Whaling: What Is It & How to Prevent an Attack

Phishing attacks use fraudulent emails, phone calls, or text messages to try to trick you into revealing your personal information. While any type of phishing attack can be dangerous, whaling attacks are especially risky because they target high-level executives and other individuals with access to sensitive company data.

We're doing a deep dive on whaling in this blog post. Read on to learn more.

What is Whaling?

Whaling is a form of phishing attack that specifically targets senior management, executives, and other C-suite level personnel. Unlike general phishing attacks, the intent of whaling is to cause critical damage such as theft of confidential data or access to sensitive financial accounts. Whaling attacks usually come in the form of emails that appear to come from legitimate sources such as banks, government agencies, or company departments. The emails will often contain malicious links or attachments that can lead to the installation of malware or other malicious software on the user's computer.

The goal of whaling phishing is to attempt to access sensitive corporate or government data. The attack is designed to access the most sensitive information and data a company or organization might have, such as financial records, trade secrets, or other restricted information. To carry out a successful attack, whaling phishers often masquerade as important people within the organization, such as company executives or board members.

How Does Whaling Work?

Phishing attacks, in general, are designed to trick you into revealing your personal information—like your username, password, or credit card details. But whaling attacks are a specific type of phishing attack that specifically targets high-level executives and managers within a company.

Whaling attackers use social engineering tactics to lure their targets into opening malicious emails or clicking on malicious links. They might pose as a colleague or vendor, for example, in order to get the target to trust them. And they often go after big fish—executives and managers who have access to sensitive company information.

Once the target has been lured in, the whaling attacker will try to get them to reveal confidential company information like passwords or account numbers. They may even try to get the target to wire money to an account controlled by the attacker.

If a whaling attack is successful, the consequences can be devastating—not just for the company that's been targeted, but also for its employees, shareholders, and customers.

The first thing that happens is that the attacker gains access to sensitive information, like financial records, employee data, or trade secrets. This information can be used to commit fraud or launch additional attacks.

In some cases, the attacker may even take over the CEO's email account and use it to send instructions to wire money to a bank account they control. This type of fraud is known as "business email compromise" and it can cost companies millions of dollars.

The second thing that happens is that the company's reputation takes a hit. Once word gets out that sensitive information has been compromised, customers and investors will lose faith in the company's ability to protect their data. This can lead to a loss of business and a decline in share value.

Whaling Attack Targets

Whaling targets are chief executives and corporate leaders, or whales. They're the biggest fish in the sea (hence the name) and tend to have access to the most valuable information. They can be difficult to catch but are totally worth the effort. 

For example, in 2020, the co-founder of the Australian hedge fund Levitas Capital clicked on a fraudulent zoom link that installed malware on the fund's network. The attackers used false invoices to try to steal $8.7 million. Although they got away with only $800,000, the hedge fund suffered severe reputational damage, enough to lose their biggest client and eventually shut down. 

However, if you're thinking that only big companies are targets, think again. Small businesses are just as likely to be targeted by whaling attacks. In fact, small and medium sized businesses may even be more vulnerable because they may not have the resources to detect and prevent attacks. 

Preventing Whaling Attacks

Some security best practices to follow when it comes to targeted phishing attacks and phishing attacks in general are as follows:

Always be suspicious of unexpected communications, even from people you know. If you receive an unexpected email or message from someone you know, always verify the sender's identity. Go one or two steps further to examine the content of the email, the format, the subject line and the purpose of the message. If something seems off, make sure you go to the source and verify that the message is legitimate. Whaling emails often try to create a sense of urgency or confusion to get you to respond quickly. They may even use familiar language and terminology to make you think the message is coming from a trusted source or that a conversation has already taken place. Don't let your guard down easily. 

A staggering 59% of firms fell prey to a phishing attack in 2021 and were then afflicted with ransomware, causing more issues and incurring large expenses. However, just over 52% of businesses spend less than a quarter of their security budget on phishing. With so many companies having a lack of investment in security, it's no surprise that they are targeted by attacks. 

With phishing, enterprises need a solution that can be implemented quickly, easily and affordably. Our Evolve suite has two solutions that can help you fight the phish easily: 

Evolve's Cyber Threat Intelligence automatically integrates into your security infrastructure to provide proactive protection for your business. Get spam and phishing intelligence in real time, and avoid costly breaches. In addition, Evolve's Leaked Password Monitoring automatically monitors your corporate accounts to identify and alert you to any accounts that have been compromised so that you can get a heads-up about the security breaches that could affect your enterprise.

Conclusion

By following the security best practices outlined above, you can minimize the likelihood of being targeted by a whaling attack and protect your enterprise and data. Investing in the right security solutions and technologies will also help to ensure that your business is protected from this and other phishing attacks. And finally, the key to staying safe is being aware and prepared. If you'd like to protect your business from phishing, check out our Evolve suite or schedule a free consultation with one of our security experts today.