COMPUTER SYSTEMS CONFRONT A RELENTLESS ONSLAUGHT OF CHALLENGES POSED BY DIVERSE ATTACKS. DR. DAN PIENTA, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS, SHEDS LIGHT ON HOW WHALING SHARPENS ITS FOCUS ON THE KEY FIGURES WITHIN A COMPANY, CAPTIVATING THE ATTENTION OF THE BIG FISH IN THE VAST DIGITAL SEA.
“Whaling are individuals who are high value targets, maybe the chief executive officer, the chief financial officer, or someone in an organization who controls resources. You are looking for the whale of the organization and it could be impersonating or targeting that individual or someone below there.”
PIENTA EMPHASIZES THAT WHALING ATTACKS INVOLVE STRATEGICALLY EXPLOITING UNCERTAINTIES IN BUSINESSES TO GAIN ACCESS TO SIGNIFICANT FUNDS THROUGH IMPERSONATION AND URGENCY CREATION.
“They know that there might be a large transaction that the organization's trying to close a deal on. They track the people in the organization who are close to that high value target. They time it up, they might send, we need to get this money, or this deal is going to fall through.”
TRAINING AND ADVANCED TOOLS, INCLUDING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, STRENGTHEN BUSINESSES AGAINST EVOLVING WHALING ATTACKS. THE PIVOTAL STRATEGY INCLUDES EXPANDING THE SECURITY PERIMETER TO ENCOMPASS EXECUTIVES' PERSONAL LIVES.
“We have to worry about protecting you in the organization, but we have to worry about protecting you outside of it. And that's expanding our perimeter, which is hard to do because then you start merging and invading people's personal space.”
THE BUSINESS REVIEW IS A PRODUCTION OF LIVINGSTON AND MCKAY AND THE HANKAMER SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY