Read AI Articles and Insights | ItVisions https://itvisions.us/category/articles/ai/ Dedicated IT Support Mon, 08 Sep 2025 09:09:19 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 Phishing: What to Expect and How to React https://itvisions.us/phishing-awareness-ai-email-security/ Fri, 29 Aug 2025 00:37:16 +0000 https://itvisions.us/?p=3720 The post Phishing: What to Expect and How to React appeared first on ItVisions | IT Support | Managed Service Provider | DE.

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Phishing Article

Phishing: What to Expect and How to React


Written/inAI, Articles, Bits & Bytes Newsletter, Cyber Security

Reading Time: 8 minutes


Phishing: What to Expect and How to React

Phishing, defined as “a fraudulent attempt by cybercriminals to trick you into giving them sensitive information, like passwords, bank account numbers, or credit card details, by impersonating a legitimate organisation or person through emails, texts, or phone calls“, is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Back in the day this was the Nigerian prince asking for $500 and in return he would send you half his fortune. Unfortunately, today these attacks aren’t so trivial.


The AI Shift

A challenge we are facing is with the rise in AI — it is easier than ever to make a personalised, well-written phishing attack without needing much effort. In the past, huge phishing indicators would be poor spelling or formatting, if the message didn’t make sense, or if the sender was unknown. But today, these can all be bypassed with a free subscription to any AI model. By putting in their story, some information on you and what they want to achieve, any attacker can have a well-written, tailored phishing email ready to go.


Why Filters Aren’t Enough

The second element to why these attacks are such a major threat is their ability to work around email filtering.
A common question we get asked is:
“Why does my email filter let these phishing emails through but block some of my legitimate emails?”
The unfortunate fact is — for these attackers, their job is to get their email past your filter.
For your average small to medium business, that isn’t the case. Most filters will begin by checking basic configurations are in place. For a small business that has just set up their own domain, they might be missing some of these and as such end up getting blocked as spam.
On the other hand, attackers set up everything to the nth degree and don’t have to stop there. They are aware that the majority of their emails will get stopped, so they automate and work in bulk — sending hundreds or thousands of emails to different inboxes until one sticks. The fact of phishing is that as long as your business can accept a legitimate email, it can also accept a phishing email.


It’s Not Hopeless

That is not to say the war against phishing is hopeless.
The systematic approach is always to set good filtering up to lighten the burden on your staff — the fewer attacks that reach their inbox, the better.
Building on that, there are many email filtering tools that use AI and other features to do more advanced detection. However, you can never truly block phishing attacks. An attack does not have to contain an attachment, a dodgy link or payment details — it can be as simple as a “Hi, how are you going?” to start the conversation, get your guard down and bypass the mail filter. Then the attack can build up over time.
At the end of the day, phishing defence is on the users.


Phishing Response and Awareness

The good news is there are some basic rules for phishing response and awareness:
  • Only interact with emails you can trust. If you weren’t expecting a link or a PDF, forward it to IT.
  • If something seems strange about an email from a known contact, reach out to them over a different communication method and confirm (Teams, known mobile number, the number off their website).
  • Any change of financial details should be confirmed by reaching out over the above methods.
  • Never reach out using the details in the email as these may have been updated to the attacker’s details.
  • If available, use the report button on emails you do not trust — it will handle the email and update the mail filter.
  • As a business owner, invest in user awareness training to get an idea of how your staff handle phishing and how many are vulnerable.

Got Questions or Concerns?

If you’ve received a suspicious email, want to know more about phishing protection, or need help setting up better filtering — don’t hesitate to reach out.

Our team is here to support you.

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