AI lowers phishing costs, boosts success by 2.4x in field study
TL;DR. A new field experiment reveals AI drastically reduces the cost of personalized phishing while significantly increasing attack success rates. - Researchers found AI-generated personalized phishing achieves a 2.4 times higher click rate than generic attacks. - Automated personalization costs approximately $0.03 per email, making sophisticated attacks viable for smaller budgets. - The study used basic language models, suggesting advanced AI could yield even higher click rates in real-world scenarios.
- AI makes personalized spear phishing significantly cheaper and more effective.
- A field study showed AI-generated personalized emails increased click rates by 2.4 times.
- Automated personalization costs about $0.03 per email, lowering the barrier for attackers.
- The research was presented at the USENIX Security Symposium 2026.