Is Email the Entry Point to a Well-Rounded Disinformation Attack?

"Generative models learn an executive's tone and syntax from public posts, press releases and meeting transcripts. Attackers then craft messages indistinguishable from authentic correspondence. But the real innovation isn't the text, it's the choreography. A fraudulent email may serve only as the opening move. Within minutes, the target receives a confirming voice message that sounds like the executive whose name appears in the signature block. A deepfaked video may follow, asking for "final authorization." Email opens the door; other channels walk through it."

"When Sublime Security announced a $150 million funding round this October to scale its AI-powered email threat detection, it underscored an uncomfortable reality that enterprises are scrambling to protect a channel that attackers already treat as their primary weapon. At the same time, Valimail's 2025 Disinformation and Malicious Email Report found that although more than 7.2 million domains have adopted authentication protocols like DMARC, nearly half are still configured with non-enforcing policies, leaving their brands and customers vulnerable to impersonation."

Email remains the foundational communication channel for businesses, but widespread trust has made it the most exploited vector for deception. Highly orchestrated campaigns now blend precise, AI-generated text with confirming voice messages and deepfaked video to create coordinated multi-channel deceptions. Generative models learn executives' tone and syntax from public sources, enabling messages indistinguishable from authentic correspondence. More than 7.2 million domains have adopted authentication protocols like DMARC, yet nearly half remain configured with non-enforcing policies, leaving brands and customers vulnerable to impersonation. Enterprises are investing in AI-powered email threat detection as attackers treat email as a primary weapon.

Read at Securitymagazine