AI-driven cybersecurity threats are now hitting businesses from every angle - here's how to stay safe

Date:
Thu, 23 Oct 2025 14:56:00 +0000

Description:
Generative AI is being used to create flawless phishing lures - and it's increasing the popularity of the technique.

FULL STORY ======================================================================GenAI
is fueling more convincing phishing, BEC scams, and multichannel deception campaigns, report claims Phishing now makes up 77% of attacks; ClickFix threats surged fivefold in 2025 Mimecast urges MFA, anomaly detection, and layered defenses to counter AI-powered threats

Cybercriminals are increasingly weaponizing Generative Artificial
Intelligence ( GenAI ) to refine their tactics, automate deceptions, and overwhelm traditional defenses, new research from Mimecast has claimed.

Based on information accumulated from its systems, insights from its intelligence analysts, and open source intelligence on the latest threats,
the report states that AI-driven phishing, social engineering, and multichannel attacks are becoming both more common and more convincing.

In fact, Mimecast found that phishing now accounts for 77% of all attacks, up from 60% in 2024 - a spike it attributes to the rapid adoption of AI tools among threat actors. ClickFix up five times

Were seeing a clear evolution in attacker behavior in 2025, headlined by an exponential rise in AI-driven threats, said Ranjan Singh, Mimecast Chief Product & Technology Officer, noting financial institutions, regulators, and even city governments are being targeted by both profit-motivated ransomware groups and state-backed actors.

There are many ways in which cybercriminals abuse GenAI. They can create flawless lures that mimic vendors, executives, or coworkers. They can craft entire email threads, generate synthetic voices, and realistic audio messages that can easily slip past detection systems.

Mimecast added that theres been a surge in business email compromise (BEC) scams, including one global invoice fraud campaign where AI-generated
messages urged recipients to approve payments.

Mimecast also said the number of ClickFix attacks increased five times year-on-year, now taking up roughly 8% of all the incidents recorded in the first six months of 2025.

Trusted tools such as DocuSign, Salesforce, Adobe Pay, and others, are being constantly abused, while legitimate CAPTCHA services are being misused to
hide phishing campaigns. Just one threat actor - Scattered Spider - was
linked to more than 900,000 detections. How to stay safe

To better defend against AI-powered threats, businesses need to combine technology, training, and vigilance. Implementing multi-factor authentication ( MFA ) is always a good start, which can be further bolstered through the
use of advanced email defenses that use anomaly detection and AI models.

Next, businesses should invest in employee awareness programs and run
phishing simulations, and they should adopt a multi-layered security
framework (endpoint protection, network monitoring, trusted service abuse checks). Finally, they should continuously update both their systems and policies.

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/ai-driven-cybersecurity-threats-are-now -hitting-businesses-from-every-angle-heres-how-to-stay-safe


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