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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchThe most effective defense is layered: independently verify every urgent request, harden your mail system, require phishing-resistant sign-in for high-impact accounts, limit what any stolen account can reach, and rehearse a fast recovery process. AI makes convincing messages, cloned voices, and targeted lures cheap to produce, so an employee’s ability to pause and verify is now as important as filtering spam.
Why AI-powered phishing is harder to recognize
Artificial intelligence does not create a new type of fraud; it makes familiar social-engineering attacks more credible, more personalized, and easier to run at scale. Attackers can produce polished language in the recipient’s style, tailor a request to a current project, and generate many variations quickly. The FBI says AI is being used for convincing voice and video messages as well as email schemes aimed at individuals and businesses.
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That removes several traditional warning signs. Awkward grammar, generic greetings, and obvious spelling mistakes are no longer reliable tests. A message can use the right names, refer to a real invoice, and arrive at the moment a transaction is expected. A cloned voice or video call can add pressure when the target hesitates.
Microsoft documented a 2025 campaign in which attackers used AI-assisted obfuscation inside an SVG attachment to redirect recipients toward credential theft. The campaign was detected and blocked by Microsoft Defender for Office 365, but the example shows why an apparently harmless image file can be part of a login attack.
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- FAST & CONVENIENT LOGIN: Plug in your YubiKey 5C NFC via USB and tap it, or tap it against your phone (NFC), to authenticate. No batteries, no internet connection, and no extra fees required
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NIST’s advice is simple: take “a second, or third, look” at any message asking you to click, download, transfer money, log in, or submit sensitive information. In practice, that means treating the request—not the writing quality or the apparent identity of the sender—as untrusted until it is verified through a separate channel.
The verification rule that stops the most expensive mistakes
Make this a business rule: an urgent request is untrusted until verified out of band. Out-of-band verification uses a channel you initiate independently, not a phone number, link, reply address, QR code, or contact record supplied by the suspicious message.
Use a known route to verify
- Call the person using a number already stored in your directory or company contact system.
- Open the vendor’s existing portal from a bookmark or a manually typed address, then check the invoice or request there.
- Start a new conversation in your normal collaboration system rather than replying to the message.
- For a bank-detail change or transfer, require a second approver and confirm the change with a previously known contact.
If a caller says they are an executive, pause the transaction and call the executive’s known number. Do not rely on a familiar voice, a caller-ID display, a forwarded email thread, or a video image. A genuine employee should accept a verification step that protects the company.
Teach a short pause-and-check script
- Pause: Do not click, open the attachment, approve a sign-in, or move money while the request is still being assessed.
- Inspect the action: Identify exactly what the sender wants—credentials, a payment, a file download, an OAuth consent, or a change to account details.
- Check the destination: Look at the actual domain, account, or portal you would use. Do not trust a display name or a shortened link.
- Verify separately: Use a known phone number, existing portal, or newly initiated conversation.
- Report and preserve: Send the message to the security or IT reporting channel and keep the original message and headers when possible.
Give employees permission to delay a request. A policy that says “verify before acting” must also make it acceptable to say, “I will confirm this through our standard process.”
Harden the email path
Email controls reduce the chance that a malicious message reaches a person and reduce the chance that a click executes harmful content. They do not prove that a legitimate-looking request is safe, and they do not replace strong identity controls.
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Publish SPF, DKIM, and DMARC correctly
- SPF identifies the mail servers authorized to send for a domain.
- DKIM adds a cryptographic signature so recipients can check that a message was authorized and not altered in transit.
- DMARC tells receiving systems what to do when SPF or DKIM checks fail or do not align with the visible From domain, and provides reporting that helps you find unauthorized senders.
Start DMARC in monitoring mode while you inventory every legitimate sender, including payroll, marketing, ticketing, and third-party systems. Fix alignment failures and remove unapproved senders. Move to quarantine when the domain’s legitimate traffic is accounted for, then to reject when you can sustain that policy. Review reports continuously; a forgotten vendor can otherwise be blocked when enforcement changes.
