Phishing scams aren’t new. But the tools behind them are evolving. And fast.
With generative AI, attackers no longer need to write clumsy emails riddled with typos. Now they can produce polished, personalized, and highly believable emails, voicemails, and video messages in seconds.
That’s making it harder than ever for even the most tech-savvy users to tell the difference between a legitimate request and a major attack.
And once an attacker gets hold of a user’s credentials, especially for email, cloud storage, platforms, or admin portals, all bets are off.
Real-world examples of AI-generated phishing attacks
So just how convincing are today’s AI-powered attacks?
Here are a few recent breaches that made headlines, damaging the companies’ bottom lines and reputations.
In 2019, a UK energy company was hit with a deepfake audio scam and ended up transferring £220,000 (about $243,000 USD) to the attackers’ accounts.
Bad actors used AI-generated audio to mimic the parent company’s CEO and trick an employee into authorizing the wire transfer. The money was gone before anyone realized what had happened.
In 2024, an employee at a multinational design and architecture firm was tricked into sending hackers $25 million. They had just attended a video call where deepfake avatars of real coworkers gave convincing instructions to transfer the funds.
Police said it was one of the world’s biggest known deepfake scams.
Not every attack has to succeed to make an impact.
Earlier this year, hackers used AI voice cloning to create a fake message from the CEO of the popular password storage solution LastPass. Fortunately, the recipient didn’t fall for it, but LastPass still had to report the incident.
Not a good look for an app that stores millions of passwords.
Why traditional tools still leave the door open
Most cybersecurity tools are built to block known threats.
But AI-generated phishing doesn’t follow a fixed pattern. It adapts. It mimics people your users trust. It references real projects, uses familiar phrasing, and creates a false sense of urgency that feels completely legitimate.
That’s what makes these attacks so dangerous. Traditional cybersecurity tools aren’t built to question identity. They assume the person logging in is who they say they are.
How CyberFOX protects users from even the most advanced AI phishing scams
The most common goal of today’s AI-powered phishing scams is to get users to hand over credentials or trick someone into granting unnecessary access.
And once that happens, attackers get to work, escalating access, navigating across systems, and reaching the data that matters most.
A single stolen password or elevated privilege can lead to full domain compromise.
That’s where we swoop in to save the day.
Password Boss WebApp helps eliminate credential theft risk altogether. It securely stores and auto-fills strong, unique passwords across apps, so users never need to manually type credentials into a login screen (fake or otherwise). It also flags suspicious login pages before a user clicks.
CyberFOX AutoElevate reduces the damage a phishing attack can cause by locking down privileged access. Even if a user is tricked into handing over their credentials, CyberFOX AutoElevate ensures admin rights are never granted without approval, shutting down lateral movement from the start.
AI may make phishing more sophisticated, but CyberFOX makes your team safer by default.
AI scams go after identity. CyberFOX keeps it locked down.
You can’t stop every message from getting through. But you can control what happens next.
CyberFOX helps you protect what matters most by locking down credentials, limiting unnecessary access, and giving your team the tools to stay one step ahead.
Request a demo to see how CyberFOX makes protecting users from today’s AI threats easy.