords. Once hackers get this data they can gain entry
into secured networks. Another type of spear phishing attack will ask users to click on a
link, which deploys
spyware that can thieve data.
Also see the
All
About Phishing page in the
"Did You Know?
section of Webopedia for more information, including examples, of phishing.
