Cybercrime: social engineering becomes hackers' weapon of choice, warns Irish expert

Cybersecurity is no longer limited to a matter of firewalls and protective software. According to Simon McGarr, a solicitor at McGarr Solicitors in Dublin and managing director of Data Compliance Europe, interviewed by France24 English, the real threat is now shifting toward human manipulation, known as social engineering. This technique involves deceiving individuals, whether company employees or private citizens, into handing over sensitive information themselves or opening the door to protected systems.

According to remarks reported by France24 English, every successful attack does not merely cause immediate harm. It also feeds the data and methods that will be used to prepare the next intrusion. Hackers thus gradually refine their techniques, drawing on information gathered during previous campaigns to make their future attempts more credible and harder to detect.

This observation comes against a backdrop in which artificial intelligence is profoundly upending the balance of power in the digital realm. Simon McGarr stresses, again according to France24 English, that these tools are transforming the threat landscape at an unprecedented speed. Capabilities once reserved for states or highly organized criminal groups are now accessible to far smaller players, sometimes lone individuals with limited technical skills but capable of exploiting generative artificial intelligence tools.

This democratization of attack methods is a particular concern for authorities and cybersecurity experts in France as elsewhere in Europe. Phishing techniques, once identifiable through clumsy messages or glaring errors, are becoming increasingly sophisticated thanks to text generators capable of imitating the style of a company, a colleague, or a relative with disturbing accuracy.

Faced with this rapid evolution, the Dublin-based lawyer insists that governments need to rethink their approach. If threats are transforming month after month, defense strategies can no longer settle for reacting to past attacks. It has become essential to anticipate the misuse of new technologies before they are even fully exploited by malicious actors.

In France, this issue resonates with the efforts made by the National Cybersecurity Agency of France, which is stepping up awareness campaigns among businesses and government bodies. Cases of "CEO fraud," those scams in which an employee is convinced by a fake executive to make an urgent bank transfer, have for several years already illustrated organizations' vulnerability to psychological manipulation rather than to pure technical attack.

The issue also extends beyond the simple scope of private companies. French local authorities, hospitals, and public administrations have in recent years been the target of multiple intrusion attempts, some successful, exploiting precisely these human weaknesses. The combination of social engineering and generative artificial intelligence could heighten this trend by making fraudulent messages almost indistinguishable from legitimate communications.

Simon McGarr notes, according to remarks relayed by France24 English, that the protection of personal data is an essential safeguard in this battle. His firm, which specializes in regulatory compliance, closely observes how European companies are adapting, or struggling to adapt, to the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation in the face of constantly shifting threats.

This technological acceleration also raises the question of regulatory pace. Cybersecurity laws and standards, often developed over several months or even several years, appear structurally behind the speed at which artificial intelligence tools used for malicious purposes are evolving. This time lag is, according to industry experts, one of the main challenges facing regulatory authorities in the years ahead.

For French companies, the lesson seems clear: training employees to recognize manipulation attempts is becoming just as important as investment in technical security infrastructure. No firewall can stop an employee who, acting in good faith, is convinced to hand over a password or carry out a fraudulent transaction.

At a time when generative artificial intelligence is spreading at great speed, Simon McGarr's remarks as reported by France24 English point to an unavoidable reality: tomorrow's cybersecurity will be fought as much on psychological and human ground as on purely technological ground.