Inspect attachments and links before delivery and at click time
- Quarantine risky attachment types, including files that can contain scripts or redirect a browser.
- Sandbox suspicious files so they are opened in an isolated environment rather than on an employee’s workstation.
- Enable time-of-click URL protection, which checks a destination when the user follows the link instead of relying only on the verdict made when the message arrived.
- Disable automatic external-content loading where it creates unnecessary tracking or execution risk.
- Make the reporting button easy to find in every mail client employees use.
Attackers can hide a redirect in a file that looks like an image or document. Microsoft’s SVG example is a reminder to evaluate the behavior of an attachment, not just its extension or appearance.
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Attackers can impersonate your executives or suppliers even when they cannot enter your mail system. DMARC enforcement helps receiving systems reject messages that fail your domain’s authentication policy. Also maintain an inventory of look-alike domains and monitor for newly registered names that could be used in a payment or credential scam.
Replace phishable sign-in methods
Microsoft’s guidance is blunt: “Traditional MFA is no longer enough—phishing-resistant MFA is the new baseline.” A password plus a code can still be stolen by a real-time phishing site that proxies the login. The priority is to use credentials bound to the legitimate website or device so a fake site cannot replay them.
How the main methods compare
| Method | Phishing resistance | Best coverage | Deployment and support | Compatibility and policy considerations | Recovery and audit signals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Password only | None | Neither email nor identity attacks | Easy to deploy, unsafe to retain | Works almost everywhere, including legacy systems | Weak evidence; compromise can be silent |
| SMS one-time code | Low; codes can be relayed or socially engineered | Basic account protection | Low setup effort, but telephone-number changes and delivery failures create support work | Broad phone compatibility; dependent on cellular service | Phone-number and message logs provide limited context |
| Push approval without number matching | Low to moderate; users can approve a fraudulent prompt | General identity sign-in | Simple enrollment, but vulnerable to prompt fatigue | Requires a supported authenticator app and phone | Approval logs are useful, but an accidental approval may look legitimate |
| Authenticator app with number matching and domain display | Stronger than push-only, but not fully phishing-resistant | Accounts that cannot yet use passkeys or security keys | Moderate enrollment and recovery effort | Requires current app and policy support; check accessibility and offline behavior | Sign-in, number, and displayed-domain data improve investigation |
| Device-bound passkey | Phishing-resistant when correctly implemented | Administrators, executives, remote access, and critical applications | Enrollment, device lifecycle, and recovery planning required | Depends on operating-system, browser, and identity-provider support | Strong authenticator and device-binding records |
| FIDO2 security key | Phishing-resistant | High-impact users and systems where a separate hardware authenticator is practical | Requires purchasing, issuing, replacing, and securely storing backup keys | Check USB-A, USB-C, NFC, browser, operating-system, and application support | Registration and use events provide strong audit signals; spare keys enable recovery |
Prioritize FIDO2 security keys or device-bound passkeys for administrators, executives, remote access, financial systems, and other accounts whose compromise would have a large business impact. Issue at least one recovery authenticator under controlled procedures so a lost device does not force an insecure fallback.
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- WORKS WITH 1000+ ACCOUNTS: Compatible with popular accounts like Google, Microsoft, and Apple. A single YubiKey 5 NFC secures 100+ of your favorite accounts, including email, password managers, and more
- FAST & CONVENIENT LOGIN: Plug in your YubiKey 5 NFC via USB and tap it, or tap it against your phone (NFC), to authenticate. No batteries, no internet connection, and no extra fees required
- MOST SECURE PASSKEY: Supports FIDO2/WebAuthn, FIDO U2F, Yubico OTP, OATH-TOTP/HOTP, Smart card (PIV), and OpenPGP. That means it’s versatile, working almost anywhere you need it
- PRIMARY & SPARE KEYS: Just like having a spare house key, we recommend buying two YubiKeys - one for daily use and one as a spare. That way you’ll never get locked out of your accounts
Where an authenticator app remains necessary, require number matching and display the sign-in domain so a user can compare the prompt with the site being visited. Eliminate SMS MFA and legacy authentication wherever the application supports a stronger method. Keep an exception register for systems that cannot yet comply, with an owner and a retirement date.
