What This Means for Your Organization:
- Compared to classical phishing techniques, AI-Powered attacks generate more personalized phishing emails that make them far more believable.
- Attacks can be sent out in massive waves due to the automation capabilities of AI.
- In combination with other malicious AI techniques such as deepfaking, AI-Powered phishing attacks allow for stronger impersonation capabilities.
- AI adapts and learns from its patterns and attack attempts, improving over time to directly target the victim.
What Is Phishing?
There are a handful of techniques when it comes to phishing. In general, phishing attacks use urgency to pressure the victim into giving up sensitive information. This can include passwords, sensitive documents and files, and more.
How Is AI Propelling Phishing Capabilities?
Phishing attacks target victims in a variety of ways including email phishing, spear phishing, whaling attacks, vishing, and smishing.
| Phishing Techniques | How It Works |
|---|---|
| Email phishing | Email phishing includes broad access attempts, such as a fake password reset email from an email posing as Microsoft or Amazon. AI allows there to be more attempts in a shorter amount of time. They can also adapt to real emails from Amazon or Microsoft to make it indistinguishable to tell the difference. |
| Spear phishing | You could receive spoofed emails from your IT department asking for your login credentials with an email that looks very similar to the real deal. Similarly to regular email phishing, AI can adapt to a company’s structure to better send out malicious emails targeted at specific employees. |
| Whaling attacks | Whaling attacks target higher-up positions at businesses. CEOs, for example, are heavily targeted by using emails from fake co-worker addresses. Here AI can again adapt to the general company hierarchy to target specific managers, or lower roles that are more susceptible to falling for emails from their CEO. |
| Vishing | Vishing is done through phone calls, think of spam calls pretending to be your bank for example. Newer forms of vishing use AI to replicate your bosses or a loved ones voice to reel you in. This is also being improved by attackers ingesting social media information like LinkedIn or Facebook data to better replicate behavior from loved ones or your manager/boss. |
| Smishing | Smishing, similar to vishing, uses text messages to try to convince you to hand over your credentials. Deepfakes are used to generate videos of your boss leaving you a recorded message to send him sensitive information. |
How to Protect your Company from AI-Powered Phishing Attacks
The key to protecting your company and yourself from AI-Powered Phishing Attacks is by creating awareness and simulation training to become less susceptible to attacks. As CISA states, more than 90% of successful cyber attacks start with a phishing email. Knowing how to tell a real email, phone call, or video apart from a phishing attempt is key in staying safe. This is more important than ever with AI adapting and becoming more believable by the day. While training can only go so far, implementing solid guidelines and policies to inform your organization on how to deal with these malicious attempts is also crucial.
Some common red flags to look out for include:
- Suspicious Senders
- Urgency and Panic
- Suspicious Email Content
- Requests for Access to Sensitive Data
- Unusual Calls or Texts
Additionally, a solid email security system can be a vital service, as this almost completely eliminates phishing emails. Total Assure’s Managed Email Security (MES) solution blocks phishing attempts, malware, and business email compromise before threats even reach your inbox. Our tools integrate seamlessly with your existing email provider and adapt over time using AI, learning your organization’s patterns to reduce false positives and increase accuracy. For small businesses, this means enterprise-grade protection without the complexity or high costs. Instead you get reliable, always-on defense that keeps your communications secure.
About Total Assure
Total Assure, a spin-off from IBSS, provides uninterrupted business operations with our dedicated 24/7/365 in-house SOC, robust managed security solutions, and expert consulting services. Total Assure provides cost-efficient, comprehensive, and scalable cybersecurity solutions that leverage 30 years of experience and expertise from IBSS. Total Assure partners with its customers to identify security gaps, develop attainable cybersecurity objectives, and deliver comprehensive cybersecurity solutions that protect their businesses from modern cybersecurity threats.
For more information on how Total Assure can assist your organization, talk to a compliance expert today.
