Whaling For Beginners

by Jérôme Vincent

Board-level executives are known as ’whales' amongst hackers. That's because they're the big fish who hold the keys to the really big prizes; money, intellectual property, and corporate governance. Jim Baines, CEO of a major US packaging company, didn't know he was a ’whale' until someone hacked his email and got into the heart of his company. ’Whaling for Beginners' follows Jim's journey as he realises just how close to home cyber-attacks can strike and how broad the hackers' ambitions are. As his company's very survival hangs in the balance, it emerges that the ultimate target of the whaling attack is the CFO of his biggest client - and one of his oldest friends. Out of nowhere, hard-won reputations, hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars are all suddenly at risk..

79 pages, Paperback

Published June 16, 2016

Reviews

[Nigel Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

This very short novella is an except introduction to the world and impact of individually targeted spear phishing attacks, whaling.
The immediate consequences and possible motivations are explored, specific to the story but also notional alternatives are mentioned.

This book mostly looks from the top down, exploring the C level that is the target rather than the IT and InfoSec that so often is the subject matter concentrated on with such topics.

Recommended as a starter.
Now, on to read the full nov!

[Tobias · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very nice and interesting short story how hackers whailing the Big Fishes...

[Mike Steinharter · Rating 2 out of 5]

cute. scary fable about what can happen to a CEO if their cybersecurity is breached. took about an hour to read