There's a peculiar tint to the modern digital landscape: everything is somehow both the same as it's always been, and yet entirely different. We still use Google, but we get a handy AI summary up top. We still get phished, but it's being done to us by AI. On this latter point, Microsoft's 2025 Digital Defense Report (PDF warning) points out that AI is now actually 4.5x more successful at getting users to click malicious links than standard attempts (via The Register).
More specifically, "AI-automated phishing emails achieved 54% click-through rates compared to 12% for standard attempts" because "AI enables more targeted phishing and better phishing lures." The bulk of the data from the report is collected from Microsoft's fiscal year 2025, from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025.
