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the user into opening an attachment. It is evident that most attackers are carefully selecting the themes that they
use for their attacks. Some groups use real news stories and copy the text directly from the newspaper websites.
Others try to appeal to personal hobbies in order to get the user
s attention.
In the energy sector the most commonly used theme for spear phishing emails was money related (e.g.
Wage Data
2012
) followed by sports related themes (e.g.
2012-13 NFL Playoffs Schedule
As an example, the subject line
Wage Data 2012
was used in 944 emails, sent from 26 different email addresses
to targets in nine different sectors. The attack was carried out over eight days and used the same infected Microsoft
Word document in every instance.
In general any topic can be used in a social engineering attempt, which makes it even harder for regular users to spot
the attacks. Here are a few examples of subject lines used, listed by category:
Contact detail updates:
Updated Corporate & Regional Office Contact Information
Updated Information For Contact List
Address Change
Event and conference details:
The Energy and Economic Summit 2012
12th Annual International Conference on Politics & International
Fw: Doha Climate Change Conference - November 2012
US Energy Information Administration Invitation
Global news stories:
BREAKING NEWS PHOTOS,BEIJING
President Obamas Asia Policy and Upcoming Trip to the Region
DoD Protection of Whistleblowing Spies
U.S. Engagement in the Pacific
Money related:
Acknowledge Payment
Payroll Invoice for week ending 02/15/2013 - 09509
Bank Details/Swift Code Error
Unable to process your most recent Payment
Sport related:
2012 NFL Schedule
2012-13 NFL Playoffs Schedule
2012-08-02 Thursdays sixth day of the 2012 Olympic Games
London 2012 Medal Top 10
Lifestyle related:
125 Best Foods for Men
2013 Lingerie Calendar... discover your deepest desires!
Page 21
Targeted Attacks Against the Energy Sector
8 Minutes to a Longer Life
Special interest groups:
Shamoon Upgrade Edition Malware Might Be Flame Copycat!
CyberAlert: Cyberattacks spread in banks all over the world
3D printing technology used in Chinese fighter jets
2013 Defense Industries Manufacturing
Spear phishing attack details
In the last six month of 2012 the average
number of targeted attacks observed per
day was 87 (with 14 in the energy sector).
In the first six month of 2013 the average
number decreased to 60 targeted attacks
per day (five in the energy sector). The
spike in August and September 2012
is mostly related to a large scale attack
against a global oil company. The increase
in May 2013 was due to multiple attacks
against financial services, public sector
and IT service organizations.
The government and public sector was
quantitatively the most attacked sector,
with 25.4 percent of all targeted attacks
falling in this sector for the last half of
2012 and 24 percent for the first half of Figure 2: Number of targeted attacks per day
2013. The energy sector accounted for 7.6
percent of all targeted attacks, making it
the fifth most targeted sector in the first six month of 2013. This was a big decrease from 16.3 percent of all attacks
in the last half of 2012, when it was the second most attacked sector. This spike in 2012 is mainly due to a large
attack campaign against a global oil company which took place in September 2012.
On average we saw
18.6 mail accounts
being attacked for
any given target
company in the
last half of 2012
(60.7 in the energy
sector) and 5.6 email
accounts in the first
half of 2013 (10 in
the energy sector).
Overall, we see a
trend of the attacker
conducting more
focused attacks
against fewer
individuals. This
generates less noise
and the risk of getting
noticed or discovered
is smaller. These
emails are sent in
Figure 3: Top 10 of targeted attacks by vertical sectors
small bursts and then
Page 22
Targeted Attacks Against the Energy Sector