How Spear Phishing Campaigns Target C-Suite Executives: Tactics, Tools, and Defense

**Executive summary:** This report describes the growing threat of executive-targeted spear phishing (whaling) and BEC where attackers combine OSINT, large language models, AiTM proxies, voice cloning, and deepfakes to craft highly convincing multi-channel frauds; it documents increased effectiveness and impact (notably $6.3B in BEC losses in 2025 and high click-through/test success rates) and recommends layered controls from reducing executive OSINT exposure to FIDO2/passkeys and mandatory out-of-band verification.