Barracuda Warns of Phishing Attacks Targeting Humans and AI
Recent phishing attacks analysed by Barracuda Research found attackers combining two sets of tactics in a single email: social engineering aimed at the human recipient and prompt injection attacks designed to influence their AI-powered email assistants. The findings are published in a new report.
The ‘dual-target’ emails have multiple layers of content. One layer contains the text and images visible to the recipient, while another contains hidden instructions intended for AI systems. These instructions can be concealed in HTML comments, invisible text elements such as zero-sized fonts or white text, encoded content, or protected attachments.
Examples of AI-targeted prompts seen by Barracuda
AI email assistants are designed to read, summarise, prioritise and manage messages. Hidden prompts can attempt to manipulate how these systems interpret and respond to email content. Examples observed by Barracuda researchers include:
- Adding a false high-priority action that instructs an employee to update vendor payment details,...
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