Spear Phishing vs. Phishing: What’s the Difference?

This blog outlines why email-based attacks — particularly AI-enhanced spear phishing — continue to be the most successful initial compromise vector, describes differences between phishing and spear phishing, catalogs common techniques (lookalike domains, vendor impersonation, conversation hijacking, malicious calendar invites), discusses detection challenges for legacy filters, and recommends defenses including email authentication (SPF/DKIM/DMARC), real-time vendor/domain monitoring, zero-trust email controls, access controls, and ongoing security training.