Think Before You Click: Detecting Phishing in the Age of AI

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. What is Phishing and Why It Matters
3. Key Signs That a Message Is Phishing
4. The Evolving Landscape of Phishing in 2025
5. Why Businesses Must Act Quickly
6. How to Build a Detection Framework in Your Organisation
7. Recommended Courses from AVC to Strengthen Your Defences
8. Conclusion

1. Introduction

In today’s digital business environment, phishing remains one of the most persistent and damaging threats organisations face. While tools and technology are vital, it is often a well-crafted phishing email that triggers a breach making frontline employees and awareness the first line of defence. This article examines how to identify phishing attacks early and arm your organisation before serious damage occurs.

2. What is Phishing and Why It Matters

Phishing is a social-engineering tactic where threat actors disguise themselves as trusted sources in order to trick individuals into revealing sensitive credentials, clicking malicious links or transferring funds. It is widely acknowledged as the most common form of cyberattack (AAG IT Support, 2025).

For organisations, the stakes are high: phishing is often the initial vector that enables larger incidents like ransomware, data exfiltration or business email compromise (BEC) (StationX, 2025). Because human behaviour plays such a central role, training and awareness are critical components of any cybersecurity strategy.

3. Key Signs That a Message Is Phishing

To spot phishing before it’s too late, here are key red-flags that every employee and security leader should know:

3.1 Urgent or Threatening Language: Phishing messages often pressure the recipient to act quickly—“Your account will be closed!”, “Urgent payment required!” in order to bypass rational thought. 

3.2 Unexpected Attachments or Links: Attachments in unexpected emails especially Office documents, PDFs or HTML files can contain malicious scripts. Attackers now use low-text or zero-text emails with malicious attachments to evade filters (Barracuda Blog, 2024).

3.3 Spoofed Sender Address and Domain / Inconsistent Branding: Legitimate companies rarely send from generic free email addresses or domains that differ slightly from the official brand. Many phishing campaigns imitate major brands like Microsoft or Google (SecureFrame, 2025).

3.4 Requests for Credentials or Payments Directed Outside Normal Process: Any email asking you to log in via a link, provide credentials directly or make payment outside the usual finance channels should be treated as suspicious.

3.5 Personalisation Combined with Contextual Triggers: Spear-phishing uses personal details (job title, location) to make the attack appear legitimate. According to recent statistics, senior executives are 23% more likely to fall victim to AI-driven, personalised phishing attempts (TechMagic, 2025).

The fact is that identifying these signs early reduces the chances of a successful attack. It shifts responsibility from purely technology to trained people who act as active defenders.

4. The Evolving Landscape of Phishing in 2025

Phishing is not static—it is evolving. Here are recent trends enterprises should note:

• In Q1 2025, the Anti‑Phishing Working Group (APWG) observed 1,003,924 phishing attacks, the highest volume since late 2023. Attackers are increasingly using QR codes and targeting the payment/financial sector (APWG, 2025).
• Phishing now accounts for roughly 16% of all initial access vectors for breaches (SecureFrame, 2025).
• AI-enabled phishing campaigns have seen a 1,265% surge, enabling attackers to produce convincing, personalised messages at scale (DeepStrike, 2025).
• Attackers are focusing on high-value targets and improving their evasion techniques, rather than simply increasing volume (InformationWeek, 2024).

These trends underscore why human training and rapid detection remain vital—even with sophisticated technological defences in place.

5. Why Businesses Must Act Quickly

Businesses that delay awareness or training increase their risk exponentially. Phishing attacks can lead to direct financial loss, downtime, damage to brand reputation and regulatory consequences. The window between initial click-through and adversary takeover is shrinking. A well-trained workforce and a robust detection process converts potential victims into security assets.

Action must include:

• Frequent awareness campaigns
• Simulated phishing to test and train
• Clear incident escalation processes
• Integration of human detection into technical controls

By combining people, process and technology, organisations enhance their resilience and reduce both risk and cost.

