Cyberattacks that involve blackmailing with sexually motivated content (also known as sextortion attacks) are nothing new. However, over the past 18-20 months, we have seen these attacks continue to pose major risks to individuals and companies alike. With the hype around generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and its public availability, these attacks are becoming more widespread and convincing.
Between H1 2022 and H1 2023, security researchers detected a 178% increase in sextortion attacks, meaning it ranked third among all email threats in H1 2023. Since the pandemic hit and CEOs of the largest companies in the world began working from home, these attacks targeting large corporations have become more common. Now, with the rise of GenAI, the dangers are even more substantial.
