eBay, the ecommerce giant and several other companies are reportedly witnessing an increased volume of personalised phishing attacks aimed towards high-level employees. As per the report, these phishing scams are being carried out using artificial intelligence (AI) systems to make them appear human-like and avoid the telltale signs of a typical scam email. These cyber attackers are reportedly also using AI to scrape and analyse data about company executives to add a personal touch to the messages. Basic security filters are said to be insufficient to stop such emails at an organisational level.
Company Executives Being Targeted by AI Phishing Scams
According to a Financial Times report, companies such as eBay and the UK-based insurance firm Beazley have highlighted the increase in fraudulent emails that contain personal information about their executive-level employees.
Kirsty Kelly, the chief informational security officer at Beazley, told the publication that AI is suspected to be behind these attacks due to the personal nature of the emails. Kelly reportedly also added that these targeted phishing attacks have likely been conducted after a large amount of data about employees was scraped from various sources.
Notably, phishing scams involve tricking an individual into revealing sensitive and financial information by pretending to be a trustworthy entity. These are usually carried out over emails, text messages, or by sharing URLs to fraudulent websites. However, typical phishing attacks are impersonal and often include vague information and grammatical errors leading to a low success rate.
However, as per the report, these AI-generated phishing scams are different in a way that they both use highly emotive language and share personal information about the target. These emails can be more convincing and could trigger a positive response from individuals.
Highlighting that generative AI tools lower the barriers in carrying out cyber attacks, Nadezda Demidova, a cybercrime security researcher at eBay, told the Financial Times, “We’ve witnessed a growth in the volume of all kinds of cyber attacks.” She reportedly added that a particular area of concern was “polished and closely targeted” phishing scams.
The security researcher reportedly also explained that basic security filters which usually identify and block bulk phishing campaigns could struggle to stop AI-generated emails as even high-volume attacks can be carried out where each email is unique and appears to be sent by legitimate senders.
