Is Your Business At Risk of Getting AI Phished?
Are you ready to defend your business against evolving phishing threats?
It only takes one successful phishing attack to bring your enterprise business to its knees. Of course, you probably know this already and may have even taken steps to train your workforce to recognize suspect emails containing links to crippling ransomware and other threats.
But phishing has recently evolved thanks to advancements in AI platforms that refine grammar, spelling, and graphic design. Even phishing by phone, better known as vishing, has improved, thanks to platforms that can mimic familiar voices.
Let's look at how AI shapes phishing and provides strategies for combatting these new threats to your business.
Automated Spear Phishing
Cybercriminals use AI-powered tools to gather information about potential victims from various sources, such as social media, public databases, and breached data. This information personalizes phishing messages, making them more convincing and tailored to the target's interests and activities.
Natural Language Generation
AI can be used to generate highly convincing and contextually appropriate text. Attackers exploit this by crafting phishing emails that closely mimic the writing style of legitimate senders, making it harder for recipients to distinguish between real and fake messages.
Email Spoofing
Artificial intelligence can analyze patterns in legitimate email communications and generate spoofed emails that appear to come from trusted sources. These spoofed emails can deceive recipients into believing they're interacting with a legitimate entity, such as a business banking representative.
Tools that leverage artificial intelligence can efficiently test stolen username-password combinations across various websites to identify instances where users have reused passwords. This technique is often used in phishing attacks to gain unauthorized account access.
Visual Spoofing
Attackers can use AI to manipulate images and videos to create realistic login pages, forms, or even videos that mimic legitimate websites or services. These 'deep fakes’ can trick users into divulging sensitive information.
Automated Responses
AI-powered chatbots can simulate human-like interactions, which criminals can leverage to engage with targets in real time. These chatbots can lead victims to malicious websites or trick them into revealing personal information or sensitive business data.
Evading Security Measures
Attackers can use artificial intelligence to analyze and circumvent security mechanisms, like spam filters and behavioral analysis. Or they can craft phishing attacks designed to avoid detection and increase their chances of reaching the intended targets.
Protecting Your Business from AI Phishing
On the defensive side, enterprise businesses can combat these advanced phishing techniques using artificial intelligence:
Email Filtering
AI-driven email security solutions can be used to recognize patterns and anomalies to identify phishing emails based on characteristics like sender behavior, language patterns, and message content.
Behavioral Analytics
Systems can leverage artificial intelligence to establish baseline user behavior and identify deviations that might indicate a phishing attack. These can include unusual login times, locations, or access patterns.
Link and Content Analysis
AI tools can analyze live URLs and website content to identify potential phishing sites, even if they've been newly created.
User Education
Simulations and training platforms powered by AI can help educate users about phishing threats by simulating real-world phishing scenarios and teaching them how to recognize and respond to such attacks.
While AI has advanced the sophistication of phishing attacks, it's important to note that AI is a dual-use technology. It can be used for malicious purposes and developing effective countermeasures to combat those threats.
How Sparklight Protects Businesses
Sparklight is committed to providing high-speed, reliable Wi-Fi that helps businesses resist digital attacks, avoid security incidents, and combat the efforts of cyber thieves. From encryption to firewall configuration to blogs, we offer a variety of ways to keep attackers at bay and fortify your business.
Our Managed Wi-Fi service comes with a cloud-based customer online account and user app, enabling businesses to configure, manage, and monitor their Wi-Fi network and user activity—from anywhere, anytime, for extra peace of mind.
We invite you to consult with one of our specialists to learn more about Wi-Fi security and other solutions that make it easier to run a productive business. Contact us today.
