What is Spear-Phishing? Protect yourself from attacks

Spear phishing is a new and dangerous scam that criminals use to try to steal important data from companies, individuals and associations. It can also result in malware on your PC, which is why you should protect yourself at all costs.

How does it work?

To prevent spear phishing and its consequences, you need to know how the perpetrators operate.

1. First, you notice just one email in your inbox that seems to come from a reputable source. Often, these are classic providers, such as Apple.
2. In the email, you are told about a content that makes it necessary for you to respond to it. This can be a problem with a user account, the demand regarding an order or a similarly harmless reason.
3. You will then find a link in the mail, which is supposed to redirect you directly to the affected website or to the problem.
4. Once you click on this link, you will be redirected automatically. However, you do not get to the correct page of the provider, but to the page of the hackers.
5. The integrated measures ensure that malware gets onto the laptop or that data and information are stolen.

What can you do?

What makes spear phishing so dangerous is that the fraud attempts are difficult to identify and if the perpetrators succeed, enormous damage can occur. Since conventional protection measures are not enough, you should always check the sender before clicking on a link in an email. There are often small discrepancies or spelling mistakes in such emails. If that is the case, delete the message immediately.