Phishing 2.0

Phishing has been a threat practically since the internet was born, but its credibility wasn't always high. The Nigerian prince probably can't fool anyone today — so a practically new version is here, called Phishing 2.

Phishing has been a threat practically since the internet was born, but its credibility wasn't always high. The Nigerian prince probably can't fool anyone today — so a practically new version is here, called Phishing 2.0. What's new about it? Unsurprisingly: AI.

How is AI levelling up phishing?

With models like GPT-4 — trained on huge amounts of data, much of it human speech — AI can now imitate the way people write almost perfectly. It can answer back, even simulate enthusiasm for a topic in indirect ways, coming across very convincingly as a real person.

How is it able to target you specifically?

Whether you're the owner of a giant company or a desk worker, if there's information about you on the internet, the AI writing the phishing message will use it. Just think of how much you voluntarily share on social media — all of that will be used against you.

Deepfake technology

Probably the scariest form of phishing is deepfakes — videos that imitate a real person's behaviour and speech. They're still relatively expensive and hard to produce, but you can absolutely run into them. In a few years, more likely a few months, they'll most likely be quite common. Deepfakes work so well because we mostly believe what we see. Sample deepfake