Criminals are exploiting advancements in artificial intelligence to increase the believability of their schemes and support more widespread attacks. For example, at each stage of a social engineering attack, AI is having an impact.
In the Research Phase, generative AI makes it easier to compile an accurate profile of the target by sifting through vast amounts of content available online. In the Manipulaiton Phase, deepfake technology enables life-like representation of individuals – including voice and live action video – to create convincing impersonations and IA advancements help criminals create well-written scripts that replicate personal exchanges with someone a victim knows. It is very difficult to discern this synthetic content as fake. In the Exploitation Phase, AI is used to mimic a specific writing style or tone and adapt communications in real-time according to the target’s response or behavior. Also, using AI, bad actors can launch multi‑pronged attacks with many victims at once.
Insite has issued a briefing that examines how AI is fueling social engineering attacks and our analysts offer some mitigating strategies to reduce vulnerabilities. Click here to request the briefing.