Bethany Alvaro 
Newly revealed data from KnowBe4’s Phishing Threat Trends Report has reported that 86 per cent of phishing attacks are propelled through AI.
Unlike traditional phishing methods, cyber criminals are increasingly branching out in their scope and means of attacks, infiltrating Microsoft Teams chats, personal calendar invites, and multi-channel operating systems in the hopes of coming across as legitimate colleagues.
The Phishing Threat Trends Report found a 17.1 per cent increase in phishing attacks in the previous six months, a 49 per cent increase in online calendar phishing, and a whopping 139 per cent increase in the use of reverse proxies to steal Microsoft credentials.
“The inbox is no longer the only front line for coordinated social engineering attacks,” said Jack Chapman, senior vice president of threat intelligence at KnowBe4.
“Cyber criminals are actively broadening the email threat landscape.”
Microsoft 365 and its suite of services are used globally and are one of the largest systems used by Australian businesses.
With 41 per cent of artificially produced phishing scams targeting Microsoft Teams, this signals a shift towards more personalised, specific, and believable scams targeting unsuspecting victims in work environments.
“As businesses rely on tools for real-time collaboration, cyber criminals have added this to their attacks, along with targeting people’s calendars,” Chapman said.
“This attack method targets people and technology together. This escalation in scale of threat brings a whole new issue to the forefront.”
The report also noted that finance, legal, and healthcare were the most commonly phished industries, shortly followed by logistics and insurance.
“As cyber criminals expand their attack channels and evolve their tactics, we must focus our protection efforts on securing humans and the AI agents they utilise,” Chapman said.
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