How Do I Protect Against AI-Powered Phishing and Deepfake Attacks?

Quick answer: AI has supercharged social engineering. Phishing emails are now grammatically perfect and personalised. Voice cloning makes phone fraud convincing. Video deepfakes enable fake CEO calls. Defence requires layered technical controls, verification processes, and updated awareness training.

What's Changed

Before AI:

• Phishing had spelling errors and awkward phrasing
• Scam calls had obvious tells
• Video impersonation required Hollywood budgets

Now:

• AI writes flawless, personalised phishing at scale
• Voice cloning copies anyone from a few seconds of audio
• Real-time video deepfakes work in live calls
• Attacks are personalised using scraped data

The barrier to sophisticated social engineering has collapsed.

AI-Enhanced Phishing

What it looks like:

• Perfect grammar and natural language
• Personalised with details about you, your company, your colleagues
• Mimics writing style of impersonated sender
• Highly targeted (AI researches targets automatically)
• Generated at massive scale

Why it's harder to detect:

• No spelling errors to spot
• Contextually relevant
• Tone matches who it claims to be from
• Passes "gut check" that caught obvious scams

Technical defences:

• Advanced email security with AI detection (fighting AI with AI)
• DMARC enforcement (stops exact domain spoofing)
• Link and attachment sandboxing
• Impersonation protection for VIPs

Voice Cloning and Vishing

The threat: Three seconds of audio—from a voicemail, video, or call—is enough to clone a voice. Attackers use this for:

• "CEO" calling finance to authorise urgent transfer
• "IT support" calling to get credentials
• "Supplier" calling to change bank details

Real incidents:

• $25 million stolen using deepfake video call with multiple fake executives
• Numerous cases of voice clone CEO fraud
• Attacks combining cloned voice with spoofed caller ID

Defences:

• Verification callbacks on known numbers (not numbers provided in the call)
• Code words for high-value requests
• Multi-person authorisation for financial transactions
• Scepticism of urgency

Video Deepfakes

Current state (2026):

• Real-time deepfakes work in video calls
• Quality is good enough to fool most people
• Accessible tools mean low barrier to attack

Scenarios:

• Fake video call from "CEO" or "CFO"
• Fraudulent job interviews (candidate isn't who they appear)
• Fake customer or partner calls

Defences:

• Verification through separate channels
• Code phrases or questions only the real person would know
• Scepticism of unusual requests regardless of who appears to make them
• Recording and review of suspicious calls

Updated Defence Strategy

1. Assume sophistication

Train people to expect AI-quality attacks. "Look for spelling errors" is dead advice.

2. Verification processes

Technical controls can't stop all social engineering. Processes can:

• Callback verification on known numbers for financial requests
• Out-of-band confirmation for unusual requests
• Multi-person approval for high-value actions
• "No exceptions for urgency" culture

3. AI-powered defence

Fight AI with AI:

• Email security using machine learning
• Behavioural analysis detecting anomalies
• Real-time threat intelligence

4. Updated awareness training

Old training focused on obvious tells. New training should cover:

• AI attack capabilities
• Voice and video cloning awareness
• Verification procedures
• Healthy scepticism

5. Reduce attack surface

Limit publicly available information:

• Executive voice samples (earnings calls, podcasts, videos)
• Detailed org charts
• Information attackers use for personalisation

What We Implement

• Advanced email security with AI-powered detection
• Impersonation protection for executives and VIPs
• Security awareness training updated for AI threats
• Verification procedure design and implementation
• Incident response for social engineering attacks

The threat has evolved. Defences must evolve too.

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