The Report Investigates the Growing Threat of AI-Enabled Email Attacks and the Need for Modern AI-Powered Email Security Solutions to Increase Security Efficacy

Perception Point, a leading provider of advanced threat prevention across digital communication channels, in collaboration with the renowned research firm, Osterman Research, today unveiled key insights from a recent research study titled “The Role of AI in Email Security.” The study sheds light on the alarming rise in the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by cybercriminals in scaling and crafting sophisticated email threats like phishing and Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks and how modern email security systems leverage AI to defend against modern attacks.

The new study reveals a substantial shift in the perception of AI’s role in email security. Cybercriminals have shown rapid adoption of AI tools to their favor with 91.1% of organizations reporting that they have already encountered email attacks that have been enhanced by Artificial Intelligence (AI), and 84.3% expecting that AI will continue to be utilized to circumvent existing security systems. Consequently, AI-enabled protections are more essential than ever.

The percentage of respondents ranking AI as “extremely important” to their email defenses has increased by more than 4x over the past 12 months. Virtually all organizations expect AI to be moderately or extremely important to their email defenses.

The growing perception of AI-enabled threats aligns with the increasing awareness of large language models (LLM) and generative AI services, such as ChatGPT, that have made headlines in the past year.

Additional takeaways include:

• Email is still top priority: Almost 4 out of 5 organizations rate addressing email security risks as a top three priority for their organization relative to all other security and risk initiatives.
• Traditional email security approaches have proven less effective over time: 96.9% of respondents implemented AI-enabled email security because their traditional defenses were ineffective against emergent threats.
• AI-powered security is not just for email: Buyers of AI-enabled email security want the ability to better protect other communication and collaboration apps, such as Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Zoom, and Slack, Salesforce, and more, with AI.
• AI-enabled detection without responsive mitigation is misguided: Strengthening capabilities for detecting threats in email via AI is an essential first step, but it can’t end there. Organizations must train cybersecurity professionals and SOC teams to respond quickly and effectively to identified incidents, leveraging the best of what AI brings to the table.

“With the relentless surge in cyberattacks, especially GenAI-fueled phishing and BEC, the imperative for inventive preventative strategies intensifies,” said Yoram Salinger, CEO at Perception Point. “As threat actors broaden their targets across messaging and communication channels, embracing emerging technologies and holistic security services that leverage AI is essential. We are committed to thwart and respond to the most sophisticated and modern attacks for our customers delivering a unique combination of an advanced threat prevention platform with AI-powered, multi-layered detection engines and a baked-in managed incident response service.”

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Perception Point recognizes the critical need for advanced security measures to combat the evolving email and collaboration threat landscape. The solution’s AI-powered threat detection engines, include NLP, computer vision, content analysis and the newly unveiled GenAI Decoder™, which were designed to detect, prevent, and mitigate the risks posed by AI-enabled threat actors. GenAI Decoder™ is an innovative LLM model that targets Generative AI-Based BEC and social-engineering attacks. These text-only email threats often leverage AI models like ChatGPT and Google Bard (and unethical alternatives like WormGPT and FraudGPT) to craft highly convincing email attacks that can bypass traditional security systems.

“With cybercriminals leveraging AI to make email attacks ever more dangerous, all organizations must ensure they have the right defenses in place to detect and stop attacks that are missed by traditional email security methods,” said Michael Sampson, Principal Analyst at Osterman Research and the author of the report. “Capabilities like those offered by Perception Point – backed by their continual threat research and fortified through managed incident response services – have become essential to organizations for ensuring security in email and related communication and collaboration tools.”

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