A new survey conducted by Egress with 500 cybersecurity leaders from the US, UK, and Australia who have deployed Microsoft 365 in their organizations has shown that 72% of cybersecurity leaders are worried about the use of AI in email phishing attacks.
The result of the survey data supplemented with Egress platform data also shows that 92% of organizations were victims of phishing in the past 12 months, 86% experienced negative consequences as a result with the most commonly reported fallout from phishing attacks being financial losses from customer churn at 54%.
Other fallouts from the report include reputational damage reported by 47% of organizations and financial organizations being the most alert about AI’s utilization to craft phishing campaigns at 80%.
The report noted that phishing attacks remain a significant threat to organizations. However, phishing incidents did not only have repercussions for the victim organizations but also for the employees involved.
These concerns arise from the potential for AI to automate the phishing process, which can make attacks more efficient and scalable. Additionally, AI can create highly sophisticated and personalized phishing emails that are difficult to detect using traditional security systems. The use of deepfake technology to add video and voice capabilities to phishing attacks can make them even more dangerous.