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Even strong authentication cannot prevent every compromise. Reduce the damage by making access narrow, time-limited, and conditional.
Separate everyday and administrative identities
Administrators should use a normal account for email and routine work and a separate administrator account for privileged actions. Do not browse the web or read ordinary mail from the privileged identity. Require just-in-time elevation so administrative rights appear only for an approved task and expire automatically.
Apply device and session conditions
- Require managed, encrypted devices for administrative and sensitive applications.
- Use Conditional Access policies to evaluate user, device, location, application, and risk signals before granting access.
- Block legacy authentication protocols that cannot enforce modern authentication policies.
- Use shorter session lifetimes or step-up authentication for high-value actions such as changing payment details or creating an administrator.
- Remove unused accounts, stale group memberships, and departing-user access promptly.
Keep emergency accounts tightly controlled, monitored, and excluded only from policies that would otherwise lock out recovery. Test those accounts and their credentials on a defined schedule; an emergency account that nobody can access is not a recovery plan.
Protect email accounts as high-value systems
A mailbox can reset other passwords, approve invoices, and conceal evidence through forwarding rules. Alert on new forwarding rules, suspicious inbox rules, unusual OAuth grants, impossible-travel sign-ins, and sudden changes in authentication methods. Review delegated access and remove permissions that no longer have a business purpose.
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- WORKS WITH 1000+ ACCOUNTS: Compatible with Google, Microsoft, and Apple. A single Security Key NFC secures 100 of your favorite accounts, including email, password managers, and more.
- FAST & CONVENIENT LOGIN: Plug in your Security Key NFC via USB-A and tap it, or tap it against your phone (NFC) to authenticate. No batteries, no internet connection, and no extra fees required.
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A practical implementation sequence
Do not wait for a perfect enterprise-wide project. Start where a stolen credential could cause the greatest financial or operational harm.
- Map the attack surface. Inventory identity providers, email domains, third-party senders, legacy protocols, administrator roles, unmanaged devices, financial-transaction workflows, and applications that can reset passwords or issue tokens.
- Protect high-impact people first. Enforce phishing-resistant MFA for administrators, executives, finance staff, help-desk personnel, remote-access users, and owners of critical applications. Register recovery authenticators through a documented process.
- Measure and remove exceptions. Record every account or application still using SMS, password-only access, or legacy authentication. Assign an owner, compensating control, and deadline for each exception.
- Deploy domain authentication safely. Publish SPF and DKIM, begin DMARC monitoring, fix alignment problems, and identify every legitimate sender before moving to quarantine and then reject.
- Add message and click protection. Quarantine risky attachments, sandbox suspicious files, and enable time-of-click URL analysis. Confirm that the controls cover mobile and web mail, not only one desktop client.
- Reduce privilege. Separate administrative accounts, implement just-in-time access, require managed devices, and block legacy protocols.
- Centralize evidence. Send mail, identity, endpoint, and administrative logs to a protected central system. Restrict who can alter or delete those logs and retain them long enough to investigate delayed reports.
- Test the response. Run a controlled credential-phishing simulation or tabletop exercise. Verify that an employee can report the message, that the security team can revoke sessions, and that finance knows how to pause a transaction.
- Expand by department. After the highest-risk groups are covered, roll out passkeys or security keys, training, and policy enforcement to the remaining workforce in manageable waves.
What to do immediately after a credential-phishing event
Speed matters because an attacker may use a stolen password immediately, create forwarding rules, register a new authenticator, or exchange a session token without logging in again.
- Stop the session. If possible, isolate the device or sign the user out of the suspected browser session. Do not continue investigating from a potentially compromised workstation.
- Revoke access. Revoke active sessions and refresh tokens, disable the affected account temporarily when appropriate, and remove newly added authenticators or suspicious application grants.
- Reset credentials. Change the affected password and every other account where the same password was reused. Do not send the new password through the suspected channel.
- Inspect the mailbox. Look for forwarding and deletion rules, sent messages the user did not write, delegated access, unexpected OAuth consent, and changes to recovery information.
