This week, United States Senators Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and James Lankford (R-OK), raised their concerns over the potential use of artificial intelligence (AI) to create malicious phishing emails designed to trick Americans into sharing their personal financial information. In a letter to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Senators note that with the advent of new AI tools, it is more challenging to identify phishing emails. They write:

“In previous tax filing seasons, many scam messages could be identified by spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and inaccurate references to the tax code. By contrast, tax scams generated by new AI tools are professionally composed and specifically tailored to trick vulnerable taxpayers. Given this emerging threat to taxpayers, including families, older Americans, and small businesses, we write to urge the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to use all the tools at its disposal to counter AI-generated tax scams.”

The letter goes on to reference POLITICO’s recent article, “Is that the IRS with your refund? No, it’s a ChatGPT scam,” which is based on Check Point Research (CPR) findings and CPR’s “cybersecurity expert [who] demonstrated how ChatGPT can be used to generate scam messages from the IRS targeting families, older Americans, and small businesses.”

Since December 2022, CPR has warned that generative AI tools like ChatGPT can make it easier for bad actors to create malicious phishing emails, malware and more. CPR was also the first to expose TikTok’s security vulnerabilities and privacy issues in January 2020.

The United States remains a major target for cyber threats. In fact, cyber attacks in the U.S. increased 38% in 2022 vs 2021. As the rate and sophistication of cyber attacks increases, it is essential for government, business and cyber leaders to share knowledge and work together to prevent these threats.

At Check Point, we are passionate about securing the world and providing the best security possible to organizations of all sizes. We applaud Senators Hassan, Grassley, Wyden, and Lankford for their efforts and urge the IRS and other agencies to take the AI-powered cyber threat seriously.

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