Currently, cybercriminals are using methods that are more advanced, precise and effective. A particularly dangerous type of cyberattack today is the whaling attack which targets senior executives with authority over finances or strategy. Unlike most phishing scams, a whaling attack is meant to trick the top-level decision-makers—the most important people in an organization.
When these attacks change, the tools used in them also progress. Scammers are taking advantage of the advanced deception brought by deepfake technology. This blog discusses the details of whaling, the increase in deepfake fraud and how companies can protect themselves.
What is the meaning of a Whaling Attack?
Whaling attacks are a kind of spear phishing aimed at attacking CEOs, CFOs and directors. In these cases, the attacker pretends to be a senior executive, including the CEO, to get employees to do things against company policy. Some of these methods are moving a big amount of money, sharing private information or clicking on a harmful link that could lead to more problems.
Since these attacks are personalized and appropriate, they usually get past standard security measures and fool even the most careful employees.
Deepfake Fraud is Showing Up in Whaling Attacks
Cybercriminals have recently started using deepfake technology to boost their tactics in whaling. Deepfakes make use of artificial intelligence to produce very realistic videos or audio recordings of people who exist. When social engineering is used together with these technologies, it makes it much easier to fool people.
Imagine a finance executive getting a phone call from a caller claiming to be the CEO, who directs them to quickly move funds. The voice is the same, the speaker sounds natural and the background noise makes it seem like a crowded office. If deepfakes are not detected, you cannot tell them apart from real videos.
In 2019, somebody used AI-created speech to pretend to be the CEO of an energy company in the UK. The company executive was taken advantage of and sent €220,000 to a Hungarian supplier in good faith after believing he was having a conversation with his German parent company’s CEO. The case was one of the first times a deepfake scam was used in a corporate fraud scheme.
CEO Fraud is a form of Whaling.
In a CEO fraud attack, a cybercriminal pretends to be the CEO and, using email or a phone call, tries to convince a staff member in finance or HR to do something harmful to the company.
CEO fraud emails are more professional than the usual phishing emails full of errors and questionable links. A lot of the time, they use company terms, job titles and the same email signatures found in real business emails. Many times, they are sent when the CEO is away which lowers the chance of immediate verification.
Now, deepfake fraud expands the ways that CEO impersonation can take place. Fraudsters are able to make fake videos or audio messages which makes social engineering scams more powerful.
The issues of Whaling and Deepfake Scams are both very expensive to deal with.
The loss of money from a successful whaling attack can be very severe. In addition to losing money right away, organizations go through further issues:
Tarnishing the reputation that the company has with clients, stakeholders and the wider public.
What happens legally if customer data is leaked.
Problems in daily business activities as systems are looked into and brought back online.
Trust between internal teams and leadership starts to decline.
As reported by the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), by 2023, the global losses caused by business email compromise (BEC) scams, including CEO fraud and whaling, were over $50 billion. Because deepfake attacks are on the rise, these numbers are expected to jump up in the coming years.
Steps to Identify and Stop Whaling Attacks
Dealing with whaling and deepfake scams needs a variety of strategies. These strategies are especially important:
1. Tools for spotting Deepfakes
Install AI-based deepfake detecttion to review and mark any questionable audio or video communications. They review changes in a person’s sound, facial movements and digital signatures to check if they are genuine.
2. Employee Training
Train all staff, mainly those in executive and finance jobs, to recognize and check any unusual messages—even when they seem to be from a trusted source.
3. Verification Protocols
Make sure that sensitive actions such as fund transfers or data sharing are confirmed by another method. For example, a phone call, a video call or a secure messaging platform that is hard to fake.
4. Email Authentication
Turn on SPF, DKIM and DMARC to lessen the chance of your emails being imitated. This way, these measures confirm the authenticity of the senders.
5. Reduce the amount of public information released.
Do not publish sensitive things about your executives—including travel plans, who they report to and contact details—on public websites or social media. They commonly use the details they find to create realistic stories for their scams.
Final Thoughts
Modern whaling attacks go beyond simple phishing emails and now depend on technology as well as people’s emotions. Because of deepfake scams and CEO fraud, organizations must urgently improve their cybersecurity.
If organizations use good planning, strong detection methods and well-informed employees, they can minimize these incidents. The most important thing is to be careful, check everything and promote awareness about security at all levels of the organization.
