As part of its Black Hat USA 2026 research, Barracuda released a PoC demonstrating how attackers could use AI-enabled email assistants to escalate a compromised employee account into a full-scale BEC attack. Researchers said the greatest risk is that AI assistants accelerate reconnaissance, phishing, and fraud using compromised accounts. The attack used Microsoft Copilot, though Barracuda said the techniques apply to other AI email assistants. Key takeaways of Barracuda’s researchBarracuda demonstrated how AI email assistants can rapidly escalate a compromised account into a business email compromise (BEC) attack. AI email assistants accelerated post-compromise attacksThe proof-of-concept began after an attacker gained access to an employee’s email account.