Behind the Breach: The Rise of AI-Driven Whale Attacks on Executives

The Gist

‍68% of data breaches involved a human element., according to the Verizon 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report.Phishing remains a significant attack vector, while the rise of generative AI has led to more sophisticated and frequent attacks that are challenging to detect. Whale phishing, targeting high-level executives, has become increasingly precise and poses a growing threat to organizations.

Whale phishing, or whaling, is an attack that exploits the human element, leveraging advanced techniques to manipulate senior leaders and C-suite executives into divulgingsensitive information or authorizing fraudulent transactions.  These attacks are called “whales” due to targeted executives’ access to significant sums of money.

Whale phishing consists of three key aspects:

●     Impersonating trusted contacts

●     Social engineering

●     Constructing pressure scenarios

Trusted Contact Impersonation

‍Fraudsters create domains, email headers, email addresses, and profiles that mimic a colleague, friend, or other known individual. By studying publicly available information like company profiles, LinkedIn, and other resources, they can impersonate these individuals, luring their potential victims into a false sense of security from a familiar face.

Social Engineering

‍Similarly, attackers leverage public data to tailor their fraudulent messages to potential victims. For example, a cybercriminal could use the public news of a recent acquisition to impersonate a fellow executive and request sensitive information about it.

False Pressure Scenarios

‍A trademark of these attacks is the use of false urgency. Building upon their abuse of trust and authority, fraudsters manufacture imminent deadlines or financial emergencies to push executives to authorize transactions without verifying their authenticity.

Trustmi’s Take

‍The rapidly advancing sophistication of Gen AI is making phishing attacks more difficult to detect and more frequent by the day. This, coupled with increasing attacks on executives and higher-level employees, means organizations must employ advanced measures to combat these threats as traditional cybersecurity training and detection methods become less effective. Importantly, socially engineered attacks targeting companies are often slow-paced, taking time to build apparent trust before striking. Organizations must invest in a comprehensive platform that delivers end-to-end visibility across the entire payment process. AI solutions that integrate with ERP systems and instantaneously detect anomalies across the process can be the difference between business growth and a financial disaster. These advanced systems are crucial in identifying and preventing long-term, trust-based attacks that may evade traditional security measures.

Interested in learning how Trustmi can tackle this threat? Book a demo with us today.