AI-Powered Spearphishing Cyber Attacks: Fact or Fiction?

Abstract: Due to society's continuing technological advance, the capabilities of machine learning-based artificial intelligence systems continue to expand and influence a wider degree of topics. Alongside this expansion of technology, there is a growing number of individuals willing to misuse these systems to defraud and mislead others. Deepfake technology, a set of deep learning algorithms that are capable of replacing the likeness or voice of one individual with another with alarming accuracy, is one of these technologies. This paper investigates the threat posed by malicious use of this technology, particularly in the form of spearphishing attacks. It uses deepfake technology to create spearphishing-like attack scenarios and validate them against average individuals. Experimental results show that 66% of participants failed to identify AI created audio as fake while 43% failed to identify such videos as fake, confirming the growing fear of threats posed by the use of these technologies by cybercriminals.