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   Major spam email warning - AI now generates almost all of your junk mail   
      
   Date:   
   Thu, 19 Jun 2025 16:03:00 +0000   
      
   Description:   
   AI is still not that heavily used in BEC attacks, report finds.   
      
   FULL STORY   
      
   The majority of spam emails being sent out today are being written by   
   Generative Artificial Intelligence ( GenAI ), new research has claimed.    
      
   A report from Barracuda has argued cybercriminals are not using AI to change   
   their attack tactics, but rather to refine them and make them more difficult   
   to spot.    
      
   The study compared emails sent before the emergence of ChatGPT (pre-November   
   2022), to the ones sent after, and noticed a significant change - namely   
   criminals are mostly using GenAI in spam.   
      
   Increasing credibility    
      
   By April 2025, 51% of spam emails were generated by an AI, rather than a   
   human, they determined.    
      
   The majority of the emails currently sitting in the average junk/spam folder   
   are likely to have been written by a large language model (LLM), they   
   explained.   
      
   On the other hand, criminals don't seem to be that eager to use AI in    
   Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks. As per the researchers, these types   
   of attack involve precision and typically target a senior person in an   
   organization. As a result, by April 2025, just 14% of BEC attacks were   
   generated by an AI.    
      
   As one might expect, AI-generated messages are better written. They have a   
   higher level of formality, fewer grammar errors, and greater linguistic   
   sophistication. Therefore, they appear more credible and professional to the   
   victims, increasing the likelihood of them falling prey.    
      
   It also means that cyberattackers whose native language is not English will   
   have an easier time targeting businesses in English-speaking countries.   
   Finally, crooks seem to be using AI to A/B test different spam variants,   
   trying to determine which wording variations perform better in real-life   
   environments.    
      
   The best way to defend against AI-generated spam messages is with AI-powered   
   email security solutions. In the pre-GPT era, one could spot phishing and    
   spam by simply proofreading the email - these messages were usually filled   
   with spelling and grammar errors, while the language was crude and   
   out-of-character most of the time.    
      
   Since AI eliminated these red flags, an advanced email security solution,   
   equipped with multilayered, AI/ML-enabled detection, is crucial, the   
   researchers concluded.   
      
   ======================================================================   
   Link to news story:   
   https://www.techradar.com/pro/website-building/major-spam-email-warning-ai-now   
   -generates-almost-all-of-your-junk-mail   
      
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