Generative AI like ChatGPT Fuels Sophisticated Phishing Attacks
Cybercriminals are using generative artificial intelligence (AI) to perpetrate more sophisticated phishing attacks. According to Zscaler's annual Phishing Report, AI technologies like OpenAI’s ChatGPT tool are making it easier for threat actors to develop malicious code, generate business email compromise (BEC) attacks, create polymorphic malware and more. This results in more dangerous and complex email, SMS phishing (SMiShing), and voicemail phishing (vishing) campaigns that can convincingly imitate legitimate communications.
The Increasing Threat Of AI-Driven Phishing Campaigns
In 2022, Zscaler's research team analyzed 280 billion daily transitions and 8 billion daily blocked attacks, noting a nearly 50% increase in phishing attacks compared to 2021. The education sector emerged as the most targeted industry, followed by finance and insurance, and government. The top five most targeted countries included the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Russia and Canada. The most imitated brands were Microsoft, Binance, Netflix, Facebook, and Adobe.
Threat actors using AI-driven phishing campaigns are harder to identify and counter as they are sophisticated and can imitate legitimate communications convincingly. In the report, Zscaler researchers anticipate that threat actors will use AI more frequently to discover new applications for phishing attacks, and we can expect to see more sophisticated scams across different communication channels, such as email, SMS, and websites. Expect a surge in phishing attempts as attackers leverage AI to coordinate and execute effective attacks on larger groups of people.
Mitigating The Risk Of Phishing Attacks
As AI-driven phishing attacks become more and more sophisticated, Zscaler recommends that organizations adopt a zero-trust architecture to minimize the attack surface and reduce the impact of successful attacks. Effective measures include granular segmentation, least-privileged access enforcement, and continuous traffic monitoring to detect threat actors who may have compromised your infrastructure.
Other best practices to mitigate phishing risks include:
- Understanding the risks to better inform policy and strategy
- Leveraging automated tools and threat intelligence to reduce phishing incidents
- Delivering timely training to build security awareness and promote user reporting
- Simulating phishing attacks to identify gaps in your program
It is important to have controls in place and limit the damage successful phishing attacks can cause. These attacks can result in devastating consequences, such as data breaches, identity theft, financial loss, and reputational damage.
