Artificial intelligence is being used by cybercriminals to create fake emails that mimic staff “banter” to help them hack firms, an ex-MI5 agent warned.
Dave Palmer, director of technology for Darktrace who worked for GCHQ, said so-called Trojan horse emails are becoming so good that they appear to be from a real co-worker.
Hackers access an employee’s workstation via a “phishing” scam email, then AI “bots” scan the person’s computer and learn their personal writing style.
Mr Palmer told an audience at ExCel’s TechXLR8 expo that realistic-looking emails are sent containing links that activate a virus to take over computers, locking them up and demanding ransom in the bitcoin cryptocurrency.
However, he added that fake emails can often be weeded out by unusual grammar or spellings.
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