spear-phishing

British  

noun

1. the practice of sending fraudulent e-mails to extract financial data from computer users for purposes of identity theft, by mimicking a sender that the recipient knows

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Example Sentences

The Harris camp said last week it had been the target of an unsuccessful spear-phishing attack.

From BBC • Aug. 19, 2024

Searching for and processing raw data also exposes them to potential cyber incidents, including spear-phishing attacks and malware infection.

From Scientific American • May 8, 2023

In its earlier post-mortem, it blamed “advanced spear-phishing attacks” that compromised an employee who no longer worked at Sky Mavis — but it didn’t explain the exact mechanism of the hack.

From The Verge • Jul. 6, 2022

The game’s popularity made the company a target: Employees at Sky Mavis were under constant advanced spear-phishing attacks on various social channels.

From New York Times • Jun. 30, 2022

CrowdStrike shared images of the spear-phishing emails with the AP.

From Washington Times • Jun. 23, 2019