Chapter 2 - Types of Phishing Attacks

What are some of the different types of Phishing Attacks?

There are five different types of Phishing techniques that are used.

1. Phishing: This is a general term used to describe an attacker who is using emails to try and scam end-users into downloading malicious programs or providing sensitive information.

2. Spear Phishing: When an attacker wants to target certain members or an individual this is usually referred to as spear phishing. Think about when a person goes spear phishing, they are choosing a specific fish to catch.

3. Vishing: This is a type of phishing that is conducted via a phone. Another term for this attack is voice phishing. An attacker will call an end-user and use various types of social engineering attacks to get their victim to divulge personal information.

4. SMishing: This type of attack is the opposite of Vishing and is conducted via text message. An attacker will pretend to be someone from a company and try to get their victim to click on a link sent by text message or have them divulge personal information.

5. Whaling: This type of attack is similar to Spear Phishing but instead focuses on attacking the CEO or other important members of a company. An attacker will try to leverage this type of attack to gain sensitive data and even try to take down a company or perform a Ransome Attack.

Additional Learning Resources

Cited: YouTube. (2018). Types of Phishing. YouTube. Retrieved March 17, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2HzEUEhRT0.