As you may know, online platforms have really transformed how businesses understand their customers. By visiting and scrolling through a platform, a business can easily learn about your shopping behavior, likes and dislikes and so on. The best part of this is that by getting an in-depth understanding of a customer, they can tailor experiences that perfectly align with their preferences, thus boosting engagement levels.
Given that about three billion people shop online, you can imagine what benefits businesses can reap from using these online platforms. But with such advancements, challenges emerge—threat actors. Now, because everyone is scrambling after users’ data, these individuals will want to hack into our accounts and sell the information on the dark web.
For instance, you have probably heard about phishing emails where links trick you into sharing personal information by posing to be legitimate brands. Well, even if you aren’t aware of this kind of attack, this article will help you learn a few things.
Important numbers for you
Just recently, a study revealed that the number of spam emails sent per day is about 3.4 billion. On Google alone, nearly 100 million phishing emails are blocked daily. This shows you how relentless threat actors are in their pursuit to get your information. And you may actually be surprised to learn that up to 57% of businesses experience these attacks daily or weekly.
In addition, Keepnet notes that about four in five reported security instances result from phishing. All these statistics imply that you can’t afford to turn a blind eye to phishing attacks. And since the demand for customer data continues to increase amid the extremely competitive e-commerce sector, these attacks could actually increase even more in 2025 and beyond.
How AI is changing things
It is almost impossible to think of a sector that has not been affected by artificial intelligence. This technology boasts enormous computational ability, enabling it to crunch information into understandable concepts in a matter of seconds. Unfortunately, though, as much as it offers such great possibilities, cybercriminals are also using it.
For those who are aware, traditional phishing scams often contain spelling and grammatical errors, incorrect names, formatting issues, and so on. But now, with AI, threat actors are able to remove these mistakes and craft messages with more professional-sounding tones, making it difficult to tell whether they are fake.
Something else that’s happening is that attacks are becoming more timely. Large language models can easily assimilate real-time information from corporate websites and other credible information sources. And, of course, you know that one of the ways to make any message trustworthy is to integrate such details. Realizing this, cyber criminals use this approach to create a sense of urgency that puts pressure on users to act quickly.
Plus, AI is quite efficient when it comes to speed. So, you may have noticed AI chatbots being increasingly used to create and spread whaling and other targeted scams. In fact, Cobalt Labs Inc. recently reported an increase in deepfake attacks among 61% of organizations. And shockingly, about three-quarters of these attacks disguised themselves as CEOs and C-suite executives.
How to avoid such attacks
The power of multi-factor authentication
It’s perhaps not the first time you have heard about multi-factor authentication. But as simple as it looks, do you know this technology can actually reduce exposure to about 96% of bulk phishing attacks? MFA enforces an extra security step that users must comply with before accessing their accounts.
That ensures that further harm is avoided even if a password is compromised. The extra security factors could be something you know, like a password or PIN, and something you have, like your phone. Thankfully, it’s now possible to strengthen your MFA strategy with biometrics and secondary code-sharing devices.
Take advantage of anti-phishing tools
By the way, have you heard about the recent OpenSea phishing attack, in which hackers used brand impersonation to make it difficult for users to distinguish between the malicious and the actual site? Well, this is just an example of how attackers are evolving, but image recognition can really come in handy. It validates whether a URL is actually legitimate and identifies discrepancies that are hard to notice with the human eye.
Another popular technique is lexical analysis where the URL is analyzed using its structure. The following features are usually assessed:
- The presence of suspicious words
- Parameters that are passed inside the URL
- The type of encoding used to encode the parameters
- Whether there are suspicious domain names in the URL
Domain-Based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) can also come in very handy. This approach protects your company by allowing a domain owner to issue a policy in their DNS records. The best part is that the policy can restrict the mail serves that send emails on your behalf. So, in case an email does not pass the DMARC criteria, it can be marked as spam or quarantined depending on the specified policy.
Parting words
Threat actors are really improving their efforts. And now that technologies like AI have emerged, hackers have become even more innovative. So, amid these growing challenges, what are you doing to improve your online safety?
For instance, you may have encountered at least one phishing attack. But if you apply some of these hacks, you can minimize the risk of exposure. Plus, do not forget to always educate your employees, as they are always a prime target.
