How To Combat AI-Enhanced Social Engineering Attacks

This report outlines the rapid rise and increased effectiveness of AI-enhanced social engineering—especially phishing and BEC—describing attacker techniques (LLM-driven OSINT, personalized lure generation, adaptive conversation loops, voice/video deepfakes), real-world examples (an LLM-crafted SVG phishing campaign and a $25M deepfake BEC loss), and layered defensive recommendations including AI-based detection, phishing-resistant MFA, stricter verification, and security awareness training.