Despite the focus on improving cybersecurity awareness, the number of cyberattacks has increased significantly, leading to huge financial losses, with their risks spreading throughout the world. This is due to the techniques deployed in cyberattacks that mainly aim at exploiting humans, the weakest link in any defence system. The existing literature on human factors in phishing attacks is limited and does not live up to the witnessed advances in phishing attacks, which have become exponentially more dangerous with the introduction of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). This paper studies the implications of AI advancement, specifically the exploitation of GenAI and human factors in phishing attacks. We conduct a systematic literature review to study different human factors exploited in phishing attacks, potential solutions and preventive measures, and the complexity introduced by GenAI-driven phishing attacks. This paper aims to address the gap in the research by providing a deeper understanding of the evolving landscape of phishing attacks with the application of GenAI and associated human implications, thereby contributing to the field of knowledge to defend against phishing attacks by creating secure digital interactions.
Jabir et al. (2025) studied this question.