- Review sign-in and endpoint evidence. Preserve the original message, full headers, URLs, attachment files, identity logs, administrative changes, and endpoint indicators. Record times in a consistent time zone.
- Notify the response owner. Use the incident-response contact path, not a reply to the suspicious message. Involve identity, email, endpoint, legal, communications, and finance owners as the facts require.
- Protect money movement. If a payment, bank-detail change, gift-card purchase, or transfer may have been influenced, contact the financial institution immediately and use the institution’s established fraud process.
- Assess notification duties. Follow legal and contractual requirements when personal data, regulated information, or customer systems may have been exposed. Preserve evidence before deleting messages or rebuilding devices.
- Learn and close the gap. Determine how the message arrived, which control failed, whether tokens or mailbox rules were abused, and what policy or technical change will prevent recurrence.
Do not assume that changing a password alone ends the incident. Active sessions, OAuth grants, forwarding rules, and newly registered authenticators can preserve access after the password is changed.
Build detection and accountability into the program
Security controls are more useful when they produce evidence that a team can act on. Track whether privileged users are enrolled in phishing-resistant authentication, which legacy protocols remain active, whether DMARC reports are reviewed, how quickly employees report suspicious messages, and how long it takes to revoke sessions after a confirmed compromise.
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Review alerts for impossible-travel or unfamiliar sign-ins, repeated failed attempts followed by a success, new mailbox rules, consent to unfamiliar applications, changes to payment instructions, and unusual downloads immediately after authentication. Correlate mail, identity, endpoint, and financial-system events so investigators can see the sequence rather than isolated alerts.
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- FIDO2 & Passkey Ready: Business-ready and FIDO2 L1 certified. This key is supported by major management suites and is ideal for both individual and enterprise deployment. Works seamlessly with Gmail, Facebook, GitHub, Dropbox, Coinbase, and more.
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- Dedicated Manager App: Use the Thetis Manager App for the initial hardware PIN setup. Setting the PIN on the device first ensures a smooth registration process. Once the PIN is configured, you can begin registering the key across your favorite FIDO2-compatible online services.
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Training should use realistic decisions rather than only quizzes. Practice a vendor bank-detail change, an urgent executive request, a shared-document login, and a voice message asking for secrecy. The expected behavior is always the same: pause, use an independently known channel, report the attempt, and preserve evidence.
Choosing controls by risk and operating reality
A small business may not be able to replace every application at once. Use the following order when resources are limited:
- First: protect administrator and finance accounts with passkeys or FIDO2 keys, remove legacy authentication, and establish an incident contact path.
- Next: enforce DMARC while inventorying senders, add attachment and click-time protection, and require independent verification for payments and account changes.
- Then: expand phishing-resistant authentication, managed-device requirements, just-in-time privilege, and centralized logging to every department.
- Finally: retire remaining exceptions, test recovery with lost devices and stolen tokens, and repeat simulations as workflows change.
Choose a security key when a separate hardware authenticator is acceptable and you need a strong phishing boundary for a small, high-impact population. Choose device-bound passkeys when your operating systems, browsers, identity provider, and applications support them and you want a smoother user experience at larger scale. In both cases, verify compatibility before enrollment and document recovery; a control that cannot be used during a device replacement will drive users toward unsafe workarounds.
What the available evidence says
The FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center recorded 193,407 phishing and spoofing complaints in its 2024 report. That is a complaint count, not a measure of every attack or every loss, but it shows how common this category remains. Microsoft reported in 2025 that 92% of employee productivity accounts in its measured environment were protected by phishing-resistant authentication methods. That figure is Microsoft’s own implementation result, not a universal industry rate, but it demonstrates that broad deployment is achievable when enrollment, policy, and recovery are managed together.
The practical conclusion is not that any single filter or authentication product will stop AI phishing. Email defenses reduce exposure; phishing-resistant authentication prevents many captured passwords from becoming usable; least privilege limits the blast radius; and rehearsed response determines how quickly a mistake becomes a contained incident.
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