Spear phishing

nounverified·updated May 9, 2026

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An attack targeting a specific user or group of users, and attempts to deceive the user into performing an action that launches an attack, such as opening a document or clicking a link. Spear phishers rely on knowing some personal piece of information about their target, such as an event, interest, travel plans, or current issues. Sometimes this information is gathered by hacking into the targeted network.

MWEFederal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) IT Examination Handbook Infobase, Glossary

Senses

1 more sense beyond the canonical

ISACA Cybersecurity Glossary

An attack where social engineering techniques are used to masquerade as a trusted party to obtain important information such as passwords from the victim

Classifications

per-axis with provenance

Entity Type

Threat90%rule-basedr:entity.threat.attack.v1

?unassignedlast reviewed —

Sensitivity

unclassified

Information Class

unclassified

Variants

3 surface forms

plural: Spear phishings
possessive: Spear phishing's
pluralpossessive: Spear phishings'

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