AI Might Be the Next Big Thing for Your Email Security

May 19, 2023

While artificial intelligence is being adopted across numerous industries, one that many people may not think of is the cybercrime industry. Fortunately, AI can also be used to stop some forms of cybercrime, such as phishing. Let's talk about how AI might soon be an integral part of your phishing prevention.

How Can AI Help You Stop Phishing?

First, it will be helpful to understand exactly what AI is, and how it works.

By collecting and parsing through data, AI is simply a computer program that makes continuously improving decisions based on the analysis of its past results. While this is technically a process that a human being is capable of, the program can do so more accurately with a lot less independent biases and much, much faster.

This is precisely why AI is such a strong choice for phishing mitigation. Let’s dive into some of the specific ways that it can show its worth:

AI can look beyond the surface of an email to identify signs of phishing, which means that indicators that an email is a phishing attempt—like too many IP addresses being connected to before the message lands in an inbox—are far easier to spot with AI’s help.
AI can also spot odd behaviors in the message itself, tracking patterns in a given contact’s behaviors to spot abnormalities.
On a related note, the context of the message itself can be examined for any red flags, ensuring that the warning signs your team members should keep an eye out for are responded to appropriately before they can ever touch a potential threat.
Finally, AI can be used to identify if a message seems odd when the sender and recipient and their roles are taken into consideration.

This Does Not Mean That Phishing is No Longer a Concern

While tools like these are immensely helpful, there are a few reasons that you and your team cannot be let off the hook. Not only can these platforms still let threats through, it isn’t as though phishing is exclusively attempted via email messages, either. Your team members still need to serve as the last line of defense.

We can help you stay secure as well through our assortment of security tools. Find out how by giving us a call at (571) 470-5594.

‍

You Want Your IT to Be Boring… Here’s Why

In storytelling, there’s a structure that the vast majority of stories follow, regardless of the format: introduction, rising action, conflict, falling action, resolution. The rising action and the conflict are what give the story its appeal—they’re the source of all the tension that keeps things moving forward. They’re where the stress and the drama live; they keep the story interesting.

January 14, 2026

Why Percussive Maintenance Isn’t Magic (or Good)

“Persuasion.” “Percussive Maintenance.” Whatever you call hitting your computer to make it work, we get it. We’ve all been there. Your Wi-Fi router drops the signal for the third time during a meeting, or your TV remote decides to go on strike. In a fit of frustration, you give it a firm slap; and miraculously, it starts working again.

January 12, 2026

Improving Your IT Helps Your Customers, Too

The purpose of your business is to deliver goods or services to your target customers or clients. To this end, you can use technology to dramatically improve operations and create a better product for your consumers. Let’s discuss how you can use technology to build better internal practices to in turn create a better customer experience.

Welcome to the First Column IT Tech Blog