AI gives superpowers to BEC attackers

Attackers use business email compromise to pretend to be company executives, vendors, or other trusted parties and trick employees into sending them money. AI makes these attacks more effective — but also puts new tools in the hands of defenders.

As much as it has been used to defend and make some taxing jobs easier, AI is also being extensively employed by attackers, helping them collect specific data that is used on business email compromise (BEC) attempts. AI is already getting better in deep research and with that making impersonation scams no longer as easy to identify and stop.