spear phishing

noun

variants or less commonly spear-phishing

ˈspir-ˌfi-shiŋ 

: a targeted attempt to trick a specific person into revealing personal or confidential information that can then be used illicitly

In spear phishing, hackers first identify a target. Unlike basic phishing, which casts a wide net, spear phishing focuses on a specific person or group.

—eMazzanti Technologies

The hyper-personalized emails known as spear-phishing can use information from your LinkedIn profile, including your connections.

—Leslie Collins

spear-phishing emails

Examples of spear phishing in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Domains are also used for spear phishing or botnets. —Ken Carnesi, Forbes, 27 Mar. 2024

British officials said the spear phishing campaign targeted multiple candidates for Parliament and included the stealing and releasing of British-U.S. trade documents before the 2019 election, in which trade was a key issue. —Washington Post Staff, Washington Post, 7 Dec. 2023

An example of this is when a cybercriminal uses a spear phishing email to gain access to a single laptop and then can get into the entire server and gather sensitive credentials. —Shane Buckley, Forbes, 13 Nov. 2023

Training staff on preventing phishing and spear phishing, in particular, is vital. —Carlo Tortora Brayda, Forbes, 17 July 2023

Hendrycks suspects extensions inspired by ChatGPT plugins could make tasks like spear phishing or phishing emails a lot easier. —WIRED, 28 Mar. 2023

Word History

Etymology

respelling of spearfishing (gerund of spearfish entry 2), after phishing

First Known Use

2004, in the meaning defined above