Business email compromise (BEC) is a sophisticated form of cybercrime that involves the use of email to deceive and defraud businesses. Attackers impersonate a trusted individual or entity, such as a CEO, vendor, or supplier, in order to trick employees into divulging sensitive information or transferring money. BEC attacks have become increasingly common in recent years, and they are expected to get significantly worse as cybercriminals master generative AI to create more authentic messages, with greater speed and at higher volume.
Cybersecurity Issues with Generative AI
Generative AI—such as Chat GPT—is a type of artificial intelligence that is capable of creating new content based on existing data. It works by analyzing large datasets and using the information to generate new content, such as images, videos, or text. While generative AI has many potential benefits, it also has the potential to be a powerful tool for cybercriminals looking to create convincing fake emails.
Evolving Cyberattack Tactics
Traditionally, cybercriminals have used social engineering tactics to create fake emails or phishing messages that look like they are coming from a trusted source. For example, they might create an email that appears to be from a CEO, asking an employee to transfer money to a certain account. These emails often contain grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, or other inconsistencies that can be a red flag for the recipient. However, generative AI models generally have a much better grasp on the English language, and as cybercriminals start using generative AI to create fake emails, these messages will become much harder to distinguish from genuine ones.
Generative AI can be used to create highly personalized emails that appear to be coming from a specific individual. By analyzing an individual’s writing style, tone, and language patterns, generative AI can create emails that are almost indistinguishable from those written by the individual themselves. Or maybe it’s not an individual at all, but rather imitating the content and overall look and feel of a message coming from a trusted brand or service provider. This makes it much more difficult for employees to spot fake emails, as they appear to be coming from a trusted source.
Generative HumanAI
To combat this threat, SlashNext developed Generative HumanAI, its own proprietary generative AI model designed to defend against advanced BEC attacks. Generative HumanAI identifies threat messages, including those developed using ChatGPT, and automatically creates thousands of different variations of that same threat to feed back into the learning model. In this way, Generative HumanAI is continuously training itself on the latest threats. This is combined with existing SlashNext AI technology that is capable of analyzing emails and identifying subtle cues that indicate the message is fake. It can also detect when an email is coming from a spoofed domain or IP address, which is a common tactic used by cybercriminals to create fake emails.
SlashNext’s existing HumanAI technology works by using a combination of machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) techniques to analyze the content of an email. It can identify patterns in the language used, as well as the structure and formatting of the message. It can also detect when an email is using unusual language or syntax that is not consistent with previous messages from the same individual.
One of the key advantages of Generative HumanAI is its ability to adapt and learn over time. As cybercriminals continue to refine their tactics and develop new techniques for creating fake emails, Generative HumanAI can adapt to these changes and continue to identify fake messages. It is constantly updated with new data and information, allowing it to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to detecting and preventing BEC attacks.
Raising the Bar for BEC Defense
Ultimately, the development of AI-powered cybersecurity tools like Generative HumanAI is essential for protecting businesses against the growing threat of cybercrime. As the world becomes increasingly connected and reliant on digital technologies, the risks associated with cybercrime are only going to increase. It is essential that businesses take proactive steps to protect themselves against these threats and that they stay up to date with the latest technologies and best practices in cybersecurity.
The threat of phishing attacks and business email compromise (BEC) is a growing concern for businesses of all sizes, and it is likely to get worse as cybercriminals start to use generative AI to create more authentic messages at scale. However, by developing AI-powered cybersecurity tools like Generative HumanAI, SlashNext is taking proactive steps to stay ahead of the curve and protect businesses against these threats.
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