Spooked By AI Threats in Central Florida? Here’s What’s Actually Worth Worrying About
AI is moving fast—and so are attackers. Across the I-4 corridor, businesses in hospitality, healthcare, construction, real estate are seeing new twists on familiar scams. Here are the “monsters” to watch for and how Central Florida teams can stay safe.
Doppelgängers In Your Video Chats – Watch Out For Deepfakes
AI-generated deepfakes have become scarily accurate, and threat actors are using that to their advantage in social engineering attacks against businesses.
For example, there was a recent incident observed by a security vendor where an employee of a cryptocurrency foundation joined a Zoom meeting with several deepfakes of known senior leadership within their company. The deepfakes told the employee to download a Zoom extension to access the Zoom microphone, paving the way for a North Korean intrusion.
Red flags include, unnatural lighting/eye movement, audio delays, vague answers, refusal to turn camera, sudden “policy changes,” or requests to install extensions.
- What to do:
- Require out-of-band verification for any money, payroll, or vendor changes (call a known number; don’t use the meeting chat).
- Use meeting waiting rooms, domain‑based join rules, and disable third-party plug-ins by default.
- Train staff on deepfake tells and run drills with realistic, industry specific scenarios.
Creepy Crawlies In Your Inbox – Smarter Phishing Emails
Phishing e-mails have been a problem for years, but now that attackers can use AI to write e-mails for them, most of the obvious tells of a suspicious e-mail, like bad grammar or spelling errors, aren’t a good way to spot them anymore.
Threat actors are also integrating AI tools into their phishing kits as a way to take landing pages or e-mails and translate them into other languages. This can help threat actors scale their phishing campaigns.
Scams include FEMA imposters and disaster-related scams after hurricanes; fake invoices, compromised vendor emails, fraudulent requests for large amounts of gift cards; title/escrow wire fraud in real estate with AI‑assisted spoofed domains.
Defenses that work:
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- Multifactor authentication (MFA) on email, payroll, banking, EHR/EMR, and property-management systems.
- Security awareness training tailored for frontline and seasonal staff; emphasize urgency/pressure tactics and bilingual phishing.
- Email security with impersonation protection and domain monitoring (DMARC, DKIM, SPF).
“Skeleton” AI Tools – More Malware Than Magic
Attackers are riding on the popularity of AI as a way to trick people into downloading malware. We frequently see threat actors tailoring their lures and customizing their attacks to take advantage of popular current events or even seasonal fads like Black Friday. So, attackers using things like malicious “AI video generator” websites or fake malware-laden AI tools doesn’t come as a surprise. In this case, fake AI “tools” are built with just enough legitimate software to make them look legitimate to the unsuspecting user – but underneath the surface, they’re full of malware.
For instance, a TikTok account was reportedly posting videos of ways to install “cracked software” to bypass licensing or activation requirements for apps like ChatGPT through a PowerShell command. But, in reality, the account was operating a malware distribution campaign, which was later exposed by researchers.
What to do:
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- Ask your MSP to vet AI tools before use
- Security awareness training is key for businesses here too
Ready To Chase The AI Ghosts Out Of Your Central Florida Business?
AI threats don’t have to keep you up at night. From deepfakes to bilingual phishing to malicious “AI tools,” attackers are getting smarter—but the right defenses keep you a step ahead. Schedule your free discovery call today and let’s protect your team before small scares become real problems.
