Spotlight on AI-enabled phishing threats
GenAI has undoubtedly proven transformative in turning up productivity across businesses. Yet on the flip side of this transformation is a perilous truth: AI is also turning novice to average threat actors into skilled social engineers and sophisticated phishing attackers.
By automating and personalizing various components of the attack process, AI speeds up and refines phishing attacks, making them more sophisticated and difficult to detect.
- GenAI quickly analyzes public data, such as information about organizations and executives, saving time in reconnaissance for threat actors and enabling more precise targeted attacks.
- LLM chatbots craft accurate, believable phishing communications and emails by eliminating misspellings and grammar mistakes.
- GenAI can swiftly generate convincing phishing pages. The ThreatLabz report showcases how ChatGPT created a phishing login page in less than 10 prompts, and provides key indicators to look out for when identifying a phishing page.
AI has blurred the line between authentic and fraudulent content, making it all the more challenging to discern phishing schemes from legitimate web pages and digital communication.
As ThreatLabz researchers tracked phishing trends throughout 2023, several notable advanced AI tactics also emerged. Among these were the rise of vishing and deepfake phishing, increasingly favored social engineering tactics that use AI-powered impersonation tools.
Vishing insights
Advanced vishing campaigns are gaining popularity globally, leading to substantial financial losses in some cases. In a notable attempt that ThreatLabz thwarted during the summer of 2023, phishing attackers used AI technology to perpetrate a vishing attack by impersonating Zscaler CEO Jay Chaudhry. The report details the sequence of events, serving as a critical reminder for enterprises and employees to stay vigilant against vishing scammers. ThreatLabz anticipates a continued surge in targeted voice phishing campaigns led by groups like Scattered Spider in the next year. As these efforts aim to acquire employee login credentials, it is imperative for organizations to fortify their phishing defenses to prevent unauthorized access and exploitation.
Deepfake insights
Phishing attacks involving deepfakes will be one of the most challenging AI-driven cyberthreats. Threat actors now possess the ability to create video content that precisely and accurately replicates faces, voices, and mannerisms. This manipulation has already manifested in concerning ways, such as in the electoral process, where deepfake videos fabricate false narratives or statements from political figures. These videos can sway public opinion, disseminate disinformation, and erode trust in the integrity of the electoral process. As society becomes more and more reliant on digital communication and media consumption, the potential political and life-altering ramifications of deepfake scams will likely extend far beyond the scope of current applications. From financial scams to corporate espionage, the use of deepfake technology poses a significant threat to organizations, individuals, and society at large.
Additionally, ThreatLabz observed a rise in QR code scams, recruitment scams, browser-in-the-browser (BitB) attacks, and adversary-in-the-middle (AiTM) attacks. Learn more about each of these schemes in the report.
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