Businesses urged to upskill staff on cybersecurity as AI threat increases

Commenting on today’s Europol EU-SOCTA Report*, Erin Sims, fraud risk services director, 91探花 said: “The fraud landscape is changing rapidly. Criminals leveraging the power of offensive generative artificial intelligence add a further layer of complexity, with tools to create emails indistinguishable from true communications, and deepfakes becoming more widely available. Without increasingly rigorous protection and prevention, there is now a far higher chance of businesses falling victim to this threat.

“While there have been huge advancements in technology to prevent and detect fraud, it is an arms race. Bad actors are accessing systems through the weakest link, the human. We are urging businesses to bolster their cyber defences, and ensure staff are aware of emerging risks and their responsibilities as the first line of defence.

“The days of ‘pay and spray’ emails addressed to ‘dear sirs’, with obvious spelling and grammatical errors and hyperlinks to questionable sites are long gone. Staff will now need to be upskilled to consider the legitimacy of far more sophisticated and targeted emails, and spot real-time deepfakes.

“Businesses need to consider how criminals could extort data or money and assess whether they have appropriate security measures in place, and an appropriate response plan for when things do go wrong. Criminals are operating with no boundaries, so cross industry and cross border information sharing is a necessity to mitigate the threat.”

*The EU-SOCTA report is Europol's flagship analysis that provides a comprehensive overview of the threats posed by serious and organised crime in Europe. Published every four years, it identifies key criminal activities, the dynamics of criminal networks, and emerging trends. The report is based on contributions from EU Member States and third parties, and Europol’s expertise. The report offers strategic insights to shape EU policies and law enforcement action.