“If you Don’t understand Viruses, Phishing and similar Threats, you become more Susceptible to them. If you Don’t know how Social Networks Leak Information that you thought was Private, you’re likely to Reveal much more than you Realize” - Brian Kernighan
The expansion of the cyber realm brought in its own share of pros and cons. While it helped individuals connect to the world outside; at the same time, it did somewhere shattered the idea of what was considered to be ‘private’.
The virtual world became a dangerous avenue for different forms of cyber attacks and crimes which eventually resulted in revelation of sensitive personal information, identity theft, cyber bullying and so on.
Two such cyber attacks which directly compromises the idea of the private and the personal, shall be discussed here.
This pertains to the topic of Spoofing vs. Phishing. The apparent similarities between the two have made people overlook the difference between Spoofing and Phishing.
However, the issue of Phishing vs. Spoofing is very much a real one and it is important to understand each of them, in its entirety, in order to be able to effectively detect and mitigate each of them.
In this blog, we shall undertake a comparative study on the topic of Spoofing Attack vs. Phishing.
We shall seek to understand the difference between Phishing and Spoofing by highlighting the key points of each. Consequently, we shall take up a tripartite comparison on the issue of Spam vs. Phishing vs. Spoofing.
What is the difference between Phishing and Spoofing?
What is Phishing?
This Cyber Security threat technique is one of the most common forms of cyber attack wherein the intention is to acquire critical data in the form of passwords, credentials, credit card numbers and so on, by sending email, messages and links, disguised from sources which the victims have reason to trust.

The attacker puts up a fake appearance as a trusted entity (legitimate company/person) in order to extract sensitive information from random individuals by manipulating them. Phishing is made successful through different forms of user interaction.
This can be through instant messages or calls for acquiring confidential data such as credit card information, emails containing malicious links resulting in download of risky attachments and so on.
Examples of Phishing
In this section, we shall look at some of the most common ways in which phishing attacks are carried out.
- Requests for verification of personal data through malicious emails
- Emails or calls from recognized financial institutions like banks, asking for passwords, OTP or PIN
- Emails using the bait of tax refunds to dupe victims
- The use of the phrase ‘Click Here’ is quite common in such suspicious communication
- Phishing can take place when the DNS of an individual’s router is changed without their knowledge
- You must be used to making payments online, however, you might receive false emails claiming that a particular payment made by you has failed and hence instigate you to take a particular action
- There might be instances wherein you might be redirected to a fraudulent site upon entering the URL in the browser
Types of Phishing
Let us check out some of the most common types of phishing attack.
Email Phishing: The phishing attack is carried out through malicious emails. It is the most common form of phishing attack.
Spear Phishing: It is a form of phishing attack wherein the email is sent to specific targets such as specific individuals, business or organizations. Intention might be to steal information or install malware on the targeted victim’s system.

Whaling: Also known as CEO Phishing, this attack is essentially targeted towards business leaders or senior executives of organizations.
Since, it is a highly targeted form of attack and also uses email as the primary medium for carrying out phishing; it is a combination of spear and email phishing. In most cases, the intention is to initiate the transfer of funds.
Clone Phishing: As the name suggests, this attack involves the act of cloning or creating a replica. The attacker clones/creates a replica of a legitimate or genuine email which an individual might have had received from an authentic source.
The forged email is identical to the genuine email and is sent from a spoofed email id. It does contain malicious content like a link which if clicked, results in the installation of malware in the victim’s system.
Angler Phishing: This kind of phishing attack uses social media as the medium for instigating a cyber attack. Attempt is to steal data and information posted on social media platforms and consequently force victims in divulging personal information.
Smishing: This attack makes use of text messages for tricking users. The messages usually involve phone numbers for the user to call or a link to a website which is controlled by the attacker.
Vishing: A Vishing Attack is considered to be a combination of Voice and a Phishing Attack. Vishing can be understood as a voice based phishing attack, meant to extract personal or financial information from the victims over a fraudulent phone call.

Want to know about Vishing in full?, refer to our blog on “What is Vishing?: Everything you Need to Know about this Voice Scam”
Prevention Strategies
- In case of received emails, double check the source of the same
- Be cautious while opening or downloading attachments. Do open them only when you are convinced that they are from trusted sources
- Completely get rid of emails which involve misspellings within the body of the message or otherwise have an unprofessional tone to it. Also be vigilant of emails which contain sensational subject lines like “Act Now”, “Hurry” and so on.
- When you are doubtful of a particular piece of communication, do verify it directly from the sender.