6. How to Build a Detection Framework in Your Organisation

To spot phishing before it’s too late, organisations should adopt a layered detection framework:

Layer 1: Employee Awareness & Training: Ensure all staff including non-technical roles know how to identify phishing signs. Make training continuous, not one-off.

Layer 2: Simulations & Reporting Culture: Run realistic phishing simulation campaigns. Encourage employees to report suspicious messages and reward proactive behaviour.

Layer 3: Technical Controls: Although human detection is essential, technology supports it. Deploy email filters, link/attachment sandboxing, MFA, and anomaly detection. But remember: technology cannot offset a lack of human vigilance.

Layer 4: Incident Response Integration: When a phishing attempt is reported, have a clear playbook: isolate systems, analyse the message, reset compromised credentials, alert stakeholders. Rapid action reduces damage and cost.

Layer 5: Metrics & Continual Improvement: Track metrics such as click rates in simulations, report rates, and time to response. Use these insights to refine training and controls continuously.

7. Recommended Courses from AVC to Strengthen Your Defences

To help strengthen the human component of your cyber defence, AVC offers a range of courses tailored for B2B organisations:

• Cyber Security Introduction Certification – Ideal for non-technical staff who need foundational awareness of threats and best practices.
• CompTIA Security+ SY0-701 – A globally trusted certification that validates foundational, vendor-neutral IT security knowledge and skills perfect stepping stone for IT teams.
• SecurityLearn® NIS2 Essentials – Provides non-technical staff with a clear understanding of cybersecurity risks and the compliance obligations under the EU’s NIS2 Directive.
• RESILIA® Cyber Resilience Foundation – Helps employees at every organisational tier understand how operational decisions impact resilience and manage cyber risks in daily business.
• AI+ Security Level 1™ – Delivers a comprehensive bundle covering AI-powered defence, vulnerability management and smart threat mitigation essential for modern cyber-aware organisations.

Each course supports your organisation’s aim of shifting from reactive to proactive cybersecurity through people-centric training and credentialing.

8. Conclusion

Phishing remains among the most effective methods for cyber attackers and the reason is simple: humans remain the gateway. Organisations that empower their people with awareness, simulation, detection frameworks and appropriate certifications stand a better chance of stopping attacks before they escalate.

Don’t wait until it’s too late. Build your human firewall now.

👉 Explore AVC’s full cybersecurity training catalogue and fortify your team today.

9. References

AAG IT Support (2025) “The Latest 2025 Phishing Statistics (updated June 2025)”. Available at: https://aag-it.com/the-latest-phishing-statistics/ (Accessed: 24/10/25).

APWG (2025) “Phishing Activity Trends Report” Q1 2025. Available at: https://apwg.org/trendsreports (Accessed: 24/10/25).

Barracuda Blog (2024) “Threat Spotlight: Phishing techniques to look out for in 2025”. Available at: https://blog.barracuda.com/2024/12/04/threat-spotlight-phishing-techniques-2025/ (Accessed: 24/10/25)

DeepStrike (2025) “Phishing Statistics 2025: AI-Driven Attacks, Costs & Trends”. Available at: https://deepstrike.io/blog/phishing-statistics-2025 (Accessed: 24/10/25)

InformationWeek (2024) “Evolving Phishing Trends to Watch in 2025”. Available at: https://www.informationweek.com/machine-learning-ai/evolving-phishing-trends-to-watch-in-2025 (Accessed: 24/10/25)

SecureFrame (2025) “60+ Phishing Attack Statistics: The Facts You Need to Know for 2026”. Available at: https://secureframe.com/blog/phishing-attack-statistics (Accessed: 24/10/25)

StationX (2025) “Top Phishing Statistics for 2025: Latest Figures and Trends”. Available at: https://www.stationx.net/phishing-statistics/ (Accessed: 24/10/25)

TechMagic (2025) “Phishing Statistics in 2025: The Ultimate Insight”. Available at: https://www.techmagic.co/blog/blog-phishing-attack-statistics (Accessed: 24/10/25)