spear phishing

Traditional phishing -- where hackers attempt to acquire personal data from individuals in hopes of defrauding them -- is bad enough. But even more alarming is the rise of a new kind of attack: "spear phishing."

As if it wasn't enough to worry about plain old phishing scams, the FBI today issued a warning about a more malicious type called spear phishing. This type of scheme is not new, but the FBI warns it is on the rise. Spear phishing differs from regular phishing in its approach. Rather than use a...