Phish Bowl - What is Whaling

Whaling is a highly targeted phishing attack - aimed at senior executives - masquerading as a legitimate email. Whaling is digitally enabled fraud designed to encourage victims to perform a secondary action, such as initiating a wire transfer of funds.

Whaling emails are more sophisticated than generic phishing emails as they often target chief ('c-level') executives and usually:

• contain personalized information about the targeted organization or individual
• convey a sense of urgency
• are crafted with a solid understanding of business language and tone