Spearphishing
The Night Dragon attacks in 2011 targeting global oil, energy and petrochemical companies began with a spearphishing attack and enabled attackers to remain stealthy on some systems for as long as four years. The Google Aurora attack, which impacted Adobe and dozens of other firms in 2009, was believed to have started with a spearphishing attack. Several RSA employees were targeted with custom phishing messages leading to the RSA SecurID breach. Spearphishing works because it is coupled with social engineering and designed to lure the victim into opening a malicious file attachment or click on a malicious link. The best defense is end-user security awareness training, said Randy Abrams, research director at security vendor testing firm NSS Labs. Technology alone cannot thwart targeted attacks. Security-minded people help bolster defenses, Abrams said